London, Day Two

Day Two in London was absolutely jam-packed. Many thanks to Paddy for being a wonderful tour guide, and saving my life from oncoming traffic on the wrong side of the road approximately twenty times.

We started off the day at the British Museum, where I (incorrectly) thought that Shakespeare’s First Folio was housed. But hey, we were there, right? So we checked out the Rosetta Stone. I really liked the exhibit on Native Americans too.

Next stop was the British Library, to see Shakespeare’s First Folio(!!!). There are no real manuscripts of Shakespeare in existence today, but the First Folio is a collection of 36 of his plays that were published in 1623. I was beyond excited- and this was even before we got to the room with the Magna Carta. We also were able to see original lyric sheets written by some guys you may have heard of, John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

Continuing in the vein of Shakespeare, we headed to Shakespeare’s Globe, a reconstruction of the original Globe Theatre. This was the highlight of my London trip, hands down. Interestingly, it was the brainchild of the American actor Sam Wanamaker, and was built entirely as it was in Shakespeare’s day (although it does take into account modern fire codes). Our tour guide definitely had me convinced to come back to see a play when they open for shows in the spring.