7/5/16, British Library and Paris
Like my other visits, I am a little sad to leave London. There is never enough time to take in and savor this city. I am however, not sad about leaving our apartment. I will not miss lugging Olivia up and down the six flight of stairs. I have to admit though, my endurance did improve and this will be evidence in an upcoming story.
After packing and cleaning up, we left the apartment and had a late breakfast in front of a cafe at the ground floor of our building. Janine enjoyed the European take on waffles, which is sweeter and more dessert like than the American faire. I had the restaurants Continental Breakfast that came with fruit, yogurt, and a couple of pastries served on a tiered tea tray. Olivia shared off both of our plates.
After breakfast, I loaded up all of our gear like a pack mule and hauled it to the Tottenham Court Station en route to St. Pancras station where Eurostar departs. It definitely felt like a feat of strength moving through crowds with two heavy pieces of luggage. Once we arrived to St. Pancras we left our luggage at a storage shop for a small fee and hopped on over to the neighboring British Library.
British Library
(Photo: Wikipedia)
The British Library was the final destination for many of the books and works that were moved from the British Museum’s reading room. The British Library hosts many of the country's literary treasures and puts some of them on display for visitors. This is not a normal library in a traditional sense, think of the British Library the same as the National Archives.
Patrons who would like to look at works for research must register and reserve an item in a designated reading room. Upon arrival, all backpacks and marking items (pens, highlighters, etc) are checked in and the patron is given a clear plastic bag to hold their laptop and other acceptable belongings. This is all done to protect the integrity of the works as well as prevent theft.
Treasures Gallery
Non-researchers flock to the library for their Treasures Gallery. This room holds many of Britain’s notable literary treasures. Photos were not allowed in the exhibits, so the following pictures will be borrowed from the web.
(Photo: British Library)
The collection consists of various books, maps, and letters from around the world. Some notable items for me were the Gutenberg Bible, Oldest known copy of Beowulf, and personal letters by famous Brits.
Guttenberg Bible (1454-55)
This wasn’t the first or second time I have seen the Gutenberg Bible, but I enjoy my encounter with the book each time. There is a chill that goes down my spine knowing the significance of this book not just for Christendom, but Western Civilization. The Gutenberg Bible (1454-55) was the first major book published using a printing press. Prior to this time Bibles and other books had to be made by hand, thus making them prohibitively expensive for the common person to enjoy. With the introduction of the printing press, the Bible and other works were made cheaper for anyone to grab a copy and study for themselves. The ease of access and mass producing of knowledge helped propel Europe from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance and allowed people to further question the world around them.
Beowulf Manuscript (Story: 700-1000 CE, Manuscript: 975-1010 CE)
(Source: Wikipedia)
The oldest copy of Beowulf has a place in my heart more so from my college years then for teaching purposes. Beowulf is an old English epic poem telling the story of the namesakes’ heroic feats of defeating three different monsters. The copy displayed in the library is the oldest known manuscript and is shown singed and re-mounted on pages from a fire in 1731. Due to technological limitations of the time, well intentioned efforts of restoring the manuscript made further permanent damage to the copy. This book has significance for me because I had to study this epic for two different classes while in college. I spent a lot of time studying and getting to know this work (using the Seamus Heaney version, of course) and trying to connect it to the life of an englishman during the Anglo-Saxon invasion. On a personal level, Beowulf is an inside joke between my wife and I as an awesome name for our first child. I lost this battle, but I have high hopes for number two.
Famous Letters
There were various personal letters on display from various famous Brits. One from Henry VIII enquiring about the divorcing process to one of his wives. Another from Admiral Horatio Nelson with the last unfinished letter to his wife. These primary sources represent not only major movers and shakers of their time, but how they reacted to the major events going on around them. At face value, a lot of it is mundane discussion, but reading in between the lines and the Nelson’s ominous “we heard of the French gathering near Trafalgar.” Turns a simple letter home into a treasured document.
Unfortunately, the most notable item was not on display since they were “resting” it, the Magna Carta (1215). I have seen it before, but I was a little upset that it wasn’t on display. Last year there was a celebration for the Magna Carta’s 800 year anniversary with a lot of new material exploring the significance of the document. With all the fun last year, it was best to let document rest from public view for a year. Maybe next time.
