London, 3/29/07

Day 2 - London

We were off to a lazy start in the morning, but we did get a good breakfast at the hotel. They offered milk, juice, toast/croissant, coffee, fruit, and cereal. So we had a little of all of it. We went back up to the room to shower and get ready, and wandered out into the city around 10:30. We stopped off at Harrod's department store to have a look around and maybe do some shopping. Now, right here I'd like to say that I wasn't initially that interested in going to a big mall in London. There are so many other things to see and do. But I must admit that Harrods was well worth the time we spent in there. They've done so much to make it an 'experience' and not just shopping. The escalator to get to all of the floors is covered in Egyptian-style art and sculpture. And when I say 'covered,' I mean that everywhere you look there's something beautiful and Egyptian in style. And that's just the escalator. All of the staff were exceedingly helpful, and nice, the presentation of everything was lovely, and the pricetags were, well,...reflective of the attention paid to detail. We had originally thought to purchase some little thing in one of the shops, but ended up spending our money only in the Harrod's gift shop, where you can buy little pens and keychains and things with the Harrod's logo for only twice what you would normally pay for such an item.

After Harrods, we went in the direction of The Tower of London. It's all cool, and Hogwarts-y, and if/when I ever get to go again, I'll spend the extra time and cash to take the Yeoman Warders' tour. It's where these guys in Beefeater costumes tell you all about the history and interesting things that happened in and around the tower complex. We got to listen in to a couple of them and they sounded really cool. We went through the Jewel house, and got to see the Crown Jewels.I'd been warned that the lines can get crazy there, and that you may spend a lot of time in line, and not much time checking out the Joolz themselves, but we must have hit it on a good day. For the most part, we were able to head right on in, though when we got to the really amazing jewels, there was a conveyor-belt we had to stand on to keep us moving. So I didn't really get to do the drooling that I'm sure I would have done had I been able to spend more time in front of all of those diamonds.

After that, we went to the lower Wakefield tower to see the various instruments of torture...of which there were three. Three. I'm guessing, that if I'm the one being tortured, three would be more than enough, but as we were heading out, and I asked Mom,"is that it??" She replied, "what, not bloody enough for you?" Actually, no. Now that you mention it. Does that make me a bad person?

Interestingly enough, the Bloody Tower, where we went next, was not where they did the torturing. It was where they locked people away. People like Sir Walter Raleigh and his family, and those little Princes that were never to be seen again. Okay, I guess that's kinda bloody.
We headed to the gift shop, where I got some lovely replica jewelry that may just be useful for summer Shakespeare, checked out the ravens (legend has it that as long as there are at least 6 ravens around there, the Tower and the Monarchy will stand), and had some honest-to-goodness Fish n' Chips (but it wasn't wrapped in newspaper, so we may have gotten the touristy version. It was pretty good, though.).

It was pretty overcast, and threatened to rain all day, but we continued to just walk around the city. I had marked on a laminated map in wet-erase marker all of the spots I thought we might want to see, but in a quick bit of rain, that all was washed away. So we had to wing it.We were walking along the Thames and I looked up to see the unmistakable sight of the Globe Theatre (cue: choir or angels). MMMmmm....Glooooobe. Yummyyyyy. We got tickets to the last guided tour of the day, and walked through the exhibition for the half-hour or so before it began. I played the geek (again) by taking photos of simply Everything in it. They had gorgeous costumes from past productions, and I got to see them up close, noting the incredible amount of research and work that must have gone into each of them. There were little booths you could go in, press a button, and hear different RSC actors through the years doing the famous speeches from Shakespeare's works. Yummy yummy. They had a large display of props that had been built for specific productions, using the techniques and materials that would have been available during Shakespeare's time. Again with the yummy.For those of you who REALLY know me, you know that for me, this part was simply heaven.

We got the guided tour of the inside of the theatre (but alas, not backstage, as there was a production in rehearsal, or something like that), and I have to tell you, It Was Amazing. So absolutely gorgeous. There were no performances we could attend while we were in London,or I would have been all over that. It must be life-altering to see a production there. And to actually Perform on that stage?? Euphoric. There was another American mother and daughter duo on the tour with us, so we found we had a lot in common - the daughter is even a Doctor Who fan. I told her about my TARDIS sighting and she was very jealous. But when she found out that they'd filmed an episode right there in that very theatre,she seemed to perk up. I hope she figures out a way to see the episode before two more years, when it's likely to air here in the states.

One thing that really impressed me about the Globe was how much attention they pay to outreach and education. It really seems to be a main focus of the facility, not just simply something to attract grant money. They really put a lot of work into study and research, as well as hands-on teaching of students of all ages and nationalities. They really do seem to do everything in their power to do things the Right way. It's inspiring. In addition, they commission new works to be performed in addition to their Shakespearean productions. I guess it's a way of saying, "Shakespeare was once a new playwright,too."They had a production coming up called In Extremis, that sounded intriguing. It doesn't open until May, or something like that, so we couldn't see it, but I have ordered the script from Amazon. Who knows, maybe it'll find it's way into production somewhere around Wilmington sometime soon...

As was becoming our (my) habit, we stopped in the gift shop on the way out. I could have spent way more money than I had, but ended up only getting some replica coins, mini-editions of a few plays, a lovely poster, and Mom got me this cool watch - it's made out of the same stuff as those Livestrong bracelets, but it's black, has a digital timepiece in it, and says, "I wasted time, and now doth time waste me," from Richard II. Fitting, innit?

On the way back to the hotel, we managed to stop by Trafalgar Square and 10 Downing St. Not a whole lot to do there but take some pictures, so I did.