Knackered, but still going!

Alright then, chum! Off to London!

Bright and early, I caught the Eurostar out of Paris, and that train took me “through” the English Channel and deposited me in London. I arrived around 11:00 a.m., found my way (by way of taxi) to my Paddington flat (thanks to Airbnb). Once I finally figured out the codes and how “flats” work, I walked in and . . . bumped right into the bed. The flat was so incredibly small! I could hardly get me and my luggage into the flat to shut the door without climbing over the bed. As it was, once the door was closed and I had to move forward, it was through about an 8-inch space between the bed and a wall (the bathroom wall). It looked just like the picture on the website but only much, much smaller! After a good laugh I found a reasonable space for things and headed out to explore as I still had daylight.

I was starved and had no idea where or what to eat. While walking on Craven Street towards Praed Road towards the Paddington underground station, I saw an Italian restaurant. What the heck, I said, so I went in and had the most delicious shrimp risotto. So yummy! I was glad I stopped there as I soon discovered pretty much everything else along the way were pre-made sandwiches and such.

Learning as much as I can about the TUBE - the UNDERGROUND - the METRO. It's all the same thing.

At Paddington, not knowing how much of the “tube” or “underground” I would be using, so I bought an Oyster card, which is like an underground pass. My first destination? 221b Baker Street and the Sherlock Holmes Museum. I got some pretty good directions from a couple of the underground station workers on which line(s) to take and actually made it without getting lost. As Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s imagination, I just kept smiling at how serious people were about this whole thing. I guess it’s the same as how people react with the Harry Potter attractions. Anyway, it was fun to visit 221b and take a little walk through the museum, which is a facsimile of Sherlock’s and Watson’s apartments. It was fun.

Sherlock Holmes was here to greet me when I came up from the Underground

The real sign on the real Baker Street

221B Baker Street

Walking through the Sherlock Holmes Museum

For my friend Corey, a huge Benedict Cumberbatch / Sherlock Holmes fan.

After that, I figured out how to get back on the tube and headed back towards St. Pancras Station because I noticed the British Library was right next to the station. I had heard that this library has a Treasures Room that had some original copies of Handel’s Messiah. That sounded interesting to me. 

The library is so much more!! I loved it! The Treasures Room not only had the Handel composition, but it had one from J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, a Purcell piece, and also a Mozart. There were other selections of music also, but still, that’s not all. The whole room was full of original manuscripts, books, poems, maps, and sacred texts. It was phenomenal. It reminded me of the last time I visited the Huntington Library in Pasadena. It was so cool. Pictures were off-limits so I did my sneaky thing again. One of these days I’m going to end up in jail.

The beautiful and big British Library

Sculpture of Newton out front of the library

As you enter the library

They do love their Shakespeare in London!

This gives you and idea of how tall the library is.

A huge stamp collection

Treasures Room

The first printed music, c. 1473

George Frederick Handel's original draft manuscript of the Hallelujah Chorus of the Messiah, 1741

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Ludwig van Beethoven

Purcell

Jane Austen's original desk and original Persuasion

Ian Fleming hand written scene for James Bond

Original, hand written Beattles' lyrics - Yesterday and Help

These two fragments - the Gospel of John, Egyptian, 3rd century
Top: relates to the baptism of Christ, the calling of the disciples Andrew & Peter, and Christ's appearance to
Mary Magdalen upon his resurrection.
Bottom: this fragment preserves the words of Christ at the Last Supper.

Homer's Illiad

A letter from Galileo

Some kind of ancient Asian writing

The Gutenberg Bible

The Magna Carta

Wish I could remember who did this writing and what it was about as it was apparently important
enough to sneak a picture of it.

A "sketchbook" of sorts - Bach, I think.

J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier

This is such a small example of what is available to see in the Treasures Room of the British Library. It was extraordinary.

I was pretty tired after the early morning, so I got myself home, again on the tube, and called it a night in my teeny-tiny little Paddington flat!