London

We're settled into our London apartment. Can't add pictures yet, but will have many to share when we get the chance. Our apartment is bigger than we thought it would be, and is tidy and on a (fairly) quiet street. Kensington Garden and Hyde Park are just a few blocks away. We think of them as our front yard.

Yesterday we went to the British Library. In one large room they have a free public exhibit called "Treasures of the British Library." It contains items like the Beowulf manuscript (the only early exigent copy, the "Cotton vitellius," from about 1000 CE)... a Gutenberg Bible... Charlotte Bronte's handwritten MS of Jane Eyre open to "Reader: I married him"... John Milton's commonplace book... handwritten letters from Isaac Newton, Jane Austen, and others... a sketchbook/notebook of Da Vinci's... the Magna Carta (one of 2 original copies in the libraryand of only 4 still in existence)... Captain Cook's journal listing all the places he had discovered in his travels, then the comment, "very little more to be done."

Then we stopped by a camera shop that had repaired our camera and returned to the British Museum to take pictures of some items we'd noted on our first visit. In a few minutes we're taking the Tube to tour the Tower of London. (We're very savvy Tube travelers now.) We were at the Tower night before last, but only to watch the Ceremony of the Keys, when they lock the tower for the night. Today we get to see places where important events occurred, such as the beheading of scores of real and framed traitors including Ann Boleyn, and the cell in the Bell Tower where Wyatt the Elder wrote "Circa Regna Tonat." We also get to see the Crown Jewels. When we saw the Scottish crown jewels and the "Stone of Destiny" they wouldn't let us take pictures. I wonder if they'll let us photograph the English ones. We'll see. More later, especially when we can find an Internet Cafe that will let us hook up our camera.