London City

We started this morning at Shakespeare's Globe Tour and Exhibition. We were in the 11:45 group for the tour. It was a rather long walk from the Underground so Mom watched the stage fighters practice while I wandered around the exhibitions.

The exhibitions and stage fighting demo were way underneath the theatre itself.

We had a great guide for the tour. She had lots of stories and was definitely a big supporter of the Globe. The stage you see to the left is how it always appears. There is generally no change to the columns or the back wall.

Our tour guide had great stories about being in the "groundlings" area -- the area in front of the stage where you stand to watch (and participate) in the performance.

Shakespeare's Globe is on the south bank of the Thames River. We walked by the IBM Southbank office building on our way. And the Globe is next to the Tate Modern. The Tate Modern has become the most visited site in London. It is a converted power plant. Probably the biggest attractions are the Unilever Series by Carsten Holler (picture to the right). And no...we didn't slide down them even though you can if you are willing to wait in very long lines. The British seem to love to "queue up" so it is perfect for them.

We then walked across the Millennium Bridge to the other side of the Thames and St. Paul's Cathedral.

The cathedral bells were peeling loud and clear. We couldn't even hear ourselves. Enough of walking and enough of the Underground, we caught a London black cab and headed home.

In the picture below with Mum, you can see the Tate Modern in the background and the Millennium Bridge (she's leaning on it).