July 2026 – A Traveling Fool

July 22, 2026

Egyptian Expedition 007: Day 3 – University of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum

Although the visit to the Griffith Institute had been a private one for just us. The Ashmolean had plenty of people inside, including a large group of children. This seemed to perplex our guide that we had for that visit a bit as the portion of the museum in which she planned to start her presentation was then occupied by those children. She would need to start us off elsewhere and return there later. She appeared to have a memorized script that she needed to closely follow. Eventually she regained her stride and began to add more information to what we could have read ourselves on the cards with most of the items.

One of the stories that I enjoyed hearing was about the Ram of Amun-Re. He was a guardian. It was considered to be bad luck to pass directly in front of him. There were all sorts of people doing exactly that as they didn’t know the story. Our group gave him a wide berth, however. I had been doing my usual wandering around to avoid standing in one place for too long, so he and I had already met earlier. But I instinctively did not walk in front of him. The photo I took was while I was standing a bit off to the side.

The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology was Britain’s first public museum. Its original building was erected in 1678-1683. It is also the world’s second oldest university museum. The oldest is the Kunstmuseum Basel founded at the University of Basel (Switzerland) in 1661. The present museum was built between 1841 and 1845. The new galleries focusing on Egypt and Nubia were created in 2016.

The main museum houses one of the best collections of Pre-Raphaelite paintings, as well as majolica pottery, and English silver. In addition to the items from Ancient Egypt and the Sudan, the archaeology department also has a collection of Greek and Minoan pottery. The Egyptian antiquities are mostly from Prehistoric Egypt (roughly 6210-3150 BC) and the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt (3150-2686 BC).

The Ram of Amun-Re was commissioned by the Kushite King Taharqa at about 680 BC. The ram is shown sheltering the king between its forelegs and originally stood at the Temple of Kawa in the Sudan right outside of the Shrine of King Taharqa. That shrine is also in the Ashmolean. You can see part of it behind the Ram of Amun-Re in the photo it took of the statue (photo 012).

I walked all around the Shrine of Taharqa and photographed it all the way around (photos 013 – 017). This shrine was commissioned by Taharqa at the same time as he built the Temple of Kawa and was built within that temple which was dedicated to Amun-Re.

Shortly after the archaeological digs exposed the remains of the buildings to the weather (in 1929 & 1930) they started to decay. The Sudanese government took several carvings from the buildings to Khartoum. Then they gave the Ashmolean permission to dismantle the shrine and move it to the museum in 1936. This was all to try to protect what they could from further decay. As you can see by my photos, the shrine is looking pretty darned good 90 years later.

Some other items of interest include the “Two Dog Palette” (photo 010). This dates to about 3200 BC and was found at the Temple of Horus in Hierakonpolis. Then there is a Statue of Sobek, the crocodile god, from the pyramid temple of Amenamhat III (003).

Photo 004 is a statue of King Khasekhemwy. This is one of the oldest known inscribed statues of an Egyptian king. He is made of limestone and is seated on a throne, wearing a conical crown. This too was excavated at Heirakonpolis. He was the last Pharaoh of the 2^nd Dynasty (roughly 2690-2670 BC). Little is known about him other than that he led several significant military campaigns, reunified Egypt by his 13^th year, and built a large mudbrick structure known as Shunet El Zebib.

Photos 005 and 006 are front and back of headless statues of Akhennaten & Nefertiti. Akhennaten was Tutankhamun’s father. But they don’t think that Nefertiti was his mother.

Photo 011 is a rare, life-sized terracotta sculpture of a beautiful red lion. It dates back to the 6^th Dynasty (c 2325-2175 BC) and was excavated at the ancient royal capital of Nekhen (modern Hierakonpolis).

I also include here a photo of a Roman Sphinx (002), that I saw in the outer sculpture gallery near the museum entrance, dating to roughly 50 – 200 AD.

Photo 007 shows several shabti in different sizes. These were the workers who would take care of the king in the afterlife. Photo 008 is a mummy who is still wrapped and still with the coins and amulets in their wrappings.

The last photo in this grouping (021) includes an actual Ostrich egg in the lower right. It dates to 3600 BC and is decorated with figures believed to be gazelles. It is also thought to have been included in the tomb in which it was found as a possible substitute for a missing head.

