Ninety seconds on British Museum
Free to walk in, and the Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon sculptures and the Assyrian winged bulls are all on the ground floor, a few rooms apart. Pick two or three galleries, not the whole building, and reach the Rosetta Stone at ten, before the crowds.
From the gate you walk straight into the Great Court, the glass-roofed square around the round Reading Room. Pick up a map at the information desk there: it prints an hour-long route past the best-known objects and a longer one through the quieter rooms.
The Egyptian sculpture gallery holds the Rosetta Stone, and it is the room that fills first. The Assyrian winged bulls and lion hunt reliefs run on from it, and the Parthenon sculptures have their own hall nearby.
Upstairs, the mummies draw the families, so climb to them early or late in the day. On a Friday evening the school groups have gone and the rooms are quieter.
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