Christ Church Hogwarts Bodlein and Alice in Wonderland

This day was a double whammy of Harry Potter awesomeness. We went to both the Bodleian Library and Christ Church University.

Bodleian Library was where the scenes for the Hogwarts Infirmary as well as the Hogwarts Library were filmed.

Christ Church University is where the Great Hall cafeteria is located as well as the staircase and the halls where the Quidditch trophy case was.

The Bodleian Library is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It first opened in 1602. The most intriguing thing was that no one could check books out the books were chained to the bookshelves and even the king was unable to check out a book.

Christ Church University is known for an amazing writer by the name of Lewis Caroll author of Alice in Wonderland. We were given a tour into the small archival library that held beautiful books even some mini books. The ceiling of the main library here was gorgeous. And then we walked into a room to have a sitdown tour not knowing we were in Caroll's old office. After talking to us for over an hour we are told this and shown the original hand-drawn cover of the book as well as the first pictures.

Final Thoughts: I would absolutely enjoy taking my mom to see these books. Although the sitdown tour was quite long it was interesting.


More Pictures: https://photos.app.goo.gl/79keFL195YqCCc9r6

https://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/

British Library

At the British Library, we had multiple tours but my favorite was with Kevin Mehmet who seemed to absolutely love his job. He has worked there for 39 years.

The library holds about 85,000 books and the earliest are from 1423 a donation given by the king. Instead of using latex gloves the archival books are handled with just clean bare hands. I also learned that most of the calligraphy was done by nuns. The books for the library are held underground in four levels and they are sent up using a machine and a computer. The books here are organized by size instead of using something like Dewey.

While at the British Library we got to watch people repairing books and talk to them about how they got their jobs.

The library had multiple restaurants on location and even two bookstores. In the front lobby was a bench that looked like a book.

Before heading over to the library we go to stop at Kings Cross Station and visit the famed Platform 9 3/4. I loved the chance to take my picture there with the buggy and look around in the store.


Ending Thoughts: All in all I loved the British Library and would love the chance to work underground as a librarian.



More Pictures: https://photos.app.goo.gl/YXjfZ3UyvBjWP3RA9

https://www.bl.uk/

Bletchley Park Computers

At first, I was unsure that I would like this trip but it was amazing. Bletchley Park was beautiful with a gorgeous lake and lots of greenery. One of the places that I ate there still had the feel of an army mess hall.

Bletchley Park is known for its amazing computers and British codebreaking during WW2. The computers were manned mostly by women because the men were away fighting.

Our tour was held in the National Museum of Computing. During the tour, we saw all types of computers which some would not consider computers. There was also a computer doing multiplication up to 12. We were shown computer discs the size of manholes and bigger that could have so much energy while on the disc drives that they could lift up.


The best part was after the tour when we got to look around ourselves. In the museum, I watched a video about the involvement during WW2 which was beautiful. They also had in cases ration books, shelter tickets, and gas ointment. Another thing on display was a motorcycle that was used for dispatch. There were also computers that you could try to intercept and break codes. That was enjoyable.



Pictures: https://photos.app.goo.gl/zJtjBFqSbiVxfznr7

https://bletchleypark.org.uk/

National Maritime Museum at Greenwich and the Royal Geographic Society

"Adventure is out there" - Up - Pixar Movie

Both places discussed interesting times during exploration.

The Royal Geographic Society was a school for explorers where they could go and read up on people who had come before them and learn about how to be an explorer. I knew about the place from reading the "Lost City of Z" for class. The person in the book had come to the Society to learn information about the missing explorer.

On the way to the National Maritime Museum, the class went with another class on a boat ride to get to Greenwich. We had to walk through the University to get to the museum and the university was breathtaking. There was even a woman doing a wine commercial there.

The sitdown at the museum was great I loved that the tour giver used a powerpoint to keep us engaged. Behind the tour giver in a case were beautiful replicas of ships. Inside the library where our tour was given, there was a whole section of books on the Slave Trade. The storage for the library is on 2 floors which allows for better access. The library has curators of ship plans. They have a large rare book collection starting during the 14th century. The library has chart tables to look at charts. The library also has multiple subscriptions to use for genealogy research. It has about 750 different collections and 80,000 charts.

5,000 visitors are at the site every year. They do not use Dewey in this library. There are about 1000 painted atlases.

I love that part of the wall is a map.

 Inside the museum was displayed dinnerware used on cruise ships.

I wound up getting a couple of books on the Slave Trade from the bookstore there.


More Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Q65qHjKmahXcCoQL7

https://www.rmg.co.uk/national-maritime-museum

Barbican Library

The Barbican Library consists of the main library, the Music Library, and the Children's Library. The library as a whole is located in the Barbican Center.

The design of all three libraries was amazing. And the main library has a section for baby strollers to be parked.

The children's library has books hanging from the ceiling which makes it very inviting along with all of the toys and bright colors. The books are arranged into age order all the way up to tweens. The teens are just outside the door in the main library.