When we returned to the hotel, the Morse Bar and the Alice restaurant were both quite busy. I was also rapidly running out of steam. So the decision was made to grab my Sainsbury carry bag from my room and head on down the road beside the hotel just a couple of blocks to the grocers.

I picked up a cheese & onion sandwich, a chocolate mousse, and a bottle of an Argentinian Malbek. All were delicious.

Next – Touring Highclere Castle (aka Downton Abbey)

July 15, 2026

Egyptian Expedition 006: Day 3 – University of Oxford’s Griffith Institute

Do you want to know why King Tutankhamun’s tomb remained hidden from both tomb robbers and archaeologists for a few thousand years? Just read this post.

The Griffith Institute (established in 1939) is a part of the University of Oxford that concentrates on Egyptology. Its holdings include: manuscripts, excavation records, journals, inscriptions, drawings, watercolors, old negatives, photographs, squeezes, and rubbings. All from Archaeologists and Egyptologists who were instrumental in the archaeological discoveries and knowledge of Ancient Egypt. This collection includes the complete records of the ten-year excavation of Tutankhamun’s tomb which were deposited in the Griffith Institute by Howard Carter’s niece shortly after his death.

Our group met up with our Oxford Tour Director, Sally, at the planned time and place and walked across the street to the Ashmolean Museum. There we were split into two groups – one of twelve people, and the other of six. The group of twelve (which included me) was taken around the corner to the Griffith Institute (photo 001) where we were further split into two groups of six each. One group was taken in hand by one of the people who worked at the Institute, and the other group went elsewhere within the building with another guide.

My group was taken to a smallish room with a table that had six chairs for guests and one for our guide. She started with some documents from Sir W. M. Flinders Petrie. These were some photos with his hand-written labels (002 & 003) and some excavation records with his drawings (004). We were allowed to take photographs. Most of us did so.

Next we were shown Howard Carter’s journal. I took photos of several of the pages that were shown to us. One of the entries that actually moved me more than I had anticipated was the Saturday, November 4, 1922 entry that had one line written diagonally across the page. It said, “First steps of tomb found.” (005). There were audible gasps from pretty much our entire group. The following day, his entry declared, “Discovered tomb under tomb of Ramses VI. Investigated same & found seals intact.” (006)

Tutankhamun had reigned from roughly 1332 to 1323 BC during the Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt and died at the age of about 18 or 19. The cause of death has been debated. Although the tomb had a few items stolen shortly after the burial, it had managed to remain pretty much as it had been when Tutankhamun was buried in it.

In 1145 BC, Ramasses V (reign 1147–1143 BC) started a tomb above it, which was taken over and enlarged by his uncle, Ramasses VI (reign 1143–1136 BC). The rubble from this tomb fell down over the entrance to Tutankhamun’s tomb burying it. Workman’s huts were built over the buried entrance. The tomb was then completely hidden.

I have also included here some of the photographs taken by Harry Burton of Tutankhamun’s tomb and its contents as it was found. In the first one (007), the wall between the two sentinel statues was the plastered over entrance to the burial chamber.

The other two photos show some of the items stacked around in the outer room shown in 007. The oval boxes shown in the center of 008 and to the right in 009 contain food. This was to tide the Pharaoh over, in the afterlife, until his shabti (small figures of workers buried with the Pharaoh) could come magically to life and grow crops, bake bread etc.

Photo 010 is of Howard Carter with Lord Caernarfon at the entrance to the Burial Chamber shortly after they broke through. Tutankhamun’s mask is shown as it was found, still on Tutankhamun’s mummy, in photo 011. The last photo (012) of the tomb shows the entrance to the Treasury, just off of the Burial Chamber.

We then switched places with the other group and went to another room. There we were first shown the early attempts of an Archaeologist/Egyptologist to decipher hieroglyphics (photo 013), prior to the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, and some of his other notes and illustrations (photos 014 & 015).

Several drawings and watercolor paintings created by various archaeologists were shared with us as well. Photo 016 shows a drawing of a cache of mummies with a rather grumpy-looking statue at the top, just to the right of the text. Photo 017 shows three watercolor panoramic views of Cairo. Photo 018 shows a watercolor painting of Abu Simbel in its original setting.

