Last night we attended a showing of Anne Boleyn at The Globe Theatre...not Shakespeare's Globe but a recreation. It was an amazing play that was actually set in the time of King James I.
 |
| The Globe Theatre |
In the play he was recently crowned king and was having everything in the castle gone through when Queen Anne Boleyn's coronation gown is found. This prompts King James to try to communicate with the deceased queen. So, in one play we were shown two different time periods, Queen Anne's and King James'. I actually learned quite a bit from this play too...did you know that some scholars believe that King James I was gay? They played up that little tid bit of information in the play ; ).
After the play we were set on a mission to attempt to take a few night photographs. Here are a few examples of the photographs I was able to take:
 |
| St. Pauls Cathedral, Millennium Bridge, and the River Thames |
 |
| Looking at St. Paul's Cathedral on the Millennium Bridge |
 |
| The photograph was taken when I moved my camera with the night settings on, so the exposure was longer. I though the effect was pretty cool |
Today we took a visit to King's Cross Station, which some of you will know from the Harry Potter series, is where Platform 9 3/4 is located. Well, right now King's Cross Station is undergoing some major renovations.
 |
| Zane and I are off to Hogwarts! |
So, they had to move the landmark outside of the station. Because of all of the construction and the landmark being moved much of the magic of visiting this spot was lost. However, we didnt let that get us down and still took lots of pictures of each person pushing the cart through the barrier. Zane even joined me in mine : )
Today we also visited the British Library. For all of us future librarians this was something we were looking forward too. We were given a tour of the library's treasure room, this room included a Gutenberg Bible, one of the four copies of the Magna Carta, the original sheet music to Handel's Messiah, a 1304 copy of the Qur'an, some examples of early Chinese printing, and rough drafts from Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte. We even got to see a postage stamp that is worth a million dollars! I wish we had been allowed to take pictures so that I could share the treasures with all of you but sadly no photography allowed.
 |
| British Library Sign |
After the treasures tour, some of us went to visit the other exhibit the library had about the history of Science Fiction. This exhibit was also full of treasures, many first editions of books such as,
Frankenstein, War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, and many more. Some authors even allowed their original writings to be displayed! One part of the exhibit focused on alternate realities which was especially interesting because we had just come from seeing all of these important works that made history what it is today. Together the two exhibits made a very unique dichotomy.
 |
| Outside the British Library |
It was pretty amazing being in a library that has such a huge collection. There are so many great works that you are able to view if you visit the British Library. We were able to go into the reading rooms and some of us were even able to view books that the library offers. The books that I requested (all about the history of football aka soccer) were not actually there, something happened with the dates in my registration but being in those reading rooms still gave me the feeling of what it would be like to come into the library and study. There were manyg books that I would return to the library and read for fun if I could...I guess that is the librarian in me : )
Tomorrow we are off to Paris at...ouch 4:30am...so I will not be posting until we get back on Sunday!
No comments:
Post a Comment