Day 13: Treasures, Gardens, and Rock

Tuesday morning was a bit drizzly and overcast--London weather as usual, right? A few friends and I used our free morning to head over to the Lambeth Palace Library just west along the Thames from our flats. Still the London home to Archbishops of Canterbury, Lambeth Palace has long made its library collections available to members of the public who might require information held within their many resources. In celebration of their 400th anniversary, the Library also is putting on a great exhibition of some of its most treasured items. Well worth seeing.

Just next door to the library exhibit and housed in a church on the Lambeth Palace property is the Garden Museum, a lovely little space dedicated to that very English tradition of gardening. I got to see an interesting exhibit on Christopher Lloyd, a famous English garden writer and apparently a really lovely man. There were also some interesting cases on older gardening instruments and some gorgeous botanical photos. I was also pleased as punch that the gift shop offered a book on the history of garden gnomes.

After lunch, our whole library group trekked up to St. James's Square to tour the London Library. Oh, how I would love to be a member if I lived in London! I felt as though I could explore that library for days and not tire of it. (Although, with the library having over 15 miles of shelving, I probably would tire a bit.)

Errands made up the post-library tour time, at which point we returned briefly to the flats for a quick dinner before heading out again to see We Will Rock You, the Queen musical. While I did enjoy most of the music and the show did get better as it progressed, I honestly wasn't that impressed with it. Maybe it's just that I'm not the hugest Queen fan, or maybe it's that I prefer more traditional musicals, or maybe it's that I didn't think the post-apocalyptic storyline they wrote to go with the music really worked, but I don't have the same raving reviews for the performance that others seem to. I did enjoy myself overall, however, and after two great library visits during the day, a girl can't really ask more than that.