Another day in London.

Covent Garden.
Today's outing started on the Piccadilly Line to Covent Garden, wonderful building now filled with market stalls- no fruit and veg. though… we were accosted by a middle eastern flower seller looking nothing like Eliza Doolittle I have to say! Walked along The Strand, admired The Savoy Hotel and Somerset House, crossing Waterloo Bridge… to our right we see Cleopatra’s Needle, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and across the river the London Eye.

Walking along the Queens Walk with The Thames on our left, love the lights, past the Royal National Theatre, The London Television Centre, South Bank, the beautiful Blackfriars Bridge with a glimpse of St Paul’s in the distance, past the Tate Modern, to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre where we take a break for lunch then I head into the Globe and a tour while David hunts down a beer! (David calls it hunting down the ‘Sights’!) Very cold in the Globe, it’s a cold day but with all our walking we don’t notice it so much, sitting in an open air theatre is a different matter so no wonder they don’t put any plays on from November to May.

Photos are here but they are from finish to start and I don't know how to change that.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobbin/

The photos of ‘The Globe’ show the stage… paint makes the two old oak tree trunks that hold up the roof look like marble, above the stage is the Heavens where all good things come from and on the stage floor you can see trapdoors where all the bad things go or happen.
Prices… standing cost one penny… 1,000 people would stand in this small space open to all weather. A seat on a bench cost tuppence… with a cushion threepence… 2,000 people could sit. Behind the stage were the most sort after seats and that was where the Lords sat, they had the worst views but everyone could see them of course. Up in the very top gallery in the stalls closest to the stage Prostitutes did a roaring trade… and some people wonder what the world is coming to nowadays LOL! Today you can buy a ticket for £5; they don’t allow 3,000 people at a time any more.
Another interesting fact…the local Member of Parliament succeeded after 8 years of trying to amend the law made during the Great Fire of London in 1666, which was to ban, Thatch! The Globe is thatched with a sprinkler system installed on top… it is and will be the only building in Greater London allowed to have a Thatched Roof.

The Millennium Bridge is impressively modern and I love the view towards each end from the middle of it… the old to the modern… I know which view I prefer though. St Paul’s Cathedral is undergoing some exterior restoration, it is a very beautiful building and I’m always awestruck each time I see it… we don’t do the full tour this time, it costs £8 to do so… glad we enjoyed it for free 37 years ago… David makes a donation because we feel mean, LOL… what is amazing is that just about every church in the vicinity of St Paul’s was designed by Christopher Wren… he was one very busy and very clever boy. In the photo from the Millennium Bridge you can see at least 5 church spires.

We jump on one of the London RM Double Deckers while it’s stuck in traffic, these are the buses that have been discontinued, they still run a few routes just for the tourists though… along Ludgate Hill, Fleet Street, The Strand to Trafalgar Square walk along Pall Mall, up Regent Street to Piccadilly Circus and the tube back to Wood Green Wetherspoons Pub for a pint of Abbot Ale for David… and you won’t believe this but I’ve taken to a small Carlings on tap… well I’ve had two over the three months that we’ve been here and I enjoyed both of them!!