Silk Roads @ The British Museum

In the last few years, as I'd been thinking about retiring, one of the ideas that kept popping up was the thought that I'd be able to spend some 'me time' visiting museums and the like, but crucially to do them at my own pace, and when I wanted to. Although we often visit museums as a family, Lou and T usually get bored quickly and head for coffee, leaving me to speed read the exhibits and feel guilty.

So when I spotted the ‘Silk Roads’ exhibition at the British Museum a few months ago, I thought – great – that’s the one…..That’s my first……and of course as it’s at Daddy of all museums, so basically in at the deep end.

As it turned out it was a paid exhibition (£22), but fortunately a few days before one of my friends had sent me a link to a trial for the ArtPass – and low and behold I could get 50% off. Great. Head over here to see where else I’ve used it (or plan to) – will certainly be useful for ABC: Museums

I was quite intrigued about the exhibition. The marketing imagery of ancient camel trains evolving into modern trade routes promised a fascinating journey through the evolution of trade up to modern times. However, the exhibition felt more like simply a scattergun display of old artifacts from the various Silk Road regions (China, Japan, Korea), though Nepal and India, the Middle East and ultimately the Mediterranean. rather than a deep dive into the Silk Road's trade history. I’d like to have seen more on how what was traded changed over times, and also the mechanism of trade including commerce and transportation.

It was also ridiculously busy. Full of damn retirees!

As it turned out, as I wandered around the rest of the museum (3 hours – take that L&T!), I released that basically the Silk Roads exhibition was simply a subset of the rest of the museum. As it turned out, it was far far better to explore each region in full as part of the main museum, and I had a fantastic time doing so.

A few highlights are below

I then took myself off for a nice Xi'an Chinese