Day 5

The British Museum Facade.

On Friday morning, 7/23, it occurred to both Jared and I that we were planning to head to Paris in three days and yet, had not made our travel arrangements. After the panic and horror of researching the cost of taking the Chunnel subsided (I had taken it several years ago, but apparently my memory on the price was not very accurate), we decided the best thing to do would be for me to go directly to St. Pancras Station and buy our tickets in person, hoping to get a better deal. So, Jared headed off to work, and I hopped on the Tube to King's Cross. Well, a word to the wise for anyone planning to take the train from London to Paris via Chunnel: book your tickets well in advance (like months, I've been told, or the tickets quadruple in price). Upon arriving at St. Pancras Station I soon discovered that a 1-way train ticket from London to Paris in the middle of the summer, purchased 3 days in advance costs 140 pounds a person (or roughly $218 USD, and this is 1-way, per person, yikes). We could have purchased round-trip plane tickets from Dubai to Istanbul for that. So, I gulped down my shock and horror and got out my AMEX. Happy Anniversary again my dear (my anniversary gift was supposed to be the hotel room in Paris, but, Eurostar tickets got added to the tab). Oh well, it's only money, after all, and there was no way in hell I was taking a 14 hour bus ride from London to Paris for only 20 pounds less a person. Guess some of my planned shopping in Paris and Boston would need to be rethought..

Not one to let an extra $400+ on my credit card statement ruin my day, I decided to take advantage of the geographic proximity of my jaunt to St. Pancras and explore the sites in the area. Directly next door to the Station is the British National Library. I had never been before, and the British Library was not exactly high on my list of sights to see while in London, but it turned out to be a lovely little surprise. The library houses nearly every book ever printed in Britain and is not a traditional lending library, but only allows very specific archival research. Its "Room of Treasures" is open to the public though (for free!) and in it I stumbled on some of the coolest books and documents I've ever seen. They have a copy of the Gutenberg Bible, two different copies of the Magna Carta, Henry VIII's Prayer Scroll, Jane Austen's Writing Desk, and even had a neat exhibit showing various copies of Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventure's In Wonderland" and the historical progression. I went in expecting to spend maybe 15-20 minutes, and I got totally sucked in and spent a couple hours at the library. I think my favorite exhibit in the "Room of Treasures" was on the Beatles where they had an envelope and one of Julian Lennon's 1st Birthday cards, on which early versions of song lyrics had been written. My Uncle Rob got me totally obsessed with the Beatles from the time I was probably 11-13. I literally own every single album and know most every song, so seeing Beatles relics was really fun. Then after I was finally able to pull myself out of the Treasure Room, I came upon another exhibit of old maps called "Magnificent Maps" where I then proceeded to spend another 45 minutes. For someplace that I was thinking I would just pop into to check out briefly, the British Library turned out to be unexpectedly delightful!

By the time I finally left the British Library, I was absolutely starving, so grabbed a yummy prosciutto sandwich from Pret a Manger (they are literally everywhere, and I have to get my fill of pork while I'm out of a Muslim country) and meandered through Russell Square to the British Museum.

Inside the British Museum.

So after my walk and sandwich I popped into the British Museum. I had been before, and it's always fun to see all the Egyptian Mummies and Tombs and the Rosetta Stone. My favorite part though is the giant circular reading room in the middle which basically looks like an old-fashioned library. All the walls are covered with built-in dark wooden shelves full of ancient books. The museum was absolutely mobbed with tourists, so I made a bee-line for the reading room, only to discover that it was housing a special exhibit at the moment that cost 12 pounds (the general museum is free). Well, the exhibit sounded interesting enough (Renaissance Sketching from Fra Angelico to Leonardo Da Vinci), but after blowing my spending budget for basically the whole trip on train tickets only hours before, I decided that despite being disappointed not to visit the reading room, I should probably conserve my pounds and give my AMEX a little break...

So I headed back to our hotel to meet Jared. He got to leave work early since it was Friday and his last day of work in London. Now we were both officially on holiday (him for three whole weeks more!), and we headed out to the enjoy the lovely evening.

Downing Street, Home of the British Prime Minister. We randomly and unexpectedly passed while wandering around, so I had to take a picture. The whole street is gated and highly guarded, so this is as close as I could get.

Self-take with Big Ben and Houses of Parliament.