Holst Happenings: London - Day 2 - Shakespeare & Tower of London

Our 2nd day contained a lot of Shakespeare. We started the day with a take away breakfast of coffee and pastries on our walk to the Globe.

Wonderful smelling star jasmine along the river on our way to the Globe.

We toured the theater and enjoyed connecting the history we knew with its location. I hadn't realized that the Globe was relatively short lived. It was built in 1599 and then burned down in 1613. It caught fire thanks to Shakespeare writing in a cannon shot for his Henry VIII play. The very flammable thatch roof caught fire and the whole thing burned to the ground in less than an hour. They rebuilt it quickly (with a tile roof) but then was destroyed again in 1642 because Parliament was taken over by Puritans and they disapproved of theater. They only rebuilt this replica (a few hundred feet from its original location) in 1997!

Signs of the Zodiac and other celestial sights on the ceiling of the stage. Columns are wood, but painted to look like red marble.

View from the expensive seats back in Shakespeare's day. They were the best because you could hear and were shaded from the sun.

We were surprised to see that Romeo and Juliet that night (for which 4 of us had tickets) was western themed!

Plaque marking the original location of the Globe.

Even the fence posts are decorative.

Borough Market for lunch! It was crazy, crazy crowded so we had a hard time figuring out what to eat, and we had to eat standing up because the limited seating was all taken. Some of the more popular places had loooong queues that we didn't want to tackle. Carolyn and Andrew ended up with pasta (and were thrilled with its normality), Elizabeth got a ham and cheese sandwich, Tom tried a Singaporean place he'd seen on YouTube, and I did a sandwich version of fish and chips. Challenging to figure out with the crowds and six of us, but enjoyable in the end!

Curried fish and chips sandwich

I wanted to try this place that I'd seen on Instagram! Turnips! They have oodles of strawberries that they cover with melted chocolate. The kids loved it, and it felt like a healthy (ish) dessert. The line wasn't bad - they were crazy efficient which made my IE heart happy - so I'd say it was worth it!

Thumbs up from all the kids.

The amount of fresh food available is stunning. The variety and quality were impressive.

The Tower of London. Oh so impressive. The ceramic red poppies were installed to commorate the 80th anniversary of WWII.

An amusing product in the gift shop. I'll always remember Mrs Darby when I think about Henry VIII's 6 wives. Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. Don't think I'd want it on my Christmas tree, though, and I definitely didn't want to pay 75 pounds for it! But it did make me laugh!

The sun was bright!

Crepe snack after the Tower for the kids (we'd tried to get these the day before, but they closed right as we got there and it sent Carolyn into hysteric, jet-lagged tears for 30 min, so made it happen today!)

Mama's snack

Gorgeous fresh flowers are everywhere.

Back at the Globe! She was the cushion carrier. The seats were tight, narrow and hard, so these were nice to have!

Ready for the play! Andrew read it this year, and Laura 2 years ago, so it was extra enjoyable to see it performed. The western theme was interesting. Guns instead of swords, saloon doors, cowboy hats and boots and fringed vests for costumes, ho-downs for the dances. Unique!

They still sell hundreds of "penny tickets" that are now 5 or 10 pounds for standing room. I was very glad we didn't have to stand for almost 3 hours and was impressed that all these people did (well, except for the one young lady the wheeled out in a wheelchair after she passed out).