|
May 17, 1999
Day 2
We were up early and heading on a tour around England. Catching views of Buckingham Palace and the royal bands that prelude the changing of the Guards. We also saw Westminster, sites for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and several other areas. After the morning of touring around on the bus we were giving two options go on another bus tour or strike out on our own. We caught a quick bite to eat at the Tiger Pub and headed to the Tower Bridge which is right by the hotel we were staying in. This Bridge is incredible... spared in the war by the Germans because it was a land mark for were the docks were which they did want to bomb. This bridge was built in late 1800s with steel that was made in Scotland. They hid most of the steel work by putting up the Stone work that we see today. From there we went to the Tower of London. This was a fortified area that the Kings lived in at first and later became a prison. We spent 2 and a half hours there and maybe touched one fourth of what was there. We did see the Crown Jewels and a lot of the armory of Henry VIII. The history around here... is so rich it is hard to put it all into words here in a few sentences.
From the Tower of London we took the Tube (subway) and Taxi over to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. There have been decades of research into building this just like the original. It was finished about two years ago after the man who started this project had died. In the past year they have found the precise (exact) site of the original Globe Theatre -- just a short way from the current rebuilt Globe. The down side here is that we got to the Globe at the end of the day. Remember, we stayed as long as we could at the Tower of London and only got to maybe a fourth of it so here we are thinking about some dinner at the restaurant adjacent to the Globe and wishing we could see in. The lobby and visitor center was closed but we could walk around in it and found a chain locked door that we could pull open about 3 inches ... and so we did our best to stretch that three inch gap and get some video footage of part of the stage and seating area. Needless to say we were bummed about such a small viewing but... they were closed and at least we saw something on the inside. We went back to the Globes cafe and restaurant and remembered that The Curtiss family in Montana have close friends and family in London and a friend that manages these very restaurants at the Globe. Can you believe that she was there and that even not knowing us she wanted to take us into the Globe and give us a personal tour and drinks afterwards. There we were flabbergasted as we stood in the middle of the Globe with its opened roof. From that highlight of the day we found the site of the beheading of William Wallace in Smithfield (Smoothfield) and after that we found a great place to get some Bangers and Mash. Then we went back to our most loved hotel room and talked about the day and other stories.
|
|
