Lexi's Adventures: London: Day Four: Twinings Shop, Hunterian Museum, Museum of London with Sherlock Holmes Exhibit, and Jack The Ripper Walking Tour

Today was a very eventful day as you can tell from the title. I was busy from 9 this morning until 9 this evening. It was a fun day though, overall. I got to see a lot and I am starting to become much more comfortable with public transport. I rode on one of the buses today and also managed to navigate myself through the tube somewhat well. I would say that it was a successful day overall.

I started my day off pretty early by taking a trip down to the Strand and visiting the Twinings tea shop that they have there. It had so many different types of amazing smelling tea (and I'm not even a big tea person). Also in the back was a lot of different historical items from the lengthy history of Twinings (they've been around since 1708 and started in a coffee shop). I also learned that Twinings is the official tea of the Queen. Pretty amazing, huh? I also sampled some of their teas and just grinned and beared it because I was in it for the experience and not the taste.

The Royal Courts of Justice were directly across the street from Twinings and it was absolutely massive! The facade alone was sprawling. I couldn't believe the size. As we walked around the side of the building, we could see that it was even longer than it looked. These courts are massive. Not to mention, the building is just absolutely beautiful. Lots of pictures below of it.

We then walked to the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. The place was also fairly large and we could have spent more time in there. No photography was allowed but I'm not sure I would have taken many photos. The place reeked of formaldehyde from the many, many jars full of preserved creatures and cut open creatures. By far the most disturbing to see was a fetus that was jarred and cut open to see it's intestinal tract. This is from Hunterian times so late 1700's? These are really old specimens and I'm guessing came from a man who was very curious about anatomy. It was fascinating but disgusting at the same time. Free admission though.

Next was perhaps the highlight of my day. We went to the Museum of London, which would have been cool on its own, but it had a Sherlock Holmes exhibit going on. If you know me, you know that I really like Sherlock Holmes. This exhibit was rich in both Sherlock Holmes history as well as London history. They framed a lot of the fictional happenings of Sherlock with what was actually going on in London around that time. There was just so much to see and I could have spent hours in that exhibit alone. I tried to take lots of pictures, even accidentally taking pictures of stuff I wasn't supposed to and didn't realize until afterwards. Oops! I wish that everyone else would have had the same appreciation that I did. I had to secretly maintain my glee at what I was seeing.

I walked around the rest of the museum as well. I took a walk through what Victorian London would have looked like, which always intrigues me. As well as looking at the vast history that London has had since 43 AD (yes, you read that right). I have also always had an interest in the plague, so it was really interesting to me to see the areas of the exhibits that went over the two plagues that struck London in the 1300's and 1600's as well as seeing about the Great Fire of London in 1666 that wiped about about 4/5 of the city then. As I was told, the London that Shakespeare knew does not exist anymore. I got so many awesome souvenirs from the shop there and I love it all!

We went to a pub for a little bit while we waited for our Jack the Ripper walking tour to begin. I decided that I am not a pub girl, but it was a nice, relaxed environment to pass the time in. Not at all high energy, which is how I prefer it. The tube was stressful a bit for me. It was much busier at that time of night and there were a lot of people. I just had to maintain my calm with how many people were surrounding me and moving all around me. That's the worst it has been.

The Jack the Ripper tour was quite interesting. It was not at all what I expected it to be, even though I am not sure what my expectations had been. I didn't take into account that a lot of the buildings that were around in 1888 during the times of the murders would not be there presently, due to the WWII and the bombings of London as well as expansion that has seen old buildings knocked down and more buildings put up. However, our guide told me a lot of details that I had not previously been aware of. He, of course, went over the victims and where and how they were found. He also went a lot into the people who facing some turmoil during that time and some social unrest that was occurring during this time. He did not want to focus on WHO did the killings, although he did give his three suggestions (believing that more than one person committed the crimes, which was a very compelling argument) and he wanted to focus more on why the government was not releasing information and why they were covering it up. I was actually really intrigued by his story, and will tell you about it if you want, but I think I am going to pick up a few Jack the Ripper books while I'm here and read up on the evidence that could possibly point to these individuals and ultimately why not identifying the killer(s) benefits the monarchy.

Overall, it was a successful day, if not cold and rainy early in the day. I really enjoyed my day, especially the museum and the walking tour. Both of the topics were of interest to me, because 1) Sherlock Holmes, no explanation needed, and 2) serial killers, again no explanation needed if you know me.

Tomorrow is a long day. We are going out to Canterbury and Rochester by coach (bus) and seeing those towns as well as visiting the Canterbury Cathedral and the Rochester Guildhall Museum. See you tomorrow!