Perhaps unsurprisingly, I'm a big Night at the Museum fan, so when the third film actually took place in the British Museum I knew it was a travesty that I hadn't been there yet.

Yes, all the exhibits were alive,I grant you, but they were so cool. The sheer variety on display was more than I'd ever thought about. It reminded me that the place existed, basically, and I had a hunger to get my backside down south and experience the real deal: arguably the biggest and best museum in the country.

And I was not disappointed.

The British museum itself is free, situated on Russel street, which is easily reached from the major stations via the tube or bus. For me, it was a 20 min ride on the Piccadilly line (westbound) from St Pancras station and a short walk. The museum itself is a large traditional building with Edwardian classical styling, but as soon as you walk through into the main hall you can see that this is no ordinary structure. The entrance hall is sweeping and beautiful in a loose circle, with the temporary exhibits occupying the upper floor of the central circle, and with all the other steady exhibits spread around it across five levels.

Luckily there are plenty of facilities and cafes (and gift shops!), so while nothing's cheap you can easily spend all day having a good explore. Personally we spent well over 6 hours there, until our howling feet and fatigue claimed us and we had to call it a day. Even then, there is plenty to come back for.

"Six Hours?! How Much is There to See, Really?"

A whole world. Despite the name, The British Museum really isn't just about the history of Britain, or even the British Empire, but exists as a capsule of the whole world's cultures. You can find treasures from the Ancient Near East, the Islamic World, Africa, Egypt, China, South & South East Asia, Japan, Korea, The Pacific and Australia, Mesoamerica, Central and South America, North America, Prehistoric Europe, The Greek World, The Roman Empire, Roman Britain, Medieval Europe, Renaissance and Later Europe, Modern Europe and America, as well as modern examples of art mixed in with each culture. Having almost all of the world's cultures in one place to seamlessly journey through is -to put it bluntly- a goddamned revelation.

This stunning mural of an Assyrian lion hunt went on for several ROOMS at full scale.

"But Colonialism!"

Yes, I know that the British Museum is at the centre of debates on colonialism in museums, and I have mixed feelings on the subject that I have already written about at length here:

http://preludesblogofwords.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/what-can-digital-heist-of-bust-of.html?m=1

But you can't argue against the sheer awe at walking around this whole world of art and history in a day and what this can teach you. Everything is beautifully curated and treated with great respect and value and by holding everything side by side, no one item is treated as being more important than another, or one culture as being 'superior' to another. The end effect is all so amazing that it makes you proud to be human.

"Ok, So What Are The Highlights?"

As well as the general feeling of awe and discovery that comes with experiencing so many cultural treasures side by side, the thing that stuck out most to me were the sheer sense of scale that the museum was able to accommodate. 

For example, there were plaques of the beautifully intricate Assyrian lion hunt, snaking through rooms in a  dramatic tableaux. There were panels from the flipping Patheon (!), in full scale, wrapping around the whole building. Huge Egyptian pharaohs stared down at you, and Assyrian gatekeepers smiled next to the storeys-high gates themselves. Noble totem poles stood as markers and full-floor mosaics decorated the stairwells. Reams upon reams of orange and black pottery, and intricate gold-work, fabulously detailed islamic tiles, ticking timepieces and curios nestled against one another in displays. I have never seen anything like it.

One of the many Pharaohs keeping an eye on us.

In addition to the scale, what really excited me was finally seeing in person so many of the treasures that I has viewed in countless picture books about history while I was growing up. It was like encountering a celebrity!

"Look! A real easter island figure!"

"oh my god it's the jade-mosaic aztec snake. I've never seen it in real life!"

"Oh Jesus that's THE Lindlow bog man!"

"HOLY BALLS THAT'S THE GODDAMNED ROSETTA STONE!!!"

In the end, It's just very hard to describe how the sheer wonder of the place hits you right in the gut. All you can do is to go see it for yourself.

A beautiful part of the African exhibit

Bonus feature: One very happy blogger.

One of the great things about Britain is it's sheer number of castles, so it would have been a crime to visit Wales without taking one in...


This April I ended up in Wales when I went to a writing retreat at Ty Newydd. The last time I was in the country had been in 2012 when I attended the Student Role Playing Nationals in Cardiff and, to my regret, I saw nothing of the town but the inside of cardiff uni and a (very tasty) noodle bar. I was determined to actually see Wales this time, so I grouped up with a couple of ladies and hiked across the farmer's tracks and pebble beach to the seaside town of Criccieth. We were impressed to find the ruin of a castle sat atop a hill with its back to the sea and the town curled around below it.


