england # 11…. the last London Day

We could not BELIEVE how the week flew by. Sadly, Kim and I  set off one last time for Stratford Station, and onwards to the St. Paul’s area again, to walk over Millennium Bridge and visit the Globe Theatre. En route, we managed to have our first tube-crowd-induced separation. Luckily we’d already talked about how easy it would be to get separated — and how her sister and 14 year old niece got separated in Paris a few years ago, when one got off the bus and the other one didn’t, and how her sister just about had a heart attack, but luckily the niece stayed put until her mom managed to get back to where they were separated. And one other time I’d hopped blithely off the tube, turned to see where Kim was… and through the window saw her sitting down in a newly vacated spot, totally unaware that I’d jumped off. Since it, DUH, was not the right station. Luckily I was able to jump back on again. This time it WAS the right station, but the tube was very crowded and I was standing right by the door, while Kim was further back down the aisle. I got off, but she wasn’t able to fight her way out, and by the time I realized she was stuck, I didn’t have time to get back on again myself. Ooops! We only had one phone – we bought one of those Mobal ones before we left and shared it, since neither of us has a global cellphone. So I just stayed put, figuring she’d get off at the next station and come back. It took forEVER, though– so long that I started wondering, was she waiting on ME at the next station??? But that would not have made sense, as I’d gotten off at the right one – we had to change trains at the station where I got off. So I walked to and fro and waited and waited and took pictures of the guy playing an accordion.

And gave him some change.

And waited and waited and took pictures of the not very exciting tube station.

Finally Kim arrived, so the crisis was averted. It was still kind of unnerving, and I can’t imagine how panicky her sister must have felt, losing her kid in Paris like that.

SO, reunited, on we went to Millennium Bridge!

It’s a straight shot from the Cathedral to the bridge.

The Tate Modern is right on the other side. It’s in an old power plant. It was one more thing we didn’t have time to see, so it’s on the list for next time. Next time I doubt I’ll buy a London Pass, so I’ll be hitting the free stuff.

The Globe Theatre is very close to the Tate Modern, on a beautiful little cobblestone street. Another thing I want to explore more! We saw very little of that side of the Thames. That picture below isn’t the Globe.. the Globe is on the far left, just about out of sight. I just like the street.

There’s the Globe!

 

We took the tour — thank you, London Pass! It was very interesting. The tour guide was an actor who did plays there during the season as well, so knew all about it. And of course was quite theatrical. I’d wanted to see the Globe since taking a Shakespeare class in the late 80s. They were working on the restoration at the time, and our professor talked quite a lot about it. The original theatre burned down in 1613, was rebuilt, and then was closed by the Puritans in 1642. Killjoys. The current building is, of course, a restoration based on the original foundations. The restoration started in 1987 and took ten years.

It’s VERY ornate-

 

They do plays at the Globe, rain or shine, and if you’re one of the groundlings (standing in the center area) they are quite inexpensive. Sadly the play season ended a couple of weeks before we arrived. Of course, we wouldn’t have had time! But it would be a lot of fun to see one there.

Alas, poor Yorick!

They have a fantastic gift shop too, especially if you’re a Shakespeare fan.

After the Globe, we headed for Portobello Road. We were determined to go to a market. We had originally been determined to go to several markets, including the one at Greenwich. Darned time constraints! The one at Portobello was fantastic, though. I think if you have to pick one, that’s probably the one to pick. They had EVERYTHING. It went on for miles and miles and miles. There were lots of antiques, which was really fun, but also lots of jewellery and clothing and food and veggie stands and just pretty much anything you could imagine.

It’s in a very pretty – and very pricey – area.

And it was VERY crowded.

 

 

 

Along with the market booths, there were also gazillions of fantastic shops along Portobello Road. This one was full, FULL of old sewing machines. You can’t get the scope of it in this picture, but it was enormous and there were old sewing machines from floor to ceiling, throughout the entire store. I went inside, but it was so crowded you couldn’t move. So I went back outside again very fast.

 

I found Poundland very amusing – since of course we’re used to Dollar Stores. Where Everything’s A Dollar!

And this was really neat– a wall painted like record albums.

 

It’s an art installation called Portobello ReCollection and oddly I thought it had been here for quite some time — I thought I’d seen pictures of it ages ago– but now I find it opened in October. Like, right about the time we were there. And it’s only going to be up six months. I should have taken more pictures of it! Even odder, there’s a Tom Waits album included that’s very prominent, and I didn’t see it at all –

Obviously I didn’t take this picture, since I didn’t see it– yes, I stole it from the interwebs. But, how disappointing! I certainly would have looked for it had I known. I’m surprised I didn’t see it, though, since it does stand out. It was a long wall, and there were a LOT of people milling around.

(**note much much later to say the picture has vanished, back into the interwebs, but it’s a Tom Waits album there in the Wall O’Albums)

This next picture was not Portobello Road – I think it was at the intersection near the tube. I don’t know what on earth that building is, but it certainly was colorful. VERY 70s.

We walked MILES. I bought a couple of pairs of earrings and two little cute books for The Twins — seems like I got something else small too. But if I’d had money and room to lug stuff around, I’d have bought way more than that. It was a lot of fun. Unfortunately by then we were both about to drop. Seriously. I’d managed to catch a cold (everyone in London seemed to have a cold) and thanks to really good DayQuil-like drugs, I didn’t feel bad, but I did get tired. And this was another day that we went a looooong time without eating anything, then couldn’t find anywhere that wasn’t jam-packed. We both needed to buy presents to take back home, so decided to go back to Harrods. We couldn’t even find anywhere to eat near Harrods that wasn’t packed (this WAS Saturday) so we ended up having a snack in one of their little cafe things. And it was very good — pastry and fancy coffee. And expensive but by then it was a WHO CARES!! GIVE ME FOOD!!! situation. We bought crazily expensive trinkets in Harrods and … SIGH… headed back to our lodgings. I’m pretty sure we stopped off one last time at our halfway pub too. It was actually a Wetherspoons, which, as I already knew from pretrip research, is a chain and not an “authentic” pub, and is all over England — but it was a good atmosphere, the food was excellent, and it was shockingly cheap. AND they had free internet. So yay for the Wetherspoons chain!

And then we packed our stuff and got ready to… SOB… leave London. And begin the next leg of the trip, which was as completely and totally different as it could possibly be, and absolutely amazing. Stay tuned!