The Bard, The Birds, and Beer

Friday was an incredibly busy day. We had a more relaxing day planned visiting some pop culture sites, but since a couple of major sights were missed earlier in the week, we had to alter the schedule a bit.

So in the morning we headed off to Shakespeare's Globe. The Globe is actually a historically accurate reproduction of the original theatre which burned down once in the 16th century, was rebuilt, and then was torn down 300 years ago or so. The story is that an American movie maker named Sam Wannamaker decided several decades ago that there was no real monument to Shakespeare in London, the city where his plays were produced. So after many years of fundraising and tangling with the government, this theater was built. It is a working theatre, but sadly the season doesn't start until April. So we were only able to go on a tour-- no performance. That was really regrettable, becuase after touring the theatre, it looks like an amazing venue.

From the Globe, we walked back across the Millenium Bridge to St Paul's Cathedral. (For those readers who are my Disney peeps, that is where the Banks children wanted to feed the birds for tuppance a bag). I was planning to do kind of a whirlwind tour of St Paul's since our schedule was already pretty impacted, but we ended up taking a 1 1/2 hour guided tour, which was pretty damn fantastic, and took us to some parts of the church that are not accessible to the general public. I learned from our tour guide that if we had taken the Verger's Tour at Westminster Abbey, we would also have been able to visit some off limits areas including the areas around the Edward the Confessor Shrine-- I am kicking myself now. Oh well, c'est la vie.

Again, no photos inside of the church, so the photos below is just an internet link. Anyway, in the vault we saw the burial places of Nelson and Wellington, Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin, and memorials to Winston Churchill and T.E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"). Our tour guide mentioned to me after the tour that her grandfather served in Africa with Lawrence during WWI. The army allowed him a second bunk to hold all of his books. :)

The most amazing thing about St. Paul's is that it was designed by Sir Christopher Wren, who was a mathematical genuis, but not a trained architect. And yet, Wren is responsible for many of the churches and various other secular buildings constructed in London after the Great Fire of 1666. It is a very beautiful building in the Baroque style, patterned after St Peter's Basilica in Rome-- quite a contrast a day after visiting the gothic Westminster Abbey. After the tour I hauled my kiester up to the stone gallery of the dome (some 260 or so stairs-- see previous post) for fantastic views of the city.

Following St. Paul's we headed up Fleet Street. Sadly, no Mrs. Lovett's pie shop. But we did stop in at the Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese pub for a couple of ciders. The Cheshire Cheese is purportedly the oldest pub in London. I guess there has been a pub on that site for many hundreds of years, and the current pub has been there since 1667.



Then we headed up to the British Museum to meet up with a friend of mine from high school who lives here in London. Sadly, we did a super-speedy walk-through of the museum, since we had had such a long day already, and really wanted nothing more than a good dinner. That is an absolute shame, because the British Museum has, arguably, the greatest collection of antiquity in the world. Essentially spoils of the Empire, the museum is home to the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles (large pieces of the Parthenon, which is kind of a sore spot with the government of Greece).

After we sprinted through the museum, my friend took us out for a curry. This was my first experience with Indian food, and it was yummy. Then she took to a pub that she frequents for a pint. Since neither Emma nor I drink beer, she had another cider, and I tried a strawberry beer. It was an acquired taste, but I could drink it easier than I could drink beer. It was lovely to see her again, and to just hang out in the pub talking about old times.

So that was Friday. Hopefully we can get Saturday posted soon. But it's already 11:30 p.m., and we have another early day tomorrow. Blogging is a lot harder than we anticipated. It's fun to do, but takes up so much time... time that we really should be spending working out directions for the following day. But we love to hear your comments!!

--By the way, I know we haven't mentioned it yet, but the weather has been fantastic during the whole trip!!--

~Lizzie~