Wednesday morning dawned lightly overcast with sunny periods and this was the day that we were going to finish off our London pass with some more big London attractions. Our first stop was the Globe Theatre for the tour. We caught the slowest circle line train on record to Mansion House and walked across the Millennium Bridge, made famous by the death eaters in Harry Potter. The Globe Theatre is just on the south bank of the Thames. The reconstruction built 30 years ago by Sam Wannamaker is a faithful reconstruction of Shakespeare’s Globe that was actually located about 150 metres away and was destroyed during Cromwell’s anti theatre (read anti everything ) purge. In fact the reason that the Globe and its competition The Rose who Shakespeare also worked for were on the south side of the river in the first place was that the Puritan parliamentarians would not allow any theatrical or performance or entertainment within the boundaries of the city of London. The tour of the Globe was great. It meant that we could get a real good look at what we had seen from the middle level when we went to see the Merry Wives a couple of weeks ago. They also told us about the history and there is a great costume and artifacts display on the gallery before the tour starts.
When done at the Globe we wandered over the Southwark Bridge back to the London side of the Thames in search of the Tower of London. It was easy to get to on the circle line from Mansion House to Tower Hill station. Liz was unsure what to expect at the tower, thinking it was just a tower where prisoners were kept, but it was and is much more than that. We walked to the top level of the White Tower where they kept many of the prisoners, we also learnt much about the military history of the tower. It was for many years the royal Armory and boasts an amazing collection of armor and weapons. Two levels were full of the bizarre and gory items of battle preparation. Being an armory it was also the site of the major store of Gunpowder in London… How lucky were they that the great Fire of London in 1666 missed the tower or the Tower wouldn’t have been there at all. After the fire they rationed and then removed gun powder supplies at the tower!One of the main attractions at the tower of London is the Crown jewels. Of course everyone who visits wants to see the precious objects and so the queue was a little long. But it was worth the wait. On the way in they have a very clever queuing system akin to a Disney ride, where they show authentic movie footage of Lizzie’s coronation and all the jewels and their origins. And then you actually get to the safe room. The doors of the room weigh 2000kg each!!! There are crowns, scepters, maces, orbs and diamonds rubies emeralds and sapphires as far as the eye can see... breathtakingly beautiful. The thing that is distressing is that all the beautiful plates, chalices and coronation stuff only dates to the post Cromwell era, because you guessed it, he had it destroyed… melted down for whatever purpose, and some of them were sold off. Sad really.
We did see the place where Anne Boleyn and several others lost their heads - the memorial lists their names and has a pillow made of glass to represent the pillow that was placed below the block upon which their head fell when cut off.
By this time the heavens had decided that it was time for some serious London rain and we headed off in that serious rain for the Tower bridge.. not far from the Tower of London. It has been in existence since the late 1880’s and is an amazing architectural feat. We headed up the London side pylon, viewed some films and a couple of good exhibits, walked the length of the bridge on the exhibition walkways that are 42 meters above the Thames and then headed down the Southwark side. It was an interesting and informative exhibit and we even learned where the Thames sea wall barrier is located, between Greenwich and Woolwich.
Not to be dissuaded by the cold and rain we hopped on yet another form of train transport… the Docklands light rail or DLR, in search of Greenwich and the Prime Meridian!! Got sidetracked on the way and stopped by the painted hall and the chapel that formed part of the Greenwich palace, both designed by Christopher Wren who designed St Paul’s. The
paintwork on the walls and ceiling of the hall was truly spectacular and it was a massive venue. The chapel was beautiful too, and having been a navy hospital chapel at one stage it is probably appropriate that it has a large painting of the Shipwreck of St Paul behind the Altar, painted by American artist Benjamin West. By this stage we were very very cold and soggy and so rather than make the half mile hike up to the observatory that would have been closed by the time we got there, we decided to find the spot on the street just down from the park where the Prime meridian passes… a very uneventful spot next to a service station, but none the less there it was … and so we stood, straddling the eastern and western hemispheres. How exciting.
When we got back to tower hill on the light rail it was dinner time and so we had our first experience of Wagamama. Nice food, and warm and hearty on such a cold wet and miserable day! This meant that we were at tower Bridge at 6.45pm and so we raced down to watch the scheduled opening of the bridge so that a large yacht could pass underneath. The bridge was up when we got there and the yacht passed under and then in less than 2 minutes it was closed again.. thanks to the wonder of hydraulics. And we saw it.Thoroughly soaked we headed back to the hotel and decided to have a swim in the indoor heated pool… nice and relaxing after such a long day.. And now blogging at Costa coffee shop across the road and hoping that the internet comes back up so we can upload this and off to bed. Last night in London!!! Where has the time gone?
PS Unfortunately this blog did not get uploaded at Costa’s so we had to wait until tonight when we are in the Concorde Room at Heathrow airport.. waiting for our flight to Hong Kong. Damned shame that!!
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