Seeing the Sights: London & Beyond, Part 1

Backside of the library, from the Tube station.
The courtyard out front has the statue of Isaac Newton,
a café called "The Last Word" (there's also a café inside the library),
and ping-pong tables.

Day 1: After arriving in London and getting checked into the hostel, I had about 2 hours before the British Library closed. After figuring out how to get an Oyster Card, I was off. Luckily, the library isn't off the beaten path or anything; it's there, announcing it's presence. I was there specifically to see Jane Austen's desk. Not only was her desk displayed in the History of English Literature display case, but so was her original manuscript of Persuasion, which just might be my favourite book of hers. There were originals by Shakespeare, da Vinci, Michelangelo, etc. Somewhere there was, what I can only assume must have been, a huge exhibit on Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland as well as the development of comics in the U.K. Unfortunately, I was getting hungry, I had food back at the hostel, and I as trying to beat the Wednesday work crowd back from the Tube, so I didn't stay too long. I did pop into the gift shop and see the tiniest copies of Jane Austen's books. They were smaller than index cards, and they were read turned on the side and from top to bottom, instead of left to right.
    The station right near the British Library is the King's Cross-St. Pancras station. King's Cross is home to... Platform 9 3/4. However, the little searching I did for it was fruitless (nobody say, "Did you look between Platforms 9 & 10?" Thank you, you helpful people.), so I'll have to do that on my next trip to London, hopefully for my birthday, where more HP things will be accomplished.

Day 2: The Royal Collection's website informed me that Windsor Castle is at it's busiest between 9:30a-11:30a. Other places on the internet said it should take me about 35 minutes to get there. So around 11:00a, I headed toward the Tube station. It took several tube stops, plus a train ticket to get there, but the journey wasn't altogether that long, and I started and finished a book (it was significantly shorter a book than I was expecting it to be). Windsor Castle has been home to the monarchs of England and later the United Kingdom for more than 900 years.

St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle's Round Tower, and
the home of the Poor Knights of Windsor.

     Outside the castle walls of Windsor is a pretty adorable little town, complete with a McDonalds. (Sometimes even monarchs need burgers and chips.) In the castle, you can't take pictures, of course, but I did find it interesting what sticks out when you can't take a million pictures of everything. I became one of those audio guide people, and while I'm not sure the information enhanced my visit much, it did make me slow down and take a closer look at things I probably would have rushed past.
     I saw one of the Military Knights as he saw a friend off from the private section of Windsor, King Henry VIII's grave along with his favourite wife, Jane Seymour. The graves of King George V & Queen Mary, King George VI & Queen Elizabeth, and several other monarchs further back in history (probably before the McDonalds). I saw a letter of condolence from President Abraham Lincoln to Queen Victoria upon the death of Prince Albert, Queen Elizabeth I's accounting book, and Queen Elizabeth II's diary entry from her parents' coronation day.

     One of the most interesting things, surprisingly to me, was looking at all the helmets of the Garter Knights, which rest on wooden heads in the choir section of St. George's Chapel. Each knight has some sort of symbol (and I'm talking giant, 3D, not like an engraving) on the top of his/her helmet. Some of them look a little ridiculous, but from the pictures I've seen, it doesn't look like they have to wear them like that. Each knight has his/her own chair in the top row of the choir, and a plaque screwed to the wall between the chair and the helmet. There are more than 800 plaques on the wall; while the helmet & banner of the knight are removed when they die, the plaque is not. One of the knights recently passed away, and a wreath is currently hung over his plaque. There are shields which I believe have their banners painted on them, in one of the halls inside the castle. If and when a Garter Knight commits a crime, is shield is painted white, but not taken down, as a reminder of his shame. (No idea what they're going to do when they fill all of the walls/ceilings of that room...)
    In 1992, a lantern in Windsor Castle started a fire that affected several of the rooms. For more information, see the internet. What I wanted to mention is that there's this long white and gold room just off to the side of where the fire started. Apparently, the walls were scorched and the floor burned badly in the fire (as would be expected). They washed and painted the walls, but were trying to problem solve how to fix the intricately patterned wood floor. In the end, they just pulled the floor up, piece by piece, and flipped them over. Problem solved! In the same room where the fire started is a suit of armour of King Henry VIII's. From the front, you're like, "Could have sworn that guy was bigger. Not too bad." And from the side you're like, "Aha! Extension pieces!" because that sucker was rotund!

     After my travels back from Windsor, I tried to see the Sherlock Holmes Museum, however the line, she was crazy. And they closed in less than an hour. So I headed back, via le Tube, grabbed some dunch/linner and caught up (most of the way) on the last Doctor Who season.