London - Autumn 2008

Got up at 6 for a run around in Hyde Park. It was dark and hard to see the path. The sun started to come up about half an hour into the run.

After a shower, I went down and got the complimentary breakfast, which includes in addition to the continental stuff includes bacon, eggs, and sausage. It's really a pretty good deal.

I started out on a walk down to the British Museum, which is the one manjro museum I haven't seen yet. It took me about an hour and a half to walk down Bayswater and Oxford road. The temperature is still pretty warm, so I very pleasant... Actually almost too warm, since I brought my winter jacket.

I spent a couple of hours at the Museum. Their centerpeice is the Rosetta Stone, which was instrumental in interpreting the hieroglyphs. A frenchman, Champollion, is credited with coming up with the interpretation in 1822. The inscriptions is done in three languages; hieroglyphs, demotic, and one in classic greek. It's the same text in all three languages.

The Museum main focus seems to be ancient Egypt, Greece, Mesopota, Persia, and Europe. Most of the stuff is from BC.

After having been on my feet for 4-5 hours, I needed to sit down, so I found a pancake store where I got a pancake with honey and nuts.

It was now around 2pm, so I walked down to St. Pauls Cathedral, jumped on the Underground and took the Central Line to Lancaster Gate. I went back to hotel, because I needed a nap.

Turning on the TV... There was finally some good financial news. A bunch of British, and European banks are being bailed out, so the FTSE is up 8% and the Dow is up about 500.