The History to Criccieth Castle

Criccieth Castle lies in what was the old Welsh district of Eifionydd, which was part of the ancient kingdom of Gwynedd. Gwynedd had risen up when the Romans left Britain in 410AD and, like many powers of the time, it was part of a network of independant princes and lords.

The foundations of Criccieth Castle were built by prince Llywelyn ab Lorwerth, ruler of Gwynedd in 1201. He had a mixed relationship with his English neighbours but on the whole managed to carve out a reasonable parlay: the English King John recognised Llywelyn's right to rule and even agreed to marry his illegitimate daughter to the Welsh prince. However as Llywelyn's ambitions increased and he asserted his supremacy of Wales through military pressure, John was quickly irritated and the two powers warred. Llywelyn pushed forward with successes and, in pushing against the English, he managed to unite many of the Welsh princes towards a common enemy. As hostilities ebbed he was shrewd in moving to make marriage alliances with the English lords on the Welsh March and he began building Criccieth Castle to cement his power and status visibly.

While we know of this activity in the early 1200s we don't actually find a written record on Criccieth Castle until 1239. Here there is a record of Dafydd  - Llywelyn ab Lorwerth's legitimate heir - imprisoning his half brother Gruffudd and nephew Owain at Criccieth. The castle would intermittently serve as a prison throughout its entire life. In the end, when Dafydd died Gruffudd took over as Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, and inherited Criccieth Castle with the title.

Llywelyn's greatest success came in 1267 and the Treaty of Montgomery with the English king Henry III. Here, the English king formally recognised Llywelyn as the prince of all of Wales....provided that he paid fealty to the king.
As is so often the case, peace didn't last long as Llywelyn pushed at the boundaries of these terms and Criccieth Castle served as a hub for many courtly negotiations. Llywelyn fell in 1282 when the then English King Edward I went to war with him and in the battle Criccieth Castle was captured by Edward.

Criccieth itself became a small borough in Wales that was under the control of Edward and his descendants and Edward heavily invested in building work on the castle, a large part of which was to repair the damage of attacking it in the first place. It is thought that Edward even installed a huge trebuchet war machine that sat on a platform on the castle walls. Criccieth Castle would remain under English control all the way until 1404 and the victory of Owain Glyndwr's Welsh rebellion.

Over the years insensitive English officials and excessive taxation sowed unrest in Wales that culminated in Owain Glyndwr proclaiming himself as prince of Wales. His rebels mounted an attack on the English garrisons throughout the country. Criccieth Castle was besieged and eventually defeated due to the mix of cutting off it's supplies from the land and the sea and through sheer military force. Badly damaged, Criccieth Castle fell to Owain Glyndwr and into Welsh control once more. It was never fully rebuilt and gradually faded into relative obscurity.


So what is it like nowadays?

For a tourist, Criccieth Castle isn't the most impressive castle in Britain in any sense, but it is well worth a look if you're in the area. The hill it's built upon offers stunning views across the sea, Criccieth town and out to the rolling mountains that surround the location, with Snowden in the distance.

The museum itself is small but nicely done, tracking the history of several Welsh castles, and there's a palpable pride that these are Welsh castles built by the Welsh rather than Norman castles that were imposed on the country. The exhibition is interesting because it focuses on telling a wider Welsh history through the eyes of Gerald of Wales who moved through the country and chronicled his impressions of the Welsh peoples and Princes. It offers a great traveller's view to the country and the people who set up the exhibition did so with care and a sense of humor, often putting conflicting descriptions together side by side: for example, having Gerald describe both the charitable, loyal welcoming and noble natures of the Welsh and the money-grabbing feckless natures of the Welsh that he described apparently without care for the contradictions. The exhibition boards are a striking mix of neon and gothic and there is a very entertaining cartoon about Gerald of Wales that plays which is great for children and surprisingly informative and approachable.

Finally, from the tourist perspective, everything is in dual languages - both Welsh and English - which is brilliant to see and very interesting to try to read for anyone unfamiliar with Welsh.

Overall I enjoyed my visit and I'd definitely recommend taking a look if you're close to Criccieth.

Want More?

Check out the 'Travel and Tourism' tag for more posts on trips and experiences.

Keep in touch....

Remember, you can follow Preludes: Blog of Words us on Twitter and Facebook. Or Subscribe to us on Blogluvin' to never miss a post.

Stay curious!

Sources

Thank you to Cadw - the Welsh Government's Historic Environment Service, esp Richard Advent, for their detailed work on the Criccieth guidebook.