By this point Olivia had long since been awake and we were taking turns watching her while the other explores the documents. Before leaving the library we made a pit stop at their latest pop-up exhibit on Punk Rock:
The exhibit featured various photos, artifacts, and listening stations of various bands who founded early punk rock. The exhibit primarily featured the Sex Pistols, without diving much further into their historical context. I am not a huge fan of punk, but I was hoping for a better story to be told beyond the explanation of some memorabilia.
Train to Paris
We left the British Library and walked back the short distance to St Pancras station for our train. We stopped by the station’s Marks & Spencers to pick up some lunch items and grabbed our bags from the luggage holding shop. We wasted a few minutes waiting in front the baby changing room for a woman who did not have a baby, but prefered not to wait in line. Knowing we had a train to catch, we left but not after giving a strong passive aggressive knock on the door. That’ll show her.
We made our rush for the train platform. This is when things get hectic and confusing. It’s usually at this point Janine and begin to have arguments about where signs are and what they mean. We figure out where the departure entrance is and begin the screening process. We are split up two different sides of the screening lines and rushed through. I emptied my pockets of all my gadgets and gizmos (Pebble Time watch, 2 iPhones, and a Fitbit One) and put my backpack through scanner. I picked up my backpack on the other side and met up with Janine. Our journey through border control was pretty smooth and we ended up on the platform in front of our train. In a sigh of relief I lifted up my wrist to see how much time we had to spared and realized it was still missing. Oh, s**t! It’s not there. I immediately check my pockets for my iPhone, gone too. I left my stuff at the security gate! I told Janine to stay there and I bolted for the nearest exit, which was at the end of the platform a reasonable distance away. I heard her behind me in the distance “No matter what, we won’t board this train!” I was in flight or fight mode and had a singular direction, but as I was running the fastest I had in awhile (should thank the daily six story climb!) I didn’t think of the consequences of running like a madman through a security controlled platform. As I was dashing down the long escalator ramp reality began to return and I heard a voice from behind me scream “Oy! What are you doing!? You can’t go down there!” and I stopped. I then began my slow awkward jog in the reverse direction of an escalator passing by the angry platform agent standing above me and meeting a nice attendant waiting for me at the top wondering what I needed. I tried to defuse the situation with a corny joke “running on this is like going to the gym!” Don’t think it worked. I explained to her my situation and she said, “oh! You should have just asked us.” we then walked back across the platform near Janine and went down a nearby elevator (felt super foolish by this point). I gave her a detailed explanation of my missing items.
The attendant and I proceeded back through the waiting room, through border control, and let back into security where I saw all my items waiting for me. The fellow at the desk asked me to use my password to open up both phones as confirmation that they were my property and I was then allowed to retrieve the rest of my items. The attendant and I then made our way back to the platform. As we were both standing on what seemed like an extremely slow moving escalator I asked her if I am the only jackass who does this. Thankfully, this is a fairly common occurrence. In fact she told me that people will leave entire bags and even children at the security checkpoint. I met Janine at the top with a few minutes to spare before the train departed. We got on the train, found our seats, and sat there for a short time while I caught my breath. The train began to make its way out of the station and we were on our way to France.
We began to unpack our lunches and I drank through most of my water from my previous early afternoon wind sprints. I have to hand it to the Brits, they know how make good potato chips (er, crisps). We sat their quietly munching our meal and observing the other people in the car. We saw the rare American family traveling with a 4 year old and 10 year old. We also overheard the story of a couple next to us that sounded a lot like a mail order bride situation. That dude made at least two grabs for her butt whenever she got up. The train made one stop before crossing the channel where we met the gentleman who would ride with us in our quad chairs. The fellow was very gracious with us and our cranky toddler. He offered to let me move over to the spare seat on his side to spare us from dealing with a lap child. We spent some time chatting about his work in IT and how he uses this train often to meet with clients in France and Belgium. He believed that his services are a lot more effective when working face to face with clients whom English is their second language.
The train pulled into Paris and took a cab to our new AirBnB on the left bank. Janine and I were overjoyed to see that this place had an elevator. Our dinner consisted of frozen pizza and a salad from a small store across the street from us.
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| Our host greeted us with a bottle of wine |
After putting Olivia down for the night we discussed tomorrow’s plans and read about how the palace of Versailles wouldn’t allow for strollers through the house. This would make life very miserable and loose any meaningful value from that visit. Despire the fact the gardens would allows strollers, we agreed that Versailles wouldn’t be a viable option and tomorrow. As a consolation, we finished the night off with me showing Janine various 360 interactive panoramas of Versailles on a projector in our bedroom.
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