Day 3 -- Across the River - Melinda

 All the world's a stage... Williams Shakespeare

On Tuesday of our Royal Rendezvous, we went across the river Thames to The Globe Theatre involving a walk on the London Bridge (which thankfully was not falling down).  You probably guessed that when you read my quote.  This was my pick and one of the main reasons to go to London.  I know... it's not the original Shakespeare's Globe, but it is a very accurate representation.  But, I did get to see the site of the original Globe which was only a few blocks away.  

We toured the octagon building, sat in the seats where the upper class would have watched the plays, got a history lesson from a tour guide/actor (they are the best!!!), and viewed an acting class/rehearsal.  It was incredible.  And just added was an interactive exhibit on Shakespeare, his life, his environment, and the recent staging of his plays.  We were able to try on costumes (which I am surprised we didn't spend the remainder of our time there; my daughter and I are actresses at heart) and learned about The Upstart Crow.  

Outside of the Globe crossing the river was the Millennium Bridge which our tour guide declared was destroyed in one of the Harry Potter stories.  He was also quick to point out the historical inaccuracy of that since the bridge was actually built after the setting of the story and movie.

When we started this journey, we were imagining taking hours to get to the places we wanted to go only to find out it was just a short walk.  So, a place we were going, but thought we would have to go another day was Borough Market.  It turned out to not be far from The Globe. It is an open air market of all types of food, like a hyped up farmers' market.  It had vegetables, meats, smoothies, coffee, pastries, anything your heart desires as far as food goes.  Another place I could have easily spent the day.  I love to act, but I also love to eat.

And, we were walking distance again from somewhere else we wanted to visit.  This was Katie's pick. But, before we got to the main attraction, the place we were going, we passed some interesting sites along the way.  One being a monument to the Great Fire of London.  The monument is vertically huge which is said to represent the distance in London that the fire destroyed.  And on close inspection, there were people at the top.  I suppose the view was incredible, but no thank you.  

Also on the route was a Queen Eleanor Memorial Cross at Charing Cross Railway Station.  It was a remodeling of a cross Edward I did for his Queen Eleanor.  He placed these crosses in 12 locations in London where the Queen's funeral procession stopped overnight. The best part of seeing these two things was that there weren't in our plans.  That was the cool thing about walking... you never knew what treasures you would come across.

 Back to the death theme and our original destination... The Tower of London.  I said it was Katie's pick, but to be perfectly honest, the stories fascinate me.  And, The Tower of London houses the crown jewels.  The stories of the people that were imprisoned there and the circumstances that brought them to that place were incredible.  We witnessed the spot where beheadings occurred like that of Anne Boleyn.  We heard the story of the Bloody Tower where two boys were imprisoned and more than likely executed.  We saw remnants of torture devices.  But an interesting tidbit of information that I did not know was that The Tower of London was the residence of royalty.  So the kings, queens, dukes and duchesses lived amongst the prisoners.  And there were prisoners that The Tower became their second home, like Sir Walter Raleigh, who was served a sentence there so many times he had a garden.  Side note: after coming home, Katie found out that supposedly there are ghosts that roamed The Tower of London.  And why not?  There was a lot of death that occurred on those grounds.

And then the crown jewels.  We were told not to get our hopes up in seeing these because of the lengthy lines.  But, it was March and a weekday; there was no line.  We were told that many of the things in the displays would be used in the Coronation Ceremony coming in soon.  I will be watching the ceremony, if for no other reason than to say, I saw those crown jewels and gold dinner ware.

And of course, the Tower Bridge which is in every photo of London.  We took several photos of the bridge because it just always seems to be looming in the background.

The day ended with fish and chips at a restaurant named The Ivy.