London Day Four -- click title for pictures

This morning we were at Shakespeare’s Globe Theater at 9:15am sharp. Adam had created an animated 3D version of this theater for an English project, so it was pretty cool to see it in person. (In order to read some of the exhibits, you may have to click the "previous" button at the top of the slideshow a few times to give you enough time to get through them. If the 'previous' button doesn't automatically show, move your cursor around the top and it should show up) They tried to the best of their abilities to create it from original materials for the most part. For instance they had over 600 wooden pegs in the place. I think the saddest thing about the theater was learning that the guy who originally came over to London to find it, could only find a plaque about it. He determined he was going to raise the funds to create a replica on its original site, and did just that, dying 4 years (or months, I can’t remember) before its completion. Besides having a guide give us the ins and outs of theater life in Shakespeare’s days and explaining some of the physical characteristics of the theater, they also had an exhibit in the basement where it showed pieces from that time period: clothing, patterns, tools, money, weapons. They had pictures of what London used to be like at that time, and different models of the Globe. Matinees and night performances were currently going on. Since it’s an open air theater, their season is a short one. Following the Globe we walked over to St. Paul’s Cathedral. We had a live guide on this one and it went REALLY long. There was just too much information to cram in. No pictures were allowed in here, but my fingers were itching to snap a shot of the Geometric Staircase where various Harry Potter scenes were shot. I bought some postcards at the end of the tour to have at least some idea of what we just saw. The only pictures I could take were of the outside. Inside the Crypt are the tombs and memorials of Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, Florence Nightingale, the painter JMW Turner, the poet William Blake and the architect Sir Christopher Wren. I loved the galleries as well, probably because they were made famous by the DaVinci Code….or was it Angels and Demons? After a quick lunch stop in the Crypt Café, we stood once again and climbed to the Cathedral floor before starting our step exercises. Even though our feet were killing us, we climbed the 257 steps to the Whispering Gallery, which lies just underneath the dome. You can whisper on one side and hear it on the other. We next climbed another 119 steps to the Stone Gallery which takes you outside to enjoy some panoramic views of the city. There was also a Golden Gallery another 152 steps further, but it was closed for some reason. Moving right along, we jumped on the Tube and headed over to the British Museum, which is kind of like Paris’ Louvre with not quite so much art. It has artifacts from all over the globe and could take you 12 days without eating or sleeping to devote 60 seconds to each one, 6-1/2 million to be exact . It was overwhelming to say the least. I’m not sure we saw the whole thing – although our feet felt like we had – but we saw quite enough. When we first walked in your eyes are automatically drawn upwards to a glassed roof containing 3,312 unique glass triangles. This covers the Great Court – the middle of the museum. This was a recent addition, and by doing this they created the largest covered public square in Europe, and it was VERY striking. I was entranced with the Egyptian area with all their mummies and Egyptian stuff. I took LOTS of pictures here. My children are for sure going to ROLL their eyes. It was like walking into a history book, better yet, re-living Mrs. Beattie’s humanities class at Davis High. Besides seeing mummified princely people, we also saw mummified cats, dogs, fish, and crocodiles, along with the jewels and amulets that people liked buried with them. They had x-rays available to see how well preserved the bodies were, plus a variety of instruments displayed that they used for the embalming process. And yes, some of it was gruesome, but fascinating. If you weren’t rich enough for a coffin, they also had a body that was perfectly preserved in a sand pit buried with his jars of food and paraphernalia. We also saw some bodies that were buried in baskets….a step up from the sand pits. London has the richest collection of Egyptian funeral art outside of Egypt. We also saw sculptures from the Parthenon, called the Elgin marbles, said to be some of the greatest sculptures ever created. And I believed it. Their muscular detail and fluidity of movement coming from a block of marble was incredible. My kids at home questioned why so many statues had heads and arms missing, but it didn’t seem to bother me at all. Maybe I’m used to it. Also in the museum we saw the Rosetta Stone, lots of Greek antiquities, a statue from Easter Island, the façade of the Nereid Monument (from Turkey), the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos (one of 7 wonders of ancient world), treasures of the Soo Hoo Ship Burial – richest treasure ever dug from British soil, the Lewis Chessmen, and the Benin Bronzes (900 brass plaques found in Nigeria depicting court life and rituals). Much, much more, but those are the highlights. We attempted to see the Lindow Man (one of Britian’s most senior citizens, found perfectly preserved in a peat bog in 1984) but he was on loan elsewhere. Scientists were able to determine that he was around 25 years old, a victim of Druidic sacrifice (clubbed, garotted and throat cut) who had eaten some cake shortly before his death and was blood group 0. Would have been cool, but….. I’m okay with loaners. I live in Salt Lake City, where most things are loaned to us  After being inundated with ‘things’, we went to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum to attend an A-list party. We arrived at 5:02 and were disappointed to learn that our discount 2 for 1 tickets weren’t valid after 5  And there was absolutely no give there. So I hoped it would be worth the $30! For the most part they did an excellent job of most of the celebrities, very real and life-like, and others were just so-so. The kids didn’t even recognize Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and told me I’d wasted my digital memory on Zac Efron. We found dozens of celebrities to take pictures with. I posed with Captain Picard just for Bill. Close by was Regent’s Park so we walked around that before getting on the Tube to head back home. It was yet another beautiful park with a meandering stream, dozens of flower beds, mature trees, very tame squirrels and this particular park had Queen Anne’s Rose Garden. We only found 2 roses that were out, but you could tell that it was going to be magnificent in one more month. The whole thing put just a tiny spark inside me that I could make a better effort with my own yardwork! Each bed was labeled with its particular kind of rose, and trellises looped around in a ring. That night we ate dinner close by our hotel in a pub called Friend in Hand. Tons of people were there cheering on their soccer team, but we were able to find a small table on the opposite side. We tried our first official English fish and chips and guess what? They tasted like…..fish and chips! BUT how many times do you get to eat fish and chips in an English pub?! I reveled just being there.