Photo 019 shows a watercolor of just the tops of the columns (which were mostly buried in the sand) in what appears to be Luxor Temple in the city that had once been called Thebes. There is also a diagram of the temple (which looks to me to be Luxor and not Karnak) and two smaller watercolor illustrations. I am using the illustration in the lower right, which is definitely of Luxor Temple, to identify the location.

They also shared what is called an archaeological squeeze (020). This is a 3D facsimile of an ancient inscription made by pressing moistened filter paper into the carved surfaces of stone or metal. When dry, the paper was peeled off, leaving a durable, lightweight negative impression that captured the original pretty accurately. This allowed for enhanced readability of the original as well as being able to have a portable version of it.

They thought they were also helping to preserve the artifacts and not causing any damage to them. Turns out that some of the artifacts were damaged as the technique originally involved using a mallet to help create the squeeze. Later the mallet was replaced with a special brush with stiff, closely packed bristles, usually made of horsehair.

They also showed us a photo of the actual item from which the squeeze had been created. It was a relief of Amenhotep III (021).

After this, all twelve of us switched places with the group of six who had gone to the Ashmolean first.

Next – More Egyptian treasures at the Ashmolean Museum

July 12, 2026

Egyptian Expedition 005: Day 3 – Arrival in Oxford at The Randolph Hotel

I dearly love the Inspector Morse, Inspector Lewis, and Endeavour mysteries. So the idea of staying at The Randolph Hotel in Oxford really appealed to me. The hotel featured in both the Inspector Morse and Inspector Lewis television series several times. The cast also stayed at the hotel during filming in 1987. There is a Morse Bar, which features photos of the cast of Inspector Morse, especially its star, John Thaw.

Built in the Gothic Victorian style, it is a 5-star hotel in Oxford, on the south side of Beaumont Street, at the corner of Magdalen Street. The Oxford University’s Ashmolean Museum is on the other side of Beaumont, across from the hotel. On Magdalen, just across from the hotel is the Martyr’s Memorial.

This monument was built 300 years after the events of the English Reformation. It commemorates the deaths of the Bishop of Worcester, Hugh Latimer, and the Bishop of London, Nicholas Ridley in 1555. They were both burned at the stake for heresy, near where the memorial is located, because of their Protestant beliefs. The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, was imprisoned in a nearby tower at this time and watched the deaths of his colleagues from his window. A few months later, he was dispatched in a similar fashion and therefore is included in the inscription on the monument, which was completed in 1843.

When construction began on the Randolph Hotel in 1864, many people wanted it to be in the same Gothic Revival style as the Martyr’s Memorial. The City Council wanted it to be in the classical style of the early 19^th century Regency buildings on the rest of the two block long Beaumont Street. They ended up compromising with a simplified Gothic façade in brick, instead of stone.

Colin Dexter, author of the novels upon which the Inspector Morse television series was based, often used to stay at the hotel and drink in the bar that existed back then. The series was produced between January of 1987 and November of 2000. There were 33 two-hour, self contained, episodes. The author of the novels made cameo appearances in all but three of them. John Thaw starred as Detective Chief Inspector Morse and Kevin Whately was Sergeant Lewis.

I think that he was so popular because, even though he was brilliant, he was far from perfect. Professionally he would often come to the wrong conclusion and arrest the wrong person. He tended to be quite cynical and lacked ambition. Plus he often rubbed higher-ups the wrong way. In his personal life, he was a romantic, who had little success at love. In the final episode, his death is explained as caused by heart problems exacerbated by heavy drinking.

The first spin-off, Inspector Lewis, starring the same actor who had played Sergeant Lewis, Kevin Whately, ran from 2006 to 2015. In 2012 a two-hour special prequel film, Endeavour, (set in 1965) was aired with Shaun Evans playing Detective Constable Morse. A series followed from 2013 to 2023.

Morse’s first name, Endeavour, was revealed on only one occasion during the run of Inspector Morse. He explains to a lady friend that his father was obsessed with Captain James Cook and so he was named after the HMS Endeavour. Otherwise he was simply called “Morse”. There were many references to the earlier series and audiences saw how the younger version of Morse evolved into the older version over the years.