The main library had many different sections of books such as both World Wars, American History, Finance, and then the different types of fiction books. Thriller, Romance, Action, etc.

I am doing my paper for this class on the Barbican Music Library.

The Barbican Music Library is one of the 4 music libraries in London. Its collection consists of almost 16,000 music scores as well as books on both music and musicians. The library also has over 16,000 CDs and DVDs that cover all genres. It also has over 100 e-books that can be downloaded. They also use online resources that consist of: Oxford Music Online, Proquest: Music Periodicals Database, Naxos Music and Video Library and the Barbican Song Index. The library has Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram accounts.

The music library has 2 pianos which can be booked to use up to an hour a day with the use of headphones. The library has had over 16 exhibitions. The one displayed while we were there was "It's (not) only Rock 'n' Roll - the Music Photography of Mark Allen.


Ending Thoughts: I absolutely loved the Barbican Library mainly the children's and music library and hope to one day return.


For more Pictures: https://photos.app.goo.gl/nYKGWDsryUQ8ReRF8

https://www.barbican.org.uk/your-visit/during-your-visit/library

Winchester Cathedral

Winchester Cathedral. AMAZING!

The famed writer of Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen is buried in this church.

With its beautiful architecture and caskets, this church is breathtaking. The Cathedral is over 1400 years old. There are multiple chapels inside the church. One of the chapels holds 12th and 13th-century wall paintings of the Passion of Christ. There are also mortuary chests in the church that hold bishops, a queen, and some early kings. The West Window of the church was destroyed during the English Civil War and rebuilt using shattered glass found in the church.

Tours can either be self-guided or guided for free.

The Morley Library has the Winchester Bible in it but photography was not allowed.

The Morley Library is a collection of rare books given by Bishop Morley of Winchester. He also gave money for 2 globes. The Winchester Bible has beautiful artwork.

The most amazing thing about this place was that you were walking over a person every step. The people were buried in the church. If they were fancier they got tombs above and in little rooms.


For more information about Winchester Cathedral: https://www.winchester-cathedral.org.uk/

Shakespeare and Stratford-Upon-Avon

WOW, Where to begin...

The ride on the way to Stratford-Upon-Avon was amazing and gorgeous. LOVED IT!!! Rolling hills and green everywhere.

Once we got there myself, Dr. Welsh and Ashley went a got us some hot chocolate. DELICIOUS!! Then we headed to the library. The library was beautifully designed except for one thing.

NO TOILET

After looking around for the bathroom a staff member informed me that they did not have public restrooms. SHOCKING!

I left the library and decided to head to a restaurant where I met up with some classmates, ate and used the bathroom there.

A WOW moment, I was informed that in the town people have to pay to use restrooms unless they go to a place and order food.

After leaving the restaurant I went to a Harry Potter store beautifully named "Alohamora". That is a spell used to unlock doors. The store was amazing I bought 2 notebooks and a blanket. Next, I went to the eternal Christmas store which played Christmas music and sold ornaments.

Although I did not go into Shakespeare's house from the outside it was quite beautiful and you could see the reenactors from the window. The garden was also beautiful and led to the gift shop.

After roaming around for a while it was time to go meet up with the class and go watch the Royal Shakespearean Troupe perform "As you like it". I was not really interested but it was intriguing and beautiful to watch when I understood what was going on.

Ending Thoughts: If I ever decided to live in England that would be a place that I would pick. It is very beautiful and small and just right for me.


Pictures: https://photos.app.goo.gl/sc4D3MCFD7WEUe4e7

https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/visit/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAt_PuBRDcARIsAMNlBdp-ws283esqDu3JnynIxqM5bJvy1ORMT37qpf6IZrv6rT7ZSMw050oaAvFlEALw_wcB

Brighton and King George IV

Brighton is where I and a group of students went for a weekend trip. After taking a while to get from London I and a group of girls went to an American Diner. The food was not the best but I loved the atmosphere, Elvis paraphernalia and Tom and Jerry on the TV. After leaving we met up with the rest of the group to go tour the Brighton Palace or the Royal Pavilion.

Royal Pavilion: No personal pictures of inside, unfortunately. This palace was built as a beach palace for King George IV. After death, King William IV took over with his wife until he died leaving Queen Victoria in charge. She was not a fan of the palace so she sold it to the city of Brighton.

The most amazing thing about the palace was that it served as a hospital during WWI.

A WOW moment, we got to see the bed that King George died in.

After leaving the palace I went to the pier which had an amusement park as well as arcades. While there, I rode a couple of rides and twisted my ankle. YAY!!!



For Further Information on Royal Pavilion: https://brightonmuseums.org.uk/royalpavilion/

Edinburgh Castle and Harry Potter

I do not have a lot to say about the Edinburgh Castle except for that it was a military castle and is huge. They have a cemetery for the dogs that died in the battles. 

The campus that we stayed at while in Edinburgh was a short walk from the hill that hosted the legend of the "Sword in the Stone". Some of the students did the walk I did not because we walked a great distance upstairs to get to the bus to go to the campus. I am glad I did not go because it started to rain while they were making the hike.  

