London - Sunday, June 26th
bas_math_girl day! Hooray!
BMG and I met at the hotel and hung out in Russell Square Park for awhile. I had brought newspapers from the US for BMG - a local paper from my county, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, and The Baltimore Sun. We chatted about the education system in the UK (teachers!) and shared pictures of our families.
My hope was to start off at Hyde Park and work our walk back southeasterly, finally stopping at The Anchor, a pub where she and sandytherese had gone before. I had a ticket for Mephistopheles at The Shakespeare Globe and thought ending up there would help me get to the theater on time.
Instead of taking the train, we walked down Oxford Street and BMG introduced to the wonders of Marks & Spencers and Boots. Oh, M&S, where have you been all my life? I bought socks! Awesome socks! Why don't we have socks like this in the US?
We wound up at Hyde Park and rested under some trees. After that we walked towards Buckingham Palace where I touched the fence and where I and other footsore tourists dipped our toes into Victoria Fountain (who was probably spinning in her grave at the thought). We looked at memorials and statues and look at this -
A walk sign for horses! See how high up the button is? It's person-on-a-horse height! And on the other side is a green horse that flashes so you know when it's safe to walk!
I think we walked too much today because by the end of it, BMG was really hurting. We finally hopped on a train to Southwark and arrived at the pub. I was very worried about BMG. She was breathing shallow and rapidly. On our way ot the pub, I asked her if she wanted to sit down but she said if she sat down she wouldn't be able to get back up. I didn't know what to do. I did know to dial 999 if I had to. And I took her bag from her so she wouldn't have to carry it. I told her, "You know, I have seen Locked Up Abroad on the National Geographic channel and I don't mean to be the next episode if something should happen to you."
I know I did the wrong thing by continuing on. But we did make it to the restaurant where she could finally take a good rest. We had fish and chips and chilled.
When we were finished at the pub, BMG assured me should could make it to the Tube where she could finally get herself home. I asked her to text me when she did so I'd know she was all right.
Whew. OK. Still felling guilty about that...
The Globe Theatre, an amazing performance space:
As you porbably know, there is no roof on The Globe Theatre. One of the unfortunate things about the lack of a roof is that the Theatre is in a flight path of one of the airports, meaning that about every 15 minutes a plane flew over the theater. However, I didn't come here for the planes, I came here for this man:
Kenny! Rory! The Play:
Excellent play, interesting to watch, and puppets! And Trap doors! And magic tricks with fire.
And Rory, you sexy devil. here's some publicity pics I found on the internet because of course, no pics during the performance.
That's Paul Hilton on the right. He did a superb job, looking suitably haunted as the doomed Faust.
I'm telling you, if Rory leaves Doctor Who, I'm finished.
In a way, I enjoyed this play a lot more than MAAN. Why? I guess it's kind of like MAAN is top-40 radio and Faust is indie-college-radio rock. I've never been much of a top-40 kind of girl.
After the play, I took a walk across the Millenium Bridge towards St. Paul's Cathedral. I hopped on the Tube and made my way back to the hotel. Yes, my adventure is now in full swing!
BMG and I met at the hotel and hung out in Russell Square Park for awhile. I had brought newspapers from the US for BMG - a local paper from my county, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, and The Baltimore Sun. We chatted about the education system in the UK (teachers!) and shared pictures of our families.
My hope was to start off at Hyde Park and work our walk back southeasterly, finally stopping at The Anchor, a pub where she and sandytherese had gone before. I had a ticket for Mephistopheles at The Shakespeare Globe and thought ending up there would help me get to the theater on time.
Instead of taking the train, we walked down Oxford Street and BMG introduced to the wonders of Marks & Spencers and Boots. Oh, M&S, where have you been all my life? I bought socks! Awesome socks! Why don't we have socks like this in the US?
We wound up at Hyde Park and rested under some trees. After that we walked towards Buckingham Palace where I touched the fence and where I and other footsore tourists dipped our toes into Victoria Fountain (who was probably spinning in her grave at the thought). We looked at memorials and statues and look at this -
A walk sign for horses! See how high up the button is? It's person-on-a-horse height! And on the other side is a green horse that flashes so you know when it's safe to walk!
I think we walked too much today because by the end of it, BMG was really hurting. We finally hopped on a train to Southwark and arrived at the pub. I was very worried about BMG. She was breathing shallow and rapidly. On our way ot the pub, I asked her if she wanted to sit down but she said if she sat down she wouldn't be able to get back up. I didn't know what to do. I did know to dial 999 if I had to. And I took her bag from her so she wouldn't have to carry it. I told her, "You know, I have seen Locked Up Abroad on the National Geographic channel and I don't mean to be the next episode if something should happen to you."
I know I did the wrong thing by continuing on. But we did make it to the restaurant where she could finally take a good rest. We had fish and chips and chilled.
When we were finished at the pub, BMG assured me should could make it to the Tube where she could finally get herself home. I asked her to text me when she did so I'd know she was all right.
Whew. OK. Still felling guilty about that...
The Globe Theatre, an amazing performance space:
As you porbably know, there is no roof on The Globe Theatre. One of the unfortunate things about the lack of a roof is that the Theatre is in a flight path of one of the airports, meaning that about every 15 minutes a plane flew over the theater. However, I didn't come here for the planes, I came here for this man:
Kenny! Rory! The Play:
Excellent play, interesting to watch, and puppets! And Trap doors! And magic tricks with fire.
And Rory, you sexy devil. here's some publicity pics I found on the internet because of course, no pics during the performance.
That's Paul Hilton on the right. He did a superb job, looking suitably haunted as the doomed Faust.
I'm telling you, if Rory leaves Doctor Who, I'm finished.
In a way, I enjoyed this play a lot more than MAAN. Why? I guess it's kind of like MAAN is top-40 radio and Faust is indie-college-radio rock. I've never been much of a top-40 kind of girl.
After the play, I took a walk across the Millenium Bridge towards St. Paul's Cathedral. I hopped on the Tube and made my way back to the hotel. Yes, my adventure is now in full swing!