Our group traveled by coach from London to Oxford in roughly two hours. Our cases were taken into the hotel and stored until our rooms were ready. We were met by our Oxford Tour Director, Sally, who took those of us who were interested on a half hour orientation tour of Oxford. It was graduation weekend, so there were loads of graduates in their gowns and with their families. After this little walk, everyone went their separate ways until we were supposed to meet up for our tours of the Griffith Institute and the Ashmolean Museum.

In addition to being a Morse fan, I have always been fond of Alice in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass (1871) by Lewis Carroll. I even played Alice more than once as I had blonde hair and blue eyes. I began playing her in Minneapolis, when I was a child, and continued to do so when we moved to Texas, where blue-eyed blondes were not too common. Never got to played Snow White, but always got cast as Alice or Sleeping Beauty. Then there was the one time I played George Washington at the age of ten. But we won’t get into that.

The hotel also had Lewis Carroll (real name Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) associations. He had been a student at Christ Church in Oxford and remained there for most of his life as a teacher. Alice Liddell, a daughter of Henry Liddell, the Dean of Christ Church, is thought to be the most likely inspiration for Alice. But Carroll himself always denied it.

At any rate, the hotel’s restaurant was The Alice. Both it and the bedrooms had distinctive Alice touches. I had determined that I wanted to have at least one meal in the restaurant and another meal (or drink) in the Morse Bar. It was noon when I returned to the hotel. The bar had several people in it, but The Alice was not yet too crowded. The website had also indicated that reservations were necessary for dinner at the restaurant, so I decided to have lunch there and hang out at the bar later.

I had eaten a good breakfast in my room back in London at 7:30am. At noon, I was hungry, but not overly so. The Spring Risotto with wild mushrooms and truffle looked like a good choice and it was. I sat facing the windows where I could see the Martyr’s Memorial and watch people going by. The photo I took of the restaurant was a little off kilter, but I was trying to be unobtrusive.

After a leisurely lunch, I still had a little over an hour before the tour would commence, and so decided to go ahead and have a drink in the Morse Bar. The drinks were pretty much all named after elements of the television shows. I selected the Last Endeavour, which consisted of Beefeater’s Gin, Prosecco, and Limoncello. It was delicious and I figured I would likely have another when I had some pub food for dinner.

Business was picking up with more and more people coming in. So, when I finished my drink, I went to the desk to see if my room might be ready early. It wasn’t quite yet. I was directed to a room called the Snug to hang out until it was ready. I went in there and only waited about ten minutes before I was told that my room was ready and handed my keys. Yippee.

The room was on the first floor, so I took the really cool-looking staircase up as it would be quicker than the lift. At that point, I had about twenty minutes before I needed to meet up with the group. Just enough time to do a little unpacking for later and to freshen up a bit. This time the room had a small shower, but a large, deep tub. Great for a soaking bubble bath later.

One more historic association for the hotel. In about 1130, Henry I built a new royal palace in the vicinity of the Randolph Hotel. It was called Beaumont Palace. The street the hotel is on was named Beaumont Street after this palace. Two of his grandson Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine’s sons, Richard the Lionhearted (King Richard I) and John Lackland (King John) were born there in 1157 and 1167 respectively. Ironically the last remains of the palace were destroyed when Beaumont Street was laid out in 1829. Prior to that, during the Reformation in the 1500s, many of the building stones from the palace were reused in Christ Church College (founded in 1546) and St John’s College (founded in 1555).

Next – The treasures at the Griffith Institute

July 6, 2026

Egyptian Expedition 004: Day 2 – Sir John Soane’s Fascinating Home

I had visited Sir John Soane’s home back in 1991, during the Gulf War. The war began while I was on the flight over to London and I ended up spending it in the UK. The day it ended, I was in York and all of the bells were ringing out. My memories of that war are entirely from the British point of view as all of my conversations about it at the time were with British people and all of the news I saw of it was from the BBC.

