British Library

The British Library was quite the hidden gem of the trip!  I read about it last minute, right before I left, and learned about all of the really cool old manuscripts they have on display in one of the rooms.  Again, it was almost overwhelming the history that was right in front of me! 

Original Canterbury Tales

Page from Jane Austen's diary

Original copy of Handel's Messiah

An original Beethoven

An original Mozart

First copy of they lyrics to Yesterday by the Beatles

One of Da Vinci's notebooks for mechanics and math

The first published Shakespeare's works

Fragments of the Book of John from the New Testament, dating to the 3rd century

The oldest known complete New Testament, in Greek

The first Guttenburg Bible

The first King James version of the Bible

Ancient Hebrew manucripts

Ancient Arabic manuscripts

Ancient Asian manuscripts

And the Magna Carta

Tea and Abbey Road

After I got through with the National Gallery, I went shopping for tea!!  This actually ended up being one of my favorite spots of the entire trip, since I am absolutely obsessed with tea (herbal, of course)!  The walk to the tea shop was fun.  I saw some cool things, like the Savoy Hotel, of note to those Earnest enthusiasts out there.

I also got to see the Royal Courts of Justice, which, as my guide book explained to me, is where celebrity's go when they get sued. 

And finally I ended up at the happiest place on Earth, the Twinings Tea Shop.  I felt like I had died and gone to heaven.  I bought soooo much tea while I was there, and yet even now I panic in thinking that maybe I didn't get enough....

After I bought all my tea, I rode the bus!!  Here's the view I had from the bus:

I was heading off to the British Library, but I'll address that in the next post.  So on to Abbey Road!  How could I be in London and not see this great site and pay homage to the Beatles!  It was actually really funny, because there were so many people there trying to get their picture taken as they crossed the crosswalk, but it actually is a pretty busy road so cars were trying to cross all the time! 

At this point in my day my energy was really waning.  Luckily I just had the opera left for that day, but I remember feeling torn because I felt there were so many amazing things in the city that deserved my attention, but I just couldn't get the energy I needed.  In both days that I had been in the city I noticed that while it was light during the day I enjoyed the city a lot more, but as it grew dark I grew more annoyed with the big city aspect.  Also as it grew darker it meant that I had been on my feet for hours on end and they were super sore and tired and I didn't have much energy left.  I had greatly underestimated the big city-ness of London.  I of course knew it was large, but forgot what that actually meant in real life.  I am definitely not a big city person at all, until I've lived in a big city long enough to know it well (like Buenos Aires or Boston).  A really interesting thing about London was that almost everyone in the city seemed extremely young, like in their 20's or 30's.  I felt like I never saw old people anywhere!  That made the city all the more intimidating and overwhelming for me. 

I almost forgot, in the morning I was around Covent Garden and got a picture of that as well.  None of the market shops were open yet, because it was still too early, but I thought it looked pretty cool anyway.

National Gallery

All right, here it goes, the incredibly long list of my favorite paintings from the National Gallery!

Canaletto--Venice:  The Doge's Palace and the Riva degli Schiavoni

Canaletto--Venice:  The Grand Canal with S. Simeone Piccolo

Domenichino--St. George Killing the Dragon

Schedoni--The Holy Family

 At this point in my wanderings, I had this thought:  There are so many pictures of Christ that are so wonderful, and I want to fill my house with them!

Sassoferrato--Virgin in Prayer

Vigee Le Brun--Mademoiselle Brongniart

Vigee Le Brun--Self Portrait

Wright of Derby--Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump

Gainsborough--Cornard Wood

Constable--Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows

It was at this point when I decided that I just want lots and lots and lots and lots of paintings in my house, of all sorts.

Seurat--Bathers at Asnieres

Monet--Water Lily Pond

There was a special Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit going on, which cost a lot of money and tickets sold out long before I was able to get one, so I didn't get to see the exhibit.  However, at one of the entrances the door was huge and thus people passing through that hall to get to the rest of the free museum part couldn't help but notice one of the paintings on display:  an exact copy of the Last Supper by one of Da Vinci's students.  I was quite thrilled to see it, since I was unable to see the original while I was in Milan a few years ago!

de Champaigne--Dream of Joseph (my brother, sister and I used this picture in a book we gave our mom for Christmas with the Nativity story, so it was cool to actually see this painting in person!)

Avercampt--Winter Scenes

Saftleven--Christ teaching from Saint Peter's Boat

Claude--The Enchanted Castle

Claude--Landscape with Aeneas at Delos

 Claude--Embarkation of Saint Ursula

van Delen--Architectural Fantasy

Botticelli--Venus and Mars

Exactly like what happened to me in Italy, I knew of the Botticelli painting beforehand and didn't expect to like it that much in person, but when I actually saw it, just like when I saw The Birth of Venus and La Primavera in the Uffizi in Florence, I actually really really liked the painting. 

Van Eyck--Arnolfini Portrait

Bronzino--Portrait of a Young Man

Raphael--Madonna of the Pinks