Another Ending

Due to a series of unfortunate events...we had a little trouble getting home...mainly, we missed our flight...but to distract from that horrid memory are a few pictures of the beautiful cityscape. Also, we were able to see Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre which was amazing!!

Clapham With Jenny

 On Jan 2nd, we ended up in Clapham in the afternoon where Jenny greeted us with open arms. She is very tired as she spent Christmas in Atlanta, GA with her mum’s family and New Years in Madrid with friends, but is putting us up anyways. We chatted for a bit learning the news, then walked to Clapham commons. It’s been a lovely day outside but was getting colder so after a nice walk, we went shopping at Seinsbury’s where Lara and I stocked up on Cadbury’s chocolate to take home. We met one of her housemates Sam and talked in the living room until Jenny fixed us lentil lasagna for dinner. We came back to Jenny’s to warm up and put on some dry clothes as we rested and watched Downton Abby, a television series.

On Jan 3rd, we went to King’s Cross and asked several workers as we searched for platform 9 & ¾ as referred to in the Harry Potter series. We finally found it, nowhere near platform 9 and Lara desperately needed her picture taken with the set up. Then we went to Starbucks for a cup of coffee and to the British Library. It is huge! The books are stored in a glass “tower” which mechanically calls for the shelves and they run along a trolley line. We didn’t go into their temporary exhibit of royal manuscripts (because it cost) but we did explore their permanent collection of historical documents which include Some highlights were two copies of the Magna Carta (1215), a Gutenburg Bible (1454), Map of the British Isles (1546), scores from Henry Purcell (1680), Handel’s Messiah (1781), Codex Sinaiticus (300s), Illuminated copy of the gospels (995), Japanese:Lotus Sutra (1280), Golden Haggadah from Spain (1320s), Romeo and Juliet (1753), numerous Eastern sacred texts, and some of the first copies of King James official translations of the Bible to English (celebrating its 400^th birthday). Next, we traveled to Oxford Street where we took in a few of the shops, getting a few nice things though the weather was absolutely horrid and we got drenched more than once and nearly blown away!

To Ickenham

We got around and went back to Jo’s house where her mum had prepared us a lovely and filling meal. After hanging out there a bit we said bye to her parents and Alex as we headed back to Liverpool. We were planning to catch the 15:49 train to Euston since that was cheaper than going all the way to King’s Cross but when I went to purchase the tickets, the guy told me we could get on the Midland train in 5 minutes that would leave sooner and take over an hour longer but was way cheaper (£64 compared to £25) so I sprinted back to Jo’s car, said our quick goodbyes, and we walked very quickly to the platform.  From Euston we got on the underground to Ickenham where Leah picked us up. The house she has with her friend is “well good” (as Leah would put it). She made us toast with beans while we talked, getting caught up on each other’s lives.