They don’t allow you to take photos of the inside, but the architecture is amazing. Basically, this is a place of worship while simultaneously housing the bodies of many prominent figures in English history. Really weird to think about while you’re standing on the tombs, but still quite beautiful.

For my birthday, my friend and I went to visit the Warner Brothers Studio in London to see the set of all of the Harry Potter films. It. Was. Amazing. Here is a bunch of photos. You kind of either get it or you don’t.

During the mini-break, my friend and I visited Paris, France. We were only there for a day and a half, but it was lovely. The weather couldn’t have been better, and I finally got to see the Sacre-Coeur. It was definitely not a horrible way to spend a couple of days off.

On the 19th we visited the Middle Temple Law Library, which was founded in 1641. He deposited his collection of law works at the library and then didn’t actually open until after the English Civil War, in the 1680s. The main membership of the library is working bar members. There are around 50,000 titles with over 500,000 volumes. They have to keep replenishing their works because of updates and changes. Here is their website if you’d like to learn more.

You may or may not have heard of this place, but it is where people from all over the UK worked together to break German codes during World War II. Alan Turing worked here (along with hundreds of other people) to help create machines used to unlock the German Enigma Machine. It was incredible to be able to see these different machines!

We also got to explore the Park itself, which includes many different “huts” where the work was done. It was fascinating to be taken basically back in time to see these sites. Here is the link to their website! Check it out. Very neat.

Brighton is a little city on the lower coast of Britain. It was a long bus ride to get there, but it turned out to be a fantastic day, and we got to explore and see the ocean!

We also went to the Royal Pavilion, which is where King George IV lived for a lot of his life. It’s also where Victoria and Albert lived when on vacation. It was absolutely gorgeous! All in all, not a terrible way to spend a Saturday.

The Maritime Museum is in Greenwich (weirdly pronounced “grenich”) and was originally opened in 1937. The library and archive opened at the same time in order to store the materials. The library is mostly used for naval research, usually when people ask about their ancestry. A lot of people from the UK have ancestors from the military, so this is really helpful for them.

There are 4 main collections at the Maritime Museum library:
– Manuscripts and original documents
– Printed material
– Atlases, maps, and charts
– Electronic resources

The collections occupy about 12 kilometers (or 7.5 miles) of space. Some of the artifacts we got to see included a map of the world created by Ptolemy in the year 1482 and the Certificate of Competency for the captain of the Titanic. Here is the link to their website! Lots of cool stuff!

On the 13th we visited the actual V&A site. First we saw some of their famous works, including a first folio of Shakespeare’s work from 1632, a first edition copy of the History of British Birds, and a book from 1947 that was illustrated by Picasso.

The V&A also has the largest collection of book arts in the UK. Book art is basically just when people write books in a different physical style. The example we saw was a book written in sections, folded to look like little triangles. It was quite interesting!

We also got to see the actual library. The library has the same hours as the museum, and can be accessed by the general public. There are a lot of pieces of art that are accessible on other sites (the V&A has 17 storage locations in total). All in all, the library was very interesting and cool! Here is their website.

The 12th involved visiting King’s College, which began as a chapel and evolved into a sort of archive for the city of London and England itself. The architecture of the building is just beautiful (see below) and we were able to see some amazing works dating from way back in the 17th century.

King’s College was an amazing experience on our trip. Here is their website if you’re interested in learning more.