That first visit to that fascinating house museum was during a tour of Legal London that was conducted by a retired London policeman named Donald Rumbelow. I was familiar with him because he also wrote one of the better books on the 1888 London murders Jack the Ripper: The Complete Casebook. He also conducted a nighttime tour of the locations involved in that investigation which I joined a few days later. The tour of Sir John Soane’s Museum came about because it was located at Lincoln’s Inn Fields in Holburn.

This time, we visited the house in the evening by candlelight. It was a private tour. We were welcomed in the library and given a drink. I had a glass of wine. Then our group of 18 people was divided into two groups. The group I ended up in was led by the charming fellow with whom I had been chatting while sipping my wine.

The candlelight was in keeping with the period of the house. Sir John Soane was an 18^th century brick mason who had a real talent for architectural design. He was sponsored by an aristocrat who recognized his talent and formally educated as an architect. He was so successful that he was able to buy three houses which he demolished and completely rebuild into one home. This allowed him and his family to live well while he also displayed his very large collection of art and antiquities. During his lifetime, his home was designated as a museum by a private act of Parliament in 1833. This went into effect on his death in 1837. One of the stipulations of the Act was that the museum needed to remain as it was upon his death forever, with as little change as possible.

They have managed to add electricity, upgrade the plumbing, and any necessary structural upgrades and repairs. But the rooms themselves and the collections they contain remain as they were when Soane died.

He began with No. 12, between 1792 and 1794. In 1806 he bought No.13 and made it the main portion of the museum (which is mostly located in the former stable block at the back and ended up spreading across the rear of all three houses). Sir John’s family then mainly lived in No. 13 and rented out No. 12. His intent was that the rental income would fund the running of the museum after his death.

He purchased No. 14 in 1823, when he was over 70. He then turned its stable block into a picture gallery, which he linked to No. 13. The front of the house was treated as a separate dwelling and wasn’t internally connected to the other buildings. It was a rental property until he died. At that point, it was bequeathed to his family and wasn’t part of the museum.

No. 13 was where we entered the home and congregated in the library. The tour for our group began in the Dining Room. Over the fireplace on one side was a model of some of the buildings that Sir John had designed along Whitehall. Above that was his portrait. I have a photo of those items as the second one included here. The third included photo is the other side of the dining room with a painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

The next room we entered was the domed Breakfast Room. This had a statue of Victory. Behind that was a watercolor painting of the family tomb (4^th photo).

Then we entered the Central Dome (photos 5, 6, & 7) where we stayed for quite a while. Photos 6 and 7 include a statue of Apollo. This is actually a plaster cast and not the original. Copy or original, I still liked it. Looking down below (while being careful not to topple any of the sculptures in the process), we could see the alabaster sarcophagus of King Seti I of Egypt (photo 8). We would later have the opportunity to see his tomb in the Valley of the Kings and his mummy in the National Museum of Egyptian Culture in Cairo. By the end of this trip, I felt that I knew Seti almost as well as Tutankhamun.

Seti I’s sarcophagus (covered in hieroglyphs) was discovered in his tomb in 1817 by a fella named Giovanni Battista Belzoni and was offered for sale to the British Museum for the price of £2,000 (roughly £190,000 today). They didn’t want to pay that much for it, so Sir John Soane bought it. It is by far the most expensive piece in his collection.

After this prize arrived at his house in March of 1825, Soane held a three-day party. The basement was lit by over one hundred lamps and candelabra. Guests included Prime Minister Robert Jenkinson (2^nd Earl of Liverpool) and his wife, Robert Peel (a later Prime Minister), Prince Augustus Frederick (Duke of Sussex), Samuel Taylor Coleridge (poet), J.M.W. Turner (one of my favorite Impressionist painters), as well as other celebrities of the day and foreign dignitaries.

After passing through the Colonnade, we reached the Picture Room (photo 9). There the walls were covered from top to bottom with paintings. These included four paintings by Canaletto and three paintings by Soane’s friend Turner. There were also all eight of the Hogarth paintings, A Rakes Progress (along the bottom of photo 10). These depicted the folly of a young man from the country, squandering his inheritance in London brothels, and with gambling, and every kind of indulgence. Eventually he is left bankrupt, imprisoned for debt, and ultimately thrown into the mad house (Bedlam). These paintings were purchased by Missus Soane for £370 in 1802.

