The Ashmolean

After a long and late lunch at the Eagle and Child, we parted ways with Vicky (her husband having left a bit beforehand to wrangle children from school) and headed back to the Ashmolean to spend the rest of the afternoon amongst its amazing collections of art and history.

The museum was much smaller and more intimate than the grandiosity of the British Museum.  It is the oldest museum in the UK, having been founded a century or so before B.M.  I found it to be more inclined to present information in a teaching fashion rather than dry fact.

The threads of one T.E. Lawrence.

This collection of musical instruments was fantastic.  I can't imagine playing on some of these older guitars, though, they look incredibly uncomfortable.

This was an entire inner funerary chamber, reassembled stone by stone.  The carvings on the walls both inside and out is astonishing.  I've long since run out of suitable adjectives.

O hai, Sobek.

Here's one of Khnum (for those whom this is significant, you know who you are).

O ushabti, if I am called upon, if I am appointed to do any work which is done on the necropolis .... even as the man is bounden, namely to cultivate the fields, to flood the river-banks or to carry the sand of the East to the West, then speak thou 'Here am I!'

Rembrandt's Sensation series.  The fifth one is still missing...

At this point it's hard not to feel completely overwhelmed by everything we've seen and experienced over the last few days.  Cultural infusion at hyperspeed.  I'm sure it'll all feel like a dream in a matter of days after we're back to our normal lives.  I think, however, that this journey has kindled a fire in us to experience more of what world travel has to offer.

One huge disappointment on this outing was that we did not get a chance to visit Tolkien's graveside at Wolvercote Cemetary, as we didn't discover that the grounds closed at 4:30 until it was too late.

Next time, then.