When it is this hot one should endeavor to remain indoors

And mostly we did just that

Except that we took a morning walk, only a few short blocks, up to what was at one time a fiercely trendy shopping area on King's Road.  I read the guide books, noted average temperatures, and packed for average June in London.  Instead we have arrived to the warmest June in London since 1976, a year famous for a severe heat crisis that spread all across Europe.

I was looking for a pair of shorts.  Mission accomplished.

And then there was this, of course.

That's the FT emerging from Trotters, a small shop specializing in children's wear.  Eventually more will be revealed about what it was she was doing in there.

We also had lunch at a sandwich shop on King's Road before rejoining the group for a swelteringly warm cab ride to the British Museum.

It is a great, free museum. It was established in 1753, largely based on the collections of the physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane. For me the museum contains some unbelievable could not miss seeing touchstones of Western Civilization.

Like the Rosetta Stone.

The ultimate decoder ring.

This is King Rameses II.

This seven ton statue is made of two different colors of granite.  It is a fragment from a temple in Thebes.

This is an amphora, or wine jar.  This one is from about 540 BC and is painted with a legend from the Trojan War (about 1200 BC).  The painting is of Achilles facing off with Penthesilea, the Queen of the Amazons.  Achilles slays her with a spear but as he does so she looks up and their eyes lock.  He is instantly smitten but she dies.

The other main could not miss for me was the stolen Parthenon Galleries  In the early 1800s the British ambassador to Greece ordered that the sculpture panels be hammer, chisel and sawed off from the Parthenon itself (which, of course, still stands).  In recent years the Greeks have become increasingly resentful of this Greek treasure being located in England.

These are the Pediment Sculptures.

These were above the columns over the east (main) entrance of the Parthenon.  The central figures of this display depict the birth of Athena.  Zeus had his head split open, allowing Athena, the goddess of wisdom, to rise from his brain fully grown and fully armed, inaugurating the Golden Age of Athens.

This is the Holy Thorn Reliquary.

This was created for a member of the French royal family about 1400. It is designed to house a relic of the Crown of Thorns, in this case, a single thorn.

90 here today. 90 again tomorrow. The FT and I will be leaving the city to try to beat the heat. We have tickets for the 14:02 train from London Marylebone for a 15:06 arrival at Oxford Parkway Station in Oxfordshire.