Sam’s birthday, Westminster Abbey, the British Library, etc.

I woke up at 7:30ish and let Bob sleep while I got ready for the day.  We headed down to a nice breakfast at about 8:30.  I was having trouble using the iPad mini for this blog, so I went to the business center while he took a shower.  I still had problems with the blog and lost a bunch of stuff that I had created at the business center computer. Crap!!!!  I gave up for the day.

We finally left for Westminster Abbey at 10:30.  It was another beautiful day and an easy walk from the hotel to the Abbey.  We only had to wait a few minutes since we had bought tickets online. I decided to get the free audio tour so that we could just look up stuff if we wanted to — we opted out of the one hour guided tour.  So we slowly walked around the different parts of the church, stopping at places that caught our interest.  You can’t take pictures inside the main part of the abbey, so there weren’t hordes of people taking zillions of pictures.  Bob said it was like the Hollywood Walk of Fame for all people British: from Isaac Newton to Chaucer to Handel to Queen Elizabeth I.  We spent about 2 hours looking at tombs, plaques, and memorials.  At the end of the tour, we lit a candle for Sam, whose birthday is June 21.  We picked out the spot for the candle and lit it together and then sat there for a little while.

After we left the nave, pictures were allowed.

We walked around the building, stopping to look at the martyrs’ wall.
https://youtu.be/8w-U6spYX5g
We went back to Locale for a late lunch, which was delicious.

Then we boarded a bus to check out the British Library, which I had seen last in 2003. The famous collection was as I remembered it except that the Beowulf manuscript was no longer on display. There’s an incredible collection called the King’s Library.

And, from the country that caused his death, a tribute to Alan Turing, complete with Enigma machine.

We were so close to King’s Cross Station and Harry Potter land that we started out in St. Pancras Station, the international part of King’s Cross. This was part of an amazing sculpture in the main station.

And a side trip to Track #9 3/4, where we also found a Harry Potter shop.

I even texted Colleen and Sarah to see if they needed anything!!

We planned to go back to St. Pancras and check out one of the restaurants right by the Eurostar terminal, but the word “German” caught my eye as we were getting ready to cros the street, and it turned out to be a cute restaurant with German food and outdoor seating.  We were sold!!

After dinner, a tube ride took us back to Waterloo and another visit to the Underbelly Festival. This time I had some Pimm’s.

Then it was home and to bed — the view from the window by he elevator on our floor.