{"id":20817,"date":"2020-03-18T14:12:56","date_gmt":"2020-03-18T14:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesojournseries.com\/bavaria\/?p=20817"},"modified":"2021-05-21T09:00:12","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T09:00:12","slug":"london-with-original-travel-uk-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thesojournseries.com\/bavaria\/london-with-original-travel-uk-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"London with Original Travel UK – Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Original Travel UK<\/a> started life some 16 years ago, when a group of friends left the City and joined forces to start a creative travel company specialising in Luxury Travel.\u00a0 \u00a0This new venture grew quickly (winning countless awards along the way – like the Guardian’s Best Tour Operator twice!) and branched out into family holidays, specialist diving trips, concierge services and way beyond…<\/p>\n

And this is where we come into the post…\u00a0 \u00a0Original Travel UK got in touch a while back to ask whether we would like to work with them on any trip we were booking in the near future.\u00a0 I only had our half term break organised at the time, but mentioned that I had thought about organising a London trip for myself and my older two – a special birthday weekend for my now 13-year-old (how did that happen?!)…\u00a0 \u00a0 They came straight back and asked if we would be interested in reviewing a couple of their London walking tours with a difference (they do so much more than booking plane tickets) and gave us an extensive list to choose from.\u00a0 \u00a0Obviously I handed this straight to the future Birthday Boy, and he decided on a tour of the British Museum with an Archeologist, and a walking tour of Soho, Covent Garden and Carnaby Street later in the day…<\/p>\n

And that was it, our weekend was just about planned!\u00a0 The hotel was booked, all we had to do was get a train at the earliest hour my older two thought remotely possible, get to our first tour on time and all would be well…<\/p>\n

The prospect of a weekend on my own with my older two was quite a novel one – a first for all of us for quite some time, and definitely a first for Mr R to be left at home alone with the Four Year Old ever!!\u00a0 Luckily the promise of something from the Transport museum placated him (The Four Year Old not Mr R) at least, and he was happy enough to wave us off.<\/p>\n

On leaving our bags at the hotel (after a slightly confusing “there are two Park Plaza hotels behind Waterloo moment”), we found an envelope waiting for us at the right one (the hotel at County Hall – more on that in a bit) with a personal (and very precise) itinerary of our plans for the day.\u00a0 After a quick black cab ride (another first for my two who have only been to London once previously!), and breakfast at a tiny Greek Place where I used to buy lunch another life ago, we made our way to the British Museum.\u00a0 \u00a0Shockingly, I used to gaze out on its iconic glass roof (whilst mostly wishing my life away at my desk) and didn’t once step foot inside during the seven years that I worked in London.\u00a0 My first ever visit was shortly after we first moved back to the UK, where we had to skim several rooms as the then two-year-old wasn’t much of a museum fan at the time.\u00a0 \u00a0It left us wanting to go back to explore thoroughly when he was older, or possibly without him at all.\u00a0 Now was our chance…<\/p>\n

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This gorgeous boy had crystal eyes once upon a time…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We met our Archeologist guide Alicia on the grand steps of this Bloomsbury institution, home to some 8 million objects and artifacts.\u00a0 I always love this kind of tour as you tend to learn so much more than you would otherwise (do you remember our underground tour in Rome?)…\u00a0 Alicia actually specialises in cave paintings, but her knowledge of archeology and history is vast and varied.\u00a0 I honestly think she knew something about every single object we pointed at and dealt with every single question we flung at her with ease – from the origins of the building itself, to what it’s like to be on an actual dig, and the best thing she has ever discovered (cave paintings – not gold – they are far rarer!)…<\/p>\n

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Over the four hours that we were there (which in reality felt far less), we went on an around-the-world trip of sorts, starting with Egypt and its vast tomb statues…\u00a0 \u00a0When you go, look out for the beautiful giant scarab beetle.\u00a0 He was possibly my favourite thing in the entire room, along with the very jolly-looking Assyrian Winged gods in the far corner, and of course the Rosetta Stone…<\/p>\n

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As someone who struggled to learn two different languages (other than my own), I am always intrigued by people who can decipher them easily, and Alicia explained when it was found (1799 by a French Soldier), why it was important (the first time hieroglyphics were deciphered from the accompanying Demotic and Ancient Greek in a nutshell) and why it is the colour it is today (the dark wax used to preserve it when it was first found!)…<\/p>\n

