Monday- We departed our hotel around 9:30 a.m. and walked to the Lancaster Gate Underground Station. We purchased two more Oyster cards and reloaded the one Crista had given to us. Around 10 a.m. we arrived at the St. Paul's stop and walked around the St. Paul's Cathedral. It was in the low 60s today. We walked across the London Bridge (the Tower Bridge is the one most people picture) towards Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Located a minute's walk from the site of the original, it was rebuilt with painstaking detail. Noah and I took the theatre tour and learned that these days the theatre seats 900 people, 700 standing and umbrellas are not allowed. You must dress for the weather in the open air theatre. In the late 1500s/early 1600s, Shakespeare's comedies and tragedies were performed in daylight by only men. Acting was considered immoral and ungodly. The first theatre was burnt down when a cannon fired in a play, set fire to the roof. Back then, we learned that women could be prostitutes but not actresses. The King of England owned the brothels and would bring in what they called "Winchester Geese" to the plays. The women resembled white geese, dressed in white aprons, white uniforms, and would wave white hankerchiefs to attract the men, from the stage balcony. In that time period, there were two ways to get to the Globe. You either had to hire a rower to get you across the Thames River or you had to walk across the London Bridge, with swarms of people. The south side of the Thames was for fun and considered rubbish. People would come to the south side for fun and entertainment and then go back across the River. Currently, the cheapest ticket is five pounds if you can stand for three hours and they have seats for 15 pounds or shaded seats for 25 pounds in the "gentleman's room." Back then it cost one pence to stand, two pence to sit anywhere else, except for the gentleman's room (shaded private room), which cost six pence. The balcony, as they said, was the best place to be seen and the worst place to catch a scene. Now the musicians sit on the balcony. Heaven, Earth, and Hell are portrayed in all of the plays. To send the audience home in a good mood, even after seeing a tragedy, the actors still come out at the end and dance a gig. They've continued this tradition and they say it works. They are only open five months now and have no understudies. In 2012, in part with the "Cultural Olympics," they will be performing 37 plays in six weeks from 37 languages. Shakespeare wrote 37 plays and they just discovered a 38th, which they are debating. Italy chose to perform Julias Cesar. There will be only two performances of each play with 20 minute intervals (intermissions).
We stood next to the stage while the workers were busy changing over the stage for an early evevning production.
The Tate Modern, Britain's premier modern art museum, was next on our sightseeing adventure. The museum is housed in a gargantuan shell, that was once a power station. Colletions were displayed by theme rather than period. We spent a few hours enjoying work by Dali, Matisse, Warhal, Picasso, Diego Rivera, Mondrian, and David Hockney.
For lunch we grabbed huge salads from Marks & Spencer Foods by St Paul's and ate on the steps of St Paul's. We walked along the waterfront to the Tower Bridge and stopped for a soft-serve ice cream. The HMS Belfast is anchored there for tours. A large cruiser from Brazil was moving down the Thames and the Tower Bridge's drawbridge was up. We walked back to Bank Station to take the tube back to Lancaster Station. Karen wore her Garmin GPS and it said we walked 8.6 miles today (so yesterday was close to 20 miles, non-stop walking, no tube yesterday). There were a lot of police at the Oxford Station, due to the huge volume of people on the tube, heading towards the Nottinghill Carnival. We heard over 50 were arrested the previous night, and over a million people line the parade route each day, in Europe's largest street festival, so we haven't ventured out there yet. We had dinner at the Pride of Paddington Pub. The crowds in the tube reminded me of riding the jam packsubway around Atlanta for the 1996 Olympic Games.
We stood next to the stage while the workers were busy changing over the stage for an early evevning production.
The Tate Modern, Britain's premier modern art museum, was next on our sightseeing adventure. The museum is housed in a gargantuan shell, that was once a power station. Colletions were displayed by theme rather than period. We spent a few hours enjoying work by Dali, Matisse, Warhal, Picasso, Diego Rivera, Mondrian, and David Hockney.
For lunch we grabbed huge salads from Marks & Spencer Foods by St Paul's and ate on the steps of St Paul's. We walked along the waterfront to the Tower Bridge and stopped for a soft-serve ice cream. The HMS Belfast is anchored there for tours. A large cruiser from Brazil was moving down the Thames and the Tower Bridge's drawbridge was up. We walked back to Bank Station to take the tube back to Lancaster Station. Karen wore her Garmin GPS and it said we walked 8.6 miles today (so yesterday was close to 20 miles, non-stop walking, no tube yesterday). There were a lot of police at the Oxford Station, due to the huge volume of people on the tube, heading towards the Nottinghill Carnival. We heard over 50 were arrested the previous night, and over a million people line the parade route each day, in Europe's largest street festival, so we haven't ventured out there yet. We had dinner at the Pride of Paddington Pub. The crowds in the tube reminded me of riding the jam packsubway around Atlanta for the 1996 Olympic Games.