London & The Great Charter

This is part of a series of blog posts recalling my overseas adventures in the United Kingdom in fall 2015.

Wednesday, Sept 30:

Today we went to the BBC Production House and the British Library. The BBC tour showed us how radio and broadcast news are done – the guides were good, but the student group from Holland we were with were far more entertaining. We also had a celebrity sighting – Rod Stewart was exiting one of the buildings just as we were, but I didn’t get to meet him or get a decent picture. At the British Library we got to see a number of historical documents, including the Magna Carta, many old Bibles, folios from Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, among others. Busy day.

Thursday, Oct 1:

Tower of London. Ann finally dragged me to this place to get a glimpse of the Crown Jewels. We took ton of pictures. We also got to see some Royal Guards on patrol, some actors playing out a medieval scene for schoolchildren, and even some ravens (who, legends say, guard the Tower and if they ever disappeared the Tower and all of England would fall). We had a late lumch at a French cafe right across from the Tower, Paul’s, where I got a croque florentine.

Friday, Oct 2:

Another lazy day. Did absolutely nothing.

Saturday, Oct 3:

We went to the Geffrye Museum and its Almshouse (a museum about middle-class living and a recreation of a house for poor pensioners, respectively). Then we shopped at Spitalfields Market, which is an open-air street market or sorts on the East End. I got an English hat and socks, and Ann got a Tibetan shawl. We got lost coming out of Spitalfields, and I got quite cross (because my feet were killing me while walking on cobblestone and there were long blocks of residential housing with barbed wire on the wall). We finally found our way back and I ended my day early while Ann retraces my steps over at One New Change. It’s not exactly how I imagined spending my second-to-last day in London, but that’s ok.