Day 13:  On our final day in London, we decided to go to the  BritishLibrary and then to the Tate again to see a special watercolor exhibit byThomas Girtin.



On the way to British Library, we saw the Midland Grand Hotel, built in 1874 and now being remodeled. It will reopen in a couple of years as a Hilton.  



At the British Library we saw the Lindesfarne Gospels, written and illuminated about 698.



We also saw a copy of  the Gutenberg Bible, the first to be printed with moveable metal type in 1455.



Some pages of Leonardo Da Vinci were also on display as well as many other items of interest:  the Magna Carta, the oldest complete Bible (the Codex Sinaiticus of 350 AD),  some papyrus fragments, a  1410 copy of Canterbury Tales, the original  hand written "Alice in Wonderland", and a Handel manuscript of the oratorio Messiah.  There was also a room on papermaking, printing and bookbinding and a virtual reality room which had computer screen where the reader can "turn the pages" of different manuscripts.  The three pictures above came from their website  www.bl.uk .





We couldn't resist stopping at King's Cross Station, where they filmed the  children in the Harry Potter stories leaving for Hogwart.  Of course there wasn't a Track 9 3/4 and this is as close to that as we could find.  



We then went  to the Tate Britain Museum where we saw a special exhibit of Thomas Girtin watercolors and drawings.  The one above, from their website, www.tate.org.uk, is titled "White House at Chelsea" and was done about 1800.  Besides a wide variety of  Girtin's paintings, there were many displays about the papers, color, brushes, and techniques he used. 

    

After all of our activities of the 13 days in London, we had to have one last English beer at the pub near our hotel.

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