I cannot believe that it is my last week in London! This trip has gone by so quickly. I will be sad to leave one of my favorite cities again but do not worry London, I will be back!
Tuesday morning was a busy and wonderful day. Chris and I walked over ten miles Tuesday and I enjoyed every minute of it. I woke up around 6:00 am on Tuesday and did some research for my paper. It was a great way to get focused for the day and think about the direction I want to take for my paper. After I finished some research and writing that morning Chris and I met up for a whirlwind tour of London.
We started the morning off by getting two cups of coffee from Costa. It was definitely needed after such an early morning. Chris loves the coffee here. It can be very strong and bitter. I tend to stick to the cold blended coffees! Maybe one day I will acquire a more grown up taste for coffee, ha! We then headed to Waterloo station and topped of our tube cards. There was a girl in line who had never bought a tube pass before and I was actually able to help her determine what she needed and purchase her first tube pass. I felt like a real Londoner!
We then took the tube and headed down the Thames to the Globe. After a look around the Globe we walked over the Millennium Bridge to Saint Paul's. I am always in awe of that building. We then hopped on the tube again and went down to the Tower of London and London Bridge. Chris was becoming a pro at navigating the tube at this point! After a stroll on the London Bridge Chris and I decided we had time for one more stop before lunch. We headed down to Covenant Gardens to look at all the shops and walk around. It was nice because Covenant Garden was not crowded at all. We were actually able to stroll around the whole area. We then headed back down to the South Bank for Lunch at Eat and some frozen yogurt from Snog. Chris absolutely loves Snog, he has had it everyday since he got here. There is also a book sale on the South Bank but I was never able to make it to it. Lucky for us, we were able to stop by the book sale and found two first edition copies of Harry Potter! I am by no means a book collector but I would have kicked myself later if I had not purchased these books! Chris had a great eye spotting them. Hopefully we will find the rest of the Harry Potter collection.
After lunch we met up with the LIS class and headed to Westminster Abbey. Our class visit for the day was to the Westminster Abbey Library. We walked from our dorms and along the Thames to reach our destination. I love walking by all of the history and getting so close to Big Ben, Parliament, and the Westminster Abbey. The library itself was gorgeous. I am always in awe when I am in such old and beautiful buildings in London. I love when you walk in to the old libraries are hit by the "old book smell". We learned so much about the history of the church and the library including the fact that it used to be a chained library!
After our library tour the whole LIS class headed to Trafalgar's Square to take a group photo. We have many group photos all over the United Kingdom. I will have to post some of them on the blog!
Once class officially ended for the day Chris, Jessica, and I headed off the the British Museum. Our understanding was that the museum itself does not close till six, but a piece of advice, it seems that they begin closing everything down after 5:00. Once we arrived all of the exhibits were closed and soon after we entered the museum they were no longer allowing people to enter. We were looking for their posted hours on the way out since the information seems to be quite conflicting. It is such a large museum that it must be tough making sure you get everyone out of the building!
Since our trip to the British Museum was such a bust we began to think about what else we could do! Jess had the great idea of heading to the British Library to check out the Treasure Room. Chris had not been in there before and he enjoyed seeing all of the documents and treasures in that room. I feel like every time I go there I find something new!
We then began making our way back towards the dorms for dinner. Chris, Laura Douglass, Jessica, Paul, Taylor, and I all shared some pizza for dinner! Yum! It was such an exhausting day but I was glad that we were able to cram so much in to one day since Chris will not be in London very long!
I am also excited that I finally found the James Bond book bench and that Chris finally got to see some of these book benches in person!
