walking into the british museum great court knocks you over. as you walk through the entrance the court opens up to a large open area covered by a ceiling designed by norman foster. i won't go on at length, since there's plenty more foster photos to come later on.

the british museum collection is completely overwhelming. i expected it to be large and filled with amazing things, but i wasn't prepared for the constant shock from seeing the quality and quantity of items in their collection. i'm used to seeing old stuff in the singular. at the british museum you see old stuff en masse. there isn't one etruscan vase for you to marvel over - there are dozens.

here is a photo of the asian galleries, featuring a massive number of religious sculptures. you want your ganesh? they got em. lots of em.

the collection is so huge they were able to create rooms dedicated to topics like money or clocks. one of my favourite rooms was the clock room, highlighting examples from the development of timepieces.

i'm also a great fan of the bubblewrap statue. they were setting up a few things in one area, and the wrap hadn't yet come off this fellow.

after a few hours of exhausting ourselves we'd go outside for breaks. here is a photo of the ceiling above the main entrance.

and here is a photo of a pigeon hanging out by the main entrance. it was the filthiest pigeon i'd ever seen, and wanted to get a closeup of this emblematic london pigeon. unfortunately he walked out of my view and took off before i got the shot i wanted. here's his ass.

we went back to the museum a few times to take it all in, as it's a bit much to enjoy in one day. besides the asia and clock rooms, one of my favourites is the maya room. there are some incredible mayan lintels and sculptures. what a remarkably morbid culture. why isn't there a film featuring pre-contact mayan culture? maybe because it'd be hard to get a rating low enough to permit it into theatres.