Street Musicians

Street musicians are found at various and unexpected places. The first musicians we heard were under a bridge on a walkway. They were a couple of cellists who played very well together.


The other notable musicians were an accordionist and a percussionist. The percussionist was sitting on an empty wooden box which he was playing. He spelled the name of it for Barbara as 'cagon' but he pronounced it as 'cahon' which sounds like Spanish and might be spelled as 'cajon'. In any case, it sounded good coupled with the accordian. So far, none of the other street musicians have been very interesting.

Globe Theatre tour

Thursday, May 9, a.m.

We're up and about fairly early to catch the bus back to the Globe Theatre for a tour of the place. We had a great guide who also happens to be an actor. The acoustics are perfect so that you can hear anywhere, even at the side of the stage and behind the actors. Line of sight might not be good, but the sound is perfect. And because sets were minimal in Shakespeare's time, the scenes were set by dialog. (“We are in the forest.” And, “We fought and I am dead,” are examples.) Therefore it wasn't necessary to be able to see everything on stage.



Something we couldn't see from our seats during the performance was that the ceiling above the stage is painted with stars, Greek & Roman gods and the like. If you look at one of the columns holding up the ceiling, you'll see it looks like marble. It's only painted to look like marble. Everything is made from wood using the same techniques that would have been used in Shakespeare's time. All wooden beams were hand-hewn. The ballisters were turned on an old-style foot treadle machine. All the pieces were put together with wooden pegs. (Although the guide didn't say so, I'm sure that there were some concessions that had to be made so that current building codes were met.)



After the tour we went through the attached museum and saw tools that were used for making costumes, different types of fabrics used, how women's undergarments were constructed (different ways in different periods) and musical instruments that I've never heard of before this. All in all, the place is pretty cool.

"The Tempest" at the Globe Theatre

Wednesday afternoon



The afternoon was taken up by a performance of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" performed in the new Globe Theatre. (It's the white building in the middle of the picture.)


The Theatre is open to the air, the roof is thatched and seating is on boards. Literally, boards, as in planks of wood. We rented cushions to save our behinds from sitting on a hard, flat surface for 3 hours. I don't know how people without the cushions could bear it. There are also the “cheap” seats which is really standing room only in the area around the stage.



These people sometimes became part of the play. Some got wet when some “wine” was spilled, one man had his glasses taken off the top of his head, another person was the example of how one of the characters wanted to have another character killed. It looked like great fun, but who wants to stand up for three hours? The play was very enjoyable and we are really glad that we went. Our seats were in the top level.


The day ended with a great dinner at a tiny Italian restaurant just a few steps from the hotel. Time is going much too quickly and there is still so much to see! Today's pedometer reading is 5 3/4 miles.

Excitement on the Mall

Wed., May 8, a.m.

Today's first event was a 90 minute walking tour that included a changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. Imagine our surprise to find out that the changing of the guard was cancelled because the queen was to speak at the opening of Parliament. Instead, we would see a whole parade of people heading from the Palace down the Mall (Mall rhymes with pal not with all.) to Parliament. At first we were disappointed, but the panoply of the event changed our minds. There were guards in red uniforms and big bear hats lined up along the entire route.


Three different bands dressed in the same outfits were playing at various points along the Mall.


There were horseback riders in royal blue uniforms and some in red uniforms, both with metal breast and back plates that clinked as they rode along. The first closed carriage carried the queen's crown which had been taken from the display in the Tower of London. The second had Prince Charles and his wife Camilla.


The last closed carriage had the Queen and Prince Phillip. The white glove you can see in the window is Prince Phillip's glove as he waves his hand.


We barely got a glimpse as the horses pulled them past us. There were also a bunch of open carriages with lots of people that our guide didn't know and couldn't identify for us. It was still very cool to watch. And at the end of it all, there was a lot of royal horse poop on the ground! (No, I didn't take any pictures of the royal horse poop!)

After that, we were able to actually get close to two of the guards at St. James Palace. We were warned to be very polite, ask if they would allow their pictures to be taken and DO NOT touch them. They can and will defend themselves against unrequested touching. I didn't want to have my picture taken beside them, but I did get a picture of one of them!

Hop-on-hop-off bus tour and the London Eye

Tuesday afternoon & evening

The tour is hop on and hop off, so we stopped to see Buckingham Palace. What a big place and evidently none of the recent monarchs liked the place so nobody has lived there full time, including the current queen.



We then hopped back on the bus and continued the tour. The plan was to go to The London Eye to catch a special guided ride that we had booked that is only given at 3:30. When we started to get off the bus, the tour guide said to wait for the next stop as it was a shorter walk. So we stayed on the bus, only he didn't let us know that the bus was at the bus stop where we should get off. We thought we were at a stop light. Barbara asked him when we should get off, and he said, “Oh, you should have gotten off at that last stop.” It turned out that instead of having a shorter walk, we ended up on the wrong side of the Thames and had to make our way across a bridge, down to the water level and along the river to The Eye.


It was just short of a run – my fastest walking speed and Barbara was hard pressed to keep up. She did keep up and is proud of that fact. We barely made it, but we did make it and had a really good half hour guided ride. The view from the top is spectacular. Here is a picture of Big Ben and Parliament.


We hopped back onto the bus to get back to our starting place. On the walk back to the hotel we stopped and had a very tasty Lebanese dinner. At that point jet lag, and over 7 miles of walking (according to Barbara's pedometer) took its toll and we packed it in for the night.

Arrival in London

Tuesday, a.m.

After an 8-hour flight from Chicago to London and not nearly enough time to sleep, we arrived in London around 8:35 a.m. Our first experience was to ride the Heathrow Express, a pricey, but very comfortable ride from Heathrow to Paddington Station. A short walk brought us to St. David's Hotel where we were able to check in right away instead of having to wait until mid-afternoon check in.

We ventured out onto the streets to find The Original London Sightseeing Tour bus stop at Marble Arch and Speakers' Corner. After a frustrating 30 minutes (Barbara says it felt more like 45) of trying to find the right place, asking several people, and making 2 phone calls, we finally found the where we needed to be.

It's 1 1/2 hours until we leave for the airport. Every time I think I'm done packing, I find something else I need to think about. Pretty soon, it won't matter. If I don't have something, I'll just have to do without or buy it in England. We're going to have a great trip!