St. Paul's Cathedral & Barbican Library

Barbican's futuristic book scanner!

Today's photography focus was, think differently, or what I call choose you own adventure! I must say that the Barbican Library was amazing. I had such a great time looking at all of their collections and they had so much to offer the public!!! We got a wonderful and in-depth tour from two of the main librarians of so many of their different wings. Their music library has 2 pianos which  patrons can reserve and practice with headphones! (I took a picture of the West Side Story musical score from the 1960s for my mom, on her birthday today.) The childrens library was so neat, it was decorated with all space and astronomy-related things (making me think of my mother-in-law.) I was floored when I found out that England pays for every child to get three sets of books at different ages in order to propel their development! I guess with this running theme you could say that the Barbican is the "mother" of London libraries! Next, we visited St. Paul's Cathedral and there was no photography allowed inside, so I had to just make due with my pictures of the outside of the cathedral.

Here we had a wonderful tour guide, John Wilson, and his enthusiasm and knowledge enhanced the tour sevenfold. There were so many wonderful pieces of history, and among the many interesting things I learned today was that Henry VIII confiscated the Westminster Abbey (AKA the Collegiate Church of St. Peter) property and monies to fund the rebuilding Saint Paul's Cathedral in London. Hence, the expression "robbing Peter to pay Paul." The Cathedral also houses a WWII memorial for the Americans who lost their lives fighting against the Nazi oppression. Down in the crypt of the Cathedral, we saw the architect of the building, Sir Christopher Wren's grave, Sir Winston Churchill's memorial and so many other important figures, including that of Florence Nightingale. She really "thought differently" in her attempts to stem the amount of communicable diseases that soldiers were dying from which were not actually war-related wounds. Her insistence on cleanliness and giving the soldier wine to lift their spirits helped to heal the physical and  psychological pains of the soldiers. I thought her tenacity was amazing, and was not surprised to find that  Nightingale had a May birthday, giving her that Taurean determination of which I have spoken about in my other blogs. Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington, also another May birthday, renowned as the man who lead to campaign which defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Warterloo had his  memorial and grave in the crypt, too. When we finished our tour of the crypts, I stayed behind to see the Anglican Evensong, which is held daily. The sounds of the boys choir ringing through the enormous Cathedral was breathtaking. It truly  gave an introspective conclusion to an enlightening day.

Happy B-day Mom!