London - Day Three! (Last Day...sad)

We started the day at the Tower of London/Tower Bridge again in hopes to get a little further in...unfortunately, we couldn't get anywhere without paying the 15 pounds. I was pretty much out of money except for transportation, food, and my London souvenir, so we ended up not going. Next time! But we did get some great pictures:






We went to Starbucks so I could get my souvenirs...I found these Demitasse cups for fairly inexpensive in Madrid, and I was hoping I could find them in every big city...since I found them in London, I decided to purchase them, and hopefully I can get them in Paris and Rome as well. It's just two small versions of their big mugs, one has the city name on it (London, Madrid), and the other has the country (England, Spain). I just thought they'd be a little classier than keychains or shot glasses. I just wanted something I could display that wouldn't be too much of a hassle to bring back.



I then went off on my own in hunt of the Abbey Road Crossing. Not terribly exciting, but glad I did it.
Me in front of the crossing with the picture of the album cover:


Street sign:


I'm pretty sure this is the recording studio, but I wasn't 100% sure:


Just the crossing:


Saw this on the underground and thought Emily would appreciate...it's huge in London!


So I got everything checked off on my checklist...what was I to do now? How about hunt down the British Library to see the Magna Carta?
Thought I had seen the British Library around Westminster, so I headed back there:




Nope. My bad. So I walked to Trafalgar Square to hop on the metro to go to KING'S CROSS STATION (which is where my map said the library was, so two birds with one stone, nooo??)!!!!!!!!!!!





King's Cross Station! Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out how to get to Platform 9 3/4 without buying a ticket, especially since the station was completely being constructed, but at least I took a couple pictures:




The British Library:

(I ate this for lunch...some sort of pork sausage pie)


Ok, so I was like, I'll go in and see the Magna Carta, woooo, then I'll have to figure out something else to do with my time.
Pretty much ended up being in my top three favorite things I ended up doing.
Not because of the Magna Carta (no offense), although that was cool, but because of all the other amAZING things they had! Unfortunately, I could not take pictures, so I started writing them down (and then I double checked the website), the things I thought were AWESOME:
-The original Gutenberg Bible
-Original Aesop's Fables
-Magna Carta (whole room dedicated to it)
-Charles Darwin "Evolution of Species" letter
-Captain Scott's South Pole diaries and accounts
-Henry VIII's Prayer Roll
-Original writings from Jane Austen, Oscar Wilde, Joseph Conrad, Virgina Woolf, Thomas Hardy, Harold Pinter, and Lewis Carroll
-Original Beuwolf
-A whole collection, including some of the original, of different versions of Alice in Wonderland, including some of Salvador Dali's illustrations
-Jane Austen's writing desk
-Some original Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Ben Johnson
-Beethoven's tuning fork
-Original Wedding March
-Mozart's Wedding Contract and a horn concerto

AND MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE:
-The Original Copy of Handel's Messiah, with cross outs and word changes and everything.

Coming in close second is:
-The Beatle Exhibit (found the lyrics PLUS SOME!)
Various Memorabilia plus handwritten lyrics to
-Help!
-Ticket to Ride
-I Remember a Time when Everyone
-Michelle
-Hard Day's Night (in a birthday card)
-I Wanna Hold Your Hand ♥

SO FREAKING AWESOME. The Messiah was really REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY cool, because all I could think about was how he was like HEARING THE MUSIC and writing it all down on that book that was RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. So awesome. So glad I went pretty out of my way to hunt down the Magna Carta only to stumble across awesomeness.

Went back to Covent Garden to hopefully be there during functioning hours so I could hopefully find a flower girl. All I found was this:

But it was called:


Then I met up with Kelly and Kristen at the London Museum:


This dress was ridiculous:


This hat was a pirate ship:


And this "walk through a victorian London" reminded me ridiculously of Lynden's Pioneer Museum. Creepily.


And after the museum, we ended our trip with some traditional ale and fish and chips.


Then we went back to the hostel, packed, and made our way to the airport to crash overnight and then be on the plane early this morning.

After a terrifying near death experience (THE PLANE WAS BEING BLOWN BY THE WIND IN THE AIR ON OUR DESCENT...some poor little kid was screaming "I don't like this airplane!" the whole time we were heading down (his lovely sister responded, "I don't like you", but I was with the kid)), all is well, and I am back in Madrid.

So after that weekend, I know I would have liked London better. It would have been a better fit for me, and I think overall it would have been more comfortable. But I wouldn't have been able to finish my Spanish degree, and being in Spain definitely puts me out of my comfort zone. So it was the right choice. But I loved visiting London and I cannot WAIT to go back. Maybe even live there for a year when I have a family 20 years down the road? That'd be cool.