"What do you mean I'm a genetic freak?" or "o/`o/` I'm 'Enery, the VIII, I am o/`o/`"

For they sow to the wind, and they shall reap the Whirlwind (Hosea 8:7)

Our whirlwind tour of London with our able and capable personal tour guide (our daughter Hazuki) is over.  Thanks to her for all the time, effort and energy she put into making our 2 days here a memory not to be forgotten (at least until the first signs of dementia surface).

We began the day with a trip to Saint James Park.  This is a park owned personally by the Queen which she provides for out of her sizable personal fortune.  It's a lovely park.  Simple, open and peaceful.  We saw some Horse Chestnut trees in full bloom.  A "Cotswold" style house for the gardener (see below):

Next was a trip through the Ancient Middle East portion of the British Museum.  It would literally take WEEKS to see everything on display in the British Museum.  Since we only had a single day I decided to limit our search parameters to the Assyrian, Babylonian and Hittite Displays.  Needless to say we were impressed.  They have the ORIGINAL gates to the Assyrian Palace of Nimrud:

These beings have the head of a king, the body of a bull and the wings of an eagle.  (Hence the "genetic freak" of the post title).

The tile mosaic of a lion below is from Nebuchadnezzar's Gates at Babylon:

If you want to see an EXACT, FULL-SIZED replica of the complete Nebuchadnezzar gates you have to go to the Berlin Museum in Germany.

Another item we saw at the museum was the "Rosetta Stone" - as in the ORIGINAL one, not one of the modern "learn a language" yellow boxes.  Below is a picture of it and the explanation of it:

This stone has the "Ancient" Egyptian Hieroglyphics, the "New" Egyptian Hieroglyphics and GREEK.  The Greek was the key because we KNEW the meaning of that.  From this stone they were able to decipher the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.

The third place we went to was "Hampton Court" which was the "Palace" of the Tudor, Hanover and house of Orange Kings.  It was pretty interesting.  It was more "modern" even in the "older" Tudor section than I thought it would be.  It was also less "Castle-like" and more "Manor-like" than I thought it would be.  Joshua dn Joel and I had spent 2 weeks after they graduated High School touring Scotland and seeing MANY castles (like Huntly the ancestral Gordon family castle).  Those were very castle like.  Here are some pictures of Huntly:

I can only assume from Hampton Court's structure and appearance that even by the time of the Tudor kings the idea of a single monarchy was firmly established in England and the monarch didn't need to have a defensive castle.

When Henry VIII first took possession of the estate from Thomas Wolsey who was one of Henry's closest friends but in his newly appointed by the Pope position of Cardinal in the Catholic Church would NOT give Henry permission to divorce Catherine of Aragon to marry Anne Boleyn.  He died on his way to London to be charged with treason and upon his death Henry seized his estate and made it his own.

In the two photos above only the darker red center portion of the palace existed when Henry took possession.  It continued to be a "summer palace" through the Tudor, Hanover and House of Orange monarchies the other portions of the estate were added over those years (1530-1830).  To read more about Hampton Courts history click HERE.

We leave London to fly home tomorrow afternoon at 12:50 in the afternoon.