London Trip - Day 3

Today we we started by going to Leicester Square which is a really cool part of town. Then, on our way to the British Library, we stopped at King's Cross station and saw Platform 9 3/4. You can take pictures with the cart and there is a guy there that will give you a scarf for whichever Hogwarts house you want, but the line was super long so I just took a picture of the cart without me holding on to it.

King's Cross station. And Parker's head.

Platform 9 3/4!

After King's Cross, we went to the British Library and saw all sorts of really cool things: Shakespeare's folio, quartos, a manuscript of Beowulf, writing diaries of Jane Austen (her handwriting!!!!), an execution order from Elizabeth for Essex (poor Essex...), a letter from Henry VIII to Prince Philip, Gutenberg Bible, a lot of illuminated texts, and the Magna Carta. That was pretty amazing.

At the British Library. Towers of preserved books. So happy.

The First Folio, published in 1623. Opened to 1 Henry IV.

Jane Austen's writing notes.

Execution order from Elizabeth 1.

DaVinci drawings.

THE Magna Carta. Gahhhhh!!!!!!

A treacle tart that I ate at the British Library. I ordered it  solely because Harry Potter talks about it all the time. And now I know why. It's delightful.

The British Library is a non-circulating library, as illustrated by this sculpture/bench.

After the library, we went to the British Museum. The building is huge and incredibly beautiful. I almost liked the building more than the exhibits. :) We saw the Rosetta Stone, mummies, the Japanese samurai stuff, an exhibit on clocks through history, lots of Ancient Greek and Roman sculptures, and lots more. It was amazing how much stuff they have here.


 

The outside of the British Museum. (Part of it. It's massive.)

The inside of the British Museum. Beautiful.

The Rosetta Stone.

Hanging out in the mummy exhibit. Carl and Parker were quite effective in shoving people away from it so we could take a picture. It was quite crowded.

Then we decided to try to find some Indian food. There were 8 of us that were hanging out and we went to the Liverpool street tube stop and wandered around. That area of town was really cool. However, everything was closed since it was Sunday. So we found an English pub called Dirty Dicks and went in there. We all sat around a big table, drank beer, and ate some really good food. I had bangers and mash and it was DELICIOUS!!! We were all so exhausted that we came home after that and were home before 7. It kind of sucks having no Internet in the rooms, but it does force us all to hang out downstairs in the lounge. But, the lifts are broken, so every time we forget something, or need something, we have to walk up 5 floors. Argh!!! My legs are super sore. All of me is sore from all the walking and carrying stuff around. At least it helps combat all the beer and food I'm consuming.

We had a super nice Canadian waitress and rested our weary feet and drank beer.

My bangers and mash, topped with caramelized onions that I think had been cooked over a match for 7 hours, they were so sweet and perfect. Someone spent a lot of time with those.