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We ventured through new countries with ease, learning something new along the way…\u00a0 Greece was next with the Parthenon and the beautiful but controversial Elgin Marbles (one of our group who shall remain nameless, was surprised that they weren’t actually the kind of marbles that you play with.\u00a0 When I think of the money that’s been spent on their education!!)…\u00a0 \u00a0As we explored the heritage of these priceless objects, we pondered whether they would in fact still exist today had they not been taken in the way that they were, whilst not justifying that (obviously!).\u00a0 Such a difficult one, but thought-provoking nonetheless.<\/p>\n

On next to The Americas where we inspected mythical serpents and stared into the eyes of turquoise skulls.\u00a0 \u00a0The delicate intricacy of some of these objects amazes me when you consider how incredibly old they are (especially when you look at how basic some of the stuff was that Western Europe was churning out at the same time)…\u00a0 \u00a0Then we time-traveled forward a few centuries and learned about Native Americans and their culture, discovering the hidden meanings behind the colours and patterns of various textiles and objects.<\/p>\n

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Speaking of costumes and dress, if you happen to be visiting, do go to Africa via the Sainsbury Galleries downstairs, not only to see the current exhibition on pottery (Africa has some of the oldest pottery in the world) but also to see some of the amazing costumes.\u00a0 If you look closely enough there are some amazing details in these massive outfits – the 13-year-old even noticed a bit of Star Wars toy detailing on one…<\/p>\n

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After a quick break (and admiration of some of the impressive cafe food on offer here, forget cardboard sandwiches, the British Museum specialises in Smorrebrod it seems!) the youngest two put their feet up for a few minutes and left Alicia and I to explore Clock-Land (as they called it) exploring all kinds of horology.<\/p>\n

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The Winchester Hoard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They rejoined us for an exploration of my favourite kind of history – buried treasure (if you haven’t watched the Detectorists, do find it somewhere on catch up, I loved it!)!!\u00a0 I always wanted a metal detector when I was little.\u00a0 Imagine finding something like the Winchester Hoard – a collection of ten iron age pieces found in 2000 by a retired florist, probably not all that far from where I am sitting right now – to the most monumental finds like those at Sutton Hoo<\/a>. (I was recently sent this link by a US treasure hunting specialist – the info regarding Sutton Hoo is so interesting, I have included it here<\/a>…. ).\u00a0 \u00a0 Alicia described to the teens what it was like working tirelessly on digs like this, what life as an archeologist really entails, and how sometimes it might be weeks before you find anything at all…\u00a0 We all said we would still love to do it though!<\/p>\n

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And before we knew it, our in-depth tour of this brilliant building was up.\u00a0 \u00a0I think we covered an awful lot of the British Museum that day, obviously not all of it, but in that four hours the building was brought to life by Alicia in a way that no audio guide or guide book could possibly manage.\u00a0 \u00a0If you would like to book this or another tour, you know who to talk to.<\/a>..<\/p>\n

Introducing my children to their own museums and history (after spending so long studying everyone else’s!) will never get boring for me.\u00a0 \u00a0We all came away with renewed interests in various parts of history and thousands of questions about things we didn’t know existed before.\u00a0 \u00a0 Alicia even walked us to Covent Garden (some of the streets around here are pretty unrecognisable these days from when I worked here!) for a very well deserved lunch (also booked and organised for us by Original Travel.\u00a0 I love that when you book with them you basically have a concierge at hand should you need them for bookings, help or advice at any point in your entire trip whatever\/wherever it might be!!).<\/p>\n

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And as we sat down properly for the first time that day we had time to have a leisurely lunch before our next tour…<\/p>\n

PS:\u00a0 Our visit was the weekend of the (the 7\/8 March) before the dreaded C Virus started to really do the rounds…\u00a0 The British Museum (along with many other London Museums) is currently closed whilst we weather the storm (some of them do have some amazing virtual tours if you can’t wait though!).\u00a0 I am publishing this now in the hope that it won’t be all that long before normal life resumes and we can start doing things like having private tours of the British Museum again which you absolutely should by the way!\u00a0 \u00a0You can always book trips and days out in advance as something to look forward to – Original Travel UK<\/a> along with the rest of the UK travel industry will appreciate the support at this time I am sure of it…\u00a0 In the meantime, these posts and many others will hopefully provide inspiration for future jaunts in the hopefully not so distant future…<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

PPS.\u00a0 \u00a0We received our tours in return for an honest review.\u00a0 \u00a0Everything else we paid for as is typically the case when it comes to travel views on this blog (it’s the way we like to work)!<\/p>\n

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