Lovely London - Day Three

On day three the weather turned a little rainy but we didn’t let that dampen our spirits (pun definitely intended). We began our morning visiting Shakespeare’s Globe theatre and found out when we got there that it was Shakespeare’s birthday that very day! The exhibition was great and we saw many of the original costumes and props, along with documents written by Shakespeare himself (including his will) and  tons of other interesting items. We then had a tour with a lovely lady called Stephanie who was  really funny and told us about her role as an extra in the film ‘Shakespeare in Love’ which we are now determined to watch again so we can pick her out!

Bridge that features in the Harry Potter movies

The GLOBE!

This year the theatre is doing all of Shakespeare’s plays (quite a feat when usually they only do 6!) and they had a special programme called ‘Globe to Globe’ where different theatre companies from around the world came and performed the plays in their own style and their own languages. When we were there, there were Maori actors rehearsing on the stage as they would be doing one of the plays entirely in Maori and including the Haka that night!

The theatre was really beautiful and on the ground outside were several stones with names engraved of people who had sponsored the theatre. There were many celebrity names like John Cleese, Michael Palin, Judi Dench etc but I also found ‘Mary O’Connell’ which was very exciting!

After the Globe, we walked up to see Tower Bridge which we were lucky enough to watch go up and down! It was incredibly rainy and cold at that point so we didn’t take too many photos as we were getting soaked. We decided to dry off and have lunch at a beautiful restaurant on the river called ‘All Bar One’.

After lunch, we went to the Tower of London which was fascinating and saw the place where Anne Boleyn was executed and is buried. Our Yeoman Warder (Beefeater) guide was really fun and cheeky and it was great to learn all about the site.

The site where Anne Boleyn was beheaded

One of my favourite parts was seeing the Crown Jewels which were just breathtaking. One of the best crowns was the late Queen Mother’s which was incredibly blinged up! I was also particularly taken with a solid gold punch bowl that was bigger than me and can hold up to 144 bottles of wine!

That night my friends Brittany, Nick and I went to the beautiful Apollo Victoria theatre and saw the musical Wicked! It was such a fantastic show with great sets, costumes and effects. The performers were excellent especially Rachel Tucker who played the main character Elphaba. The whole cast was really talented and we had such a great night. After the first half I was absolutely speechless, something you’ll all know is very rare for me.

Britt and I waiting for the show to begin

 

 

The incredible Wicked set

After the show we waited at the stage door and had our tickets signed by Rachel Tucker, Gina Beck (who played Glinda) and Jacqueline Hughes (who played Madam Morrible). It was cold but worth it! Such a great night!