Day 3 - Sep 3, 2009 Last updated: 10/4/09 4:00pm PT
Day three, museum day. British Library, British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum.
We started at the British Library today. We took the Tube to King’s Cross/St. Pancras station. Since we were there, we thought we’d investigate where the Eurostar trains are located. On day 5 we would be leaving on a Eurostar train, and since we’d need to be here by 6:15am, we thought it best to see where things are located so we wouldn’t have to wake up any earlier than already necessary.
The British Library contains every book published in the UK. Its collection (25 million books) is second only to the US Library of Congress in size. It contains manuscripts dating as far back as 300 BC. Big ticket items on display include the Gutenberg Bible (earliest book printed using movable type; 1454), the Magna Carta (declaring liberty of the people against unjust rule; 1215), and Leonardo da Vinci’s notebook; 1452 – 1519). I’m sure Denise would have a different list, but the things I found most interesting were the music manuscripts from legends like Beethoven, Mozart and The Beatles. I just discovered that I took no pictures, and I’m pretty sure this is one of those places where picture taking was not allowed. Entry was free, so they are probably just trying to protect the documents from flash photography. Here’s a link to the British Library.
Next up, the British Museum which contains a bunch of old stuff looted from other countries. To be fair, that’s what is in most museums and it is a way to protect the historical items. And also, it’s the only way we’d ever see this stuff.
This is a piece of the beard of the Sphinx from Egypt (2500 BC)
This is THE Rosetta Stone. Created in 196 BC and discovered in 1799, it contains the information needed to allow modern people to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphs. It has the same passage of text in two Egyptian scripts and one in Greek.
We then went to the Victoria and Albert Museum. I liked this museum better than the British Museum, but I took fewer pictures, which I attribute to museum fatigue. The most impressive part was the Cast Courts. This room contains a bunch of plaster casts of sculptures, friezes and tombs. Some of the originals don’t exist anymore, so the plaster cast is the only thing people can see and study.
The best cast is of Trajan’s Column. The original column stands in Rome and was erected in 113 AD, and is 38 meters (125 ft) high. The plaster cast was cut in half so it would fit in this building.
Had to go all the way to London to see some Chihuly (sarcasm). This 11 meter high chandelier was created by Dale Chihuly (a famous Seattle glassblower).
We also hit a bunch of used bookstores today. I found a book and Denise didn’t! That never happens.