History-Related Travel -- Double-Decker Buses & Egyptian Antiquities [30min]

A modest but fascinating period of British history is about to come to an end. After fifty years the Routemaster bus, London's red painted mobile landmark, is soon to make its last run. Sandi Toksvig talks with freelance journalist Travis Elborough about his new book The Bus We Loved: London's Affair with the Routemaster and looks at its role in the capital's transport system. Can it really be bettered by the bendy bus? Then Sandi explores what attractions the statues of Rameses II and the treasures of Tutankhamen still hold. Tourists have been visiting the antiquities of Egypt since time immemorial. The ancient Greeks and Romans went on the classical equivalent of package tours to see the Sphinx and the Pyramids. Since then the civilisation has been rediscovered many times by tomb robbers, treasure seekers, archaeologists and sightseers. Sandi is joined by Egyptologist Joyce Tyldesley and Bill Dixon, an archaeological tourist.