But the day that we went to see the castle I got to have a Harry Potter adventure. The great JK Rowling lives in Edinburgh and wrote the books in a little cafe called the "Elephant House". I went and ate there and got a T-shirt that says, "Elephant House: Birthplace of Harry Potter". 

Around the corner was the famed street which "Diagon Alley" derived from. The Harry Potter store there was amazing. The store was designed to look like "Flourish and Blotts" from the series. Other shops on the street also had spooky themes to them.

I made multiple plans to do things in Edinburgh such as go to the Loch Ness lake, go to the zoo, and do a haunted underground tour. But, I got sick and could barely move.

A LOL moment I guess. On the way back to the campus the girl that was with me got on the wrong bus and had to go back to where we picked up and start all over again. It was ok though I had my music.

Ending Thoughts: All in All it would have been better if I had not gotten sick. Would love to have been able to explore more. But I can always go back one day.

https://www.edinburghcastle.scot/

National Art Library - Victoria and Albert Museum

The National Art Library has about a million books in its collection. The coverage of the library's collection goes back to the 17th century.  The most patrons that they have are students doing research. They have many pieces of books turned into different items, book art. They have 5000 items of book art. And certain items are created for the pieces.

The library is open five days a week closed to the public on Sundays and Mondays. The online collection has the entire collection on it. The library has 17 different storage areas. WOW. From the time a patron asks for a book it only takes about an hour and a half for a book to be retrieved. Periodicals are asked for a lot so they are closer to the reading room. They want to make the periodicals only online, which I think is a great idea. There are about 11,000 titles of periodicals. This library shelves by height like the British Library. A collection was lost recently because of horrible leaks.

The library's children's books are located at the Blythe House.

The National Art Library Archives collection has Charles Dickens manuscripts. They also have different versions of his books. They have 5 notebooks of Da Vinci's and 4 of Shakespeare's first folios. John Reed gave the library his collection of calligraphy.


The library specializes in the history of the book. It has lots of letters of artists and royalty to study handwriting.

The Great Exhibition of 1851 was on the second floor of the library. They have a collection of the exhibition.

The third-floor ceiling is glass painted over.

They have special collections exhibits that rotate every 9-12 months.



Lasting Thoughts: I would love to go back and finish looking at all of the amazing things. I did not spend a lot of time there but they seem almost as amazing as the British Museum.

More Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/be8N8DiTwy54JQV79

https://www.vam.ac.uk/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAt_PuBRDcARIsAMNlBdqhr_gTpBA5oh9jHW0Aj1zoljrgcZ1A0QEhlJxH6eza3ypO-U4s-ZYaAs18EALw_wcB

British Museum

Ever since watching the Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb I have wanted to go to the British Museum.

The British Museum is a museum of the wonders of the world. Our tour took us to the current room where the Archives are held. This room used to be the reading room. It was also a public library from 2000 to 2004. It is now closed to the public as the archives room. It was said that this room had rats. THANK GOODNESS we did not see any!! The archives were moved into this room because the previous room had mold. Each section of the reading room has individually made shelves. Nothing in either the British Museum or the archives are cataloged. Which Sounds Scary. The tour guides explained that they were starting the process of cataloging.

The first meeting to discuss the museum as in where to put it was in a pub. Brits love their drinks!

A whole section of shelves was dedicated to minutes that discussed who was going on vacation and who was getting fired.
The tour guide said they were a museum first and archives second. That's why things are not stored properly. But I feel that you can not really have a good museum without the archives.
At the time of the London fire, they did not have provisions in place against fire.
When the museum was still in its early days, people had to get separate tickets for the gardens and the museum. The museum was seriously damaged in WW2. We saw multiple pictures of damages to the museum during the war. We were also shown a list of items stolen from the museum.

A WOW, Moment!!!  As late as 1989 the Rosetta Stone was left out without being encased. Also in the archives laid the Magna Carta.

Another WOW, MOMENT!!! Lenin, Marx, Conan Doyle, and Oscar Wilde used this room when it was a reading room. Wilde was barred from using the reading room after being prosecuted for his homosexuality.

The British Library and the museum were together until the 1990s. The reading room has secret doors that look like bookshelves.

A LOL, MOMENT!!! Glasses were found in a roman casket in 1890. Someone had opened the casket dropped their glasses and closed it back up.

Ending thoughts of the British Museum Tour. I can not wait to go back and see the rest of the museum too much to see in just a day.

After the guided tour, I went and did a small tour myself. I knew that there were tons of Egyptian Sarcophagi so I decided to go to the Egyptian section. Apart from having lots of sarcophagi the section had jewels, different types of writings, and lots of pottery. There were also broken pieces of Christ statues. As well as different articles of clothing from different countries and different times. The most amazing item that I saw in the Egyptian section of the museum was the Gebelein man. He is known as the "most well-preserved man". 

Link to more British Museum Pics: https://photos.app.goo.gl/WxNTPAwXzxRvpe5m8

https://www.britishmuseum.org/