Call It What You Want...

Today I was entirely touristy, with my day starting with a visit to Buckingham Palace! The State Rooms are only open for about two months in the summer, so it's never been open when I've been here before. So I waited in the queue for an entry ticket and then waited in another queue to get in and get my free audio guide (I should think it would be free!). I listened to almost everything on the audio guide (including a few 'extras') and thought it was great.

You can't take pictures in Buckingham Palace, but this is the back of the Palace, after my tour.

The special exhibition this year is the hall set for a state banquet, with the tables and chairs and plates and glasses (at least 6 per place setting) and silver and napkins and gilt... It was very impressive. It pretended it was going to spit rain as I was coming out and walking through the garden back to the road, but nothing worth putting an umbrella up for.

Then it was off to my next stop, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. On the way I stopped in at Southwark Cathedral and walked through. It was pretty and quiet and peaceful and nice.

Today there was an afternoon performance at the Globe, so no tours of the theatre itself, but a walk through the exhibit (pretty neat) and then a tour down Bankside to the original Rose Theatre (one of the very old ones where Shakespeare's works were performed) was an acceptable substitute. (The Rose is just an archaelogical site right now, with a building built above it, and the ruins submerged in water to keep them as they have been for the past 300 years.)

Then it was back onto the Tube, with a stop in tourist-central (Leicester Square) for some snack, and back here to D&A's place, where I'm checking in and then going to rest my tired feet.

Cheers for now!