The Picture Room had a secret that was about to be revealed. Three of the walls were fitted with large, movable doors upon which the paintings we could see were hung. When these doors were opened, there were other paintings and drawings behind them. In one case, there was another room behind the paintings. This was the Recessed Room (photo 13). When we looked down into the basement from there, we saw a room called the Monk’s Parlor (photo 14). This included a pair of beautiful 16^th & 17^th century Flemish stained-glass windows.

Another bit of cleverness in a few of the rooms was the addition of clear, acrylic chairs to allow people who had issues standing for very long to sit down. These chairs were nearly invisible, allowing people to be able to see through them to whatever was behind them while still helping anyone who was weary of standing.

The last room we visited was the South Drawing Room up on the First Floor at the front of House No.13. This was where we saw family portraits and heard about Sir John Soane’s wife and two sons.

This ended our second and final day in London. The following day we would continue our adventures in Oxford for a couple more days, after which it was on to Cairo.

Next – Arriving in Oxford at The Randolph Hotel

July 3, 2026July 5, 2026

Egyptian Expedition #003: Day 2 – Petrie Museum

Once we were full of good food and drink from our pub lunch, we piled back onto the coach and headed for the Petrie Museum to see items that were either sold or donated directly to this museum by the archaeologists who found them.

I have to admit that I am an Egyptian archaeology junky and always have been. I saw my first mummy at about age 7 or 8 and was hooked. It was fully wrapped and had a few items nearby, including its coffin. Since then, any museum that I visited that had anything Egyptian caught my attention.

What made this particular trip a “must do” included the brand new Grand Egyptian Museum and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (where 22 royal mummies are kept and shown to the public). Then there were the temples and experiences that I did not have during my first trip to Egypt back in 2008 – Sakkara, Dendera Temple, Esna Temple, watching Nubian dancers (and ending up dancing with them), visiting a Nubian Village, sailing on a felucca, and riding a motorboat on the Nile. The final piece that made me really want to do this was the pre-cruise tour involving all of the Egyptian stuff in London and Oxford.

Even when it came to the parts I had done before, back in 2008 I was just recovering from a two-year fight with an illness that had involved surgery and six months of chemo. I did not have my full energy back then and was also just getting used to living with hypothyroidism (that I had gotten from the chemo). I am actually in much better physical condition here in 2026 than I was 18 years ago. I could engage with what I was seeing, doing, and experiencing so much easier and more fully now. Plus being 60 pounds lighter now than before helped me to say, “Hey. I’m going to ride a camel.”

The Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology is part of London’s University College Museums and Collections. It contains over 80,000 objects, making it one of the world’s largest collections of Egyptian and Sudanese material.

The museum was established in 1892 as a teaching resource for the Department of Egyptian Archaeology and Philology. In 1913, William Matthew Flinders Petrie sold his collection of artifacts from all of his years conducting major Egyptian excavations to University College. This created the Flinders Petrie Collection of Egyptian Antiquities and transformed the museum into one of the leading collections outside of Egypt.

At this point the museum was still for the use of students and academics. It was not yet open to the public. Over the years other archaeologists added to the collections housed at the Petrie Museum.

One of the significant holdings of the Petrie Museum is a limestone head of a king. Petrie thought it could have been King Narmer, based on the similarity to another head of Narmer that he had encountered. Others have thought that it is more likely to be the Fourth Dynasty King Khufu. Narmer had been an Early Dynastic king who was credited with the unification of Egypt. Essentially the first king of both Upper and Lower Egypt.

A garment called the Tarkhan Dress, from the fourth millennium BC, is considered to be the oldest known woven garment in existence. There is also a completely see-through dress made of beads. It was possibly worn over a linen dress like the Tarkhan dress.

In one case, I saw some figures of Isis and Horus as well as one of Isis with baby Horus. At that point, I did not yet know that I would end up playing the role of Isis in our Egyptologist’s explanations of Egyptian mythology. That would not happen until we were actually in Egypt and seeing the temples.

I found the collections at the Petrie to be quite amazing to see and highly recommend seeing them to anyone who, like me, really loves Egyptian archaeology and the objects it unearths.

Next – Sir John Soanes’ fascinating home by candlelight