Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese

I successfully made it to curiosity number 5 on my “must-visit” list- Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese! As I mentioned yesterday, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese is located on Fleet Street and was a favorite haunt of Charles Dickens. The current pub was rebuilt in 1667, but the pub originally dates back many years before that. The pub had several different bars and rooms and I got a beer at the bar and sat in the basement with some friends. I pictured myself chatting with Charles Dickens, giving him advice writing advice. Rumor has it that Samuel Johnson also wrote parts of his dictionary at Ye Old Cheshire Cheese.

At the recommendation of my professor Jane, I tried two excellent beers from a British brewery called Samuel Smith. I LOVED the pub and would definitely like to visit other pubs (since it’s a cultural British thing to do).

We also visited the British Library today, which was absolutely amazing. They had an exhibition hall filled with amazing books and manuscripts including the Magna Carta, original journals from DaVinci, and a Gutenberg Bible.  Typically, an original illustrated version of the book Alice’s Adventures Underground, by Lewis Carroll (the predecessor to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland) is on display but according to the staff she is currently “resting”, or taking a break from display. I was a little heart broken, but I did get to page through a digital version of the original, which was also neat.

Our photography theme for the class today was “think differently”. I saw a really cool art exhibit in the lobby of the library. Instead of taking a picture head-on, I shot the photo from a unique perspective.

Finally, we went to Platform 9 ¾. We waited an hour to take pictures but it was worth it!