While the Lou­vre in Paris may be more famous, Lon­don also has awe­some muse­ums. We took the oppor­tu­nity to visit the British Museum and the Tate Mod­ern and I must said I was amazed by both.

One really cool fact: these national muse­ums were both free, although small dona­tions were encour­aged. How cool! In Paris, muse­ums are quite expen­sive and it adds up pretty fast.

The British Museum is a museum of human his­tory and cul­ture. Its col­lec­tion is so exten­sive that it’s impos­si­ble to see it all in a day. One thing I really wanted to see was the Rosetta Stone, the ancient Egypt­ian arti­fact stone that pro­vided the key to under­stand the hiero­glyphs. As a trans­la­tor, I found it fas­ci­nat­ing! I also enjoy the mod­ern Chi­nese art exhi­bi­tion for that it gave a good snap­shot of what cur­rent artists in China are work­ing on.

The Tate Mod­ern, the inter­na­tional mod­ern art museum, is an expe­ri­ence in itself: it is located in an old power sta­tion. The top of the build­ing offers a great view of St Paul’s Cathe­dral and the Mil­len­nium Bridge across the Thames. The museum has works by Andy Warhol, Picasso, Braque, Roy Licht­en­stein… Mod­ern and con­tem­po­rary art are some­times very con­tro­ver­sial, some like it and some don’t. Yet I think this is a place to visit, it’s def­i­nitely one of the most orig­i­nal and people-friendly muse­ums I have been to.

You can fol­low our trip to the U.K here on Flickr: United King­dom.

Ancient Egypt

Latin Amer­ica

British Museum Read­ing Room

View from the Tate Modern

Ancient Greece	Ancient Egypt
Rosetta Stone	Chi­nese Mod­ern Art
Andy Warhol at the Tate	Russ­ian Soviet Art
Tate Mod­ern Cafeteria	Over­look­ing the Thames

Related arti­cles:

1. Europe in our Eyes
2. Along the River Thames
3. Tianan­men Square (天安门广场)
4. The Ottawa Locks
5. Old Mon­te­v­ideo