The British Library was the first stop on our itinerary. Contained inside this building were things more beautiful to me then the Crown Jewels at the Tower and the sunsets in my hometown. Shakespeare and The Beatles waited for me inside the Library. On display at this time as well was Jack Kerouac's 120 foot tracing paper manuscript for On the Road. It was in a long glass case of about 10 feet allowing the viewer to run their hand along the words as if to absorb the power of them. A writer faced with some of the greatest words ever placed to paper...I was in heaven, pure and simple.
british museum
After the Library we traveled to the British Museum where all the wonders of the world seem to live. Statues of Rameses the Great, the Rosetta Stone, the Elgin Marbles, Celtic and Iceni jewelry all on display for everyone to enjoy. It was like Disneyland for nerds. Besides the Egyptian wing (I always wanted to be Indiana Jones when I was a kid) my favorite piece was a sculpture in the Africa wing called The Tree of Life. It is made entirely of decommissioned weapons from the Mozambican War. Art created from destruction. I spent three and a half hours in the museum and barely scratched the surface of all its treasures. There is so much to see. I headed back to the hotel to change for the farewell dinner with all my new friends.