Big Ben and Shakespeare's Globe

Email for June 8:

I did not anticipate how emotional this journey would be for me. I totally cried as we were landing. Everything about the UK is like coming home. And I'm so excited Tom is here this time to share it.

We had to set an alarm this morning to make it to breakfast. I could have slept all day! :) We had a lovely breakfast at the hotel and then took the tube into town. We stopped at Earl's court on the way in to town to get a picture next to Doctor Who's police box (one of the few actual police boxes still around).

 
Then we went straight to the houses of Parliament to give Tom the first look at London. We walked across the river and walked along the Thames until Big Ben chimed at noon.

 
We wandered around for most of the afternoon. We saw Buckingham Palace, walked through Green Park and found our swanky hotel around 2pm. We checked in, dropped off our backpacks, watched a crazy British gameshow ("For What It's Worth") and then headed out to the Tate Modern. We made it through almost all of the galleries before it closed at 6. We headed around the corner to an Anatolian (modern day Turkey, though we weren't sure what Anatolia was until we looked it up, but it was near the globe and fairly inexpensive) restaurant with yummy food that was right next to the Globe.

We entered the magical globe around 7, got our cushions and programme. It was completely magical. The show started at 7:30, Around 7:50, the sprinklers on the thatched roof turned on in the Globe and drenched the groundings. The stage manager ran out and said: "For everyone's safety, we'll need to end the performance here. Please stand up and calmly head to the exits." Everyone was pretty slow to do so but we all eventually exited the premises and were a giant mass along the Thames. It was hilarious seeing bikes and a maintenance vehicle trying to get through all of us.

 
Finally, around 8:30pm, they told us it was safe to return to our seats. Apparently a downpour earlier in the day caused the sprinklers to malfunction during our show. Eventful, for sure. And then the production was 3 hours long, so we got out around 11pm (it's currently 12:30am).

For those that care, the production review: It was fabulous. The mechanicals were Globe ushers. It worked wonderfully. Helenus and Hermia were Indian and grew up together, so there was an Indian/slightly Bollywood at moments vibe about it. Puck was amazing. Oberon was too dark. We did see most characters in their underpants at various times (the sign outside said: "This performance contains naughtiness of a sexual nature"). It wasn't as lewd as I thought it would be. The Helenus thing totally worked for me. I really actually loved that choice (and he was Good!) All the lovers were great except Demetrius. Meow Meow (she's apparently a big Australian performer) played Titania, so there were lots of songs... which mostly worked (sometimes they were excessive). Overall, it was awesome and magical, and a perfect performance for our first night in London.

We saw the artistic director sitting close to us. We also sat next to a lovely couple that were fascinated by the fact we lived in Alaska. The husband really wanted to come visit. The wife said: "I only go South. I went to Scotland once but it was so bloody cold, I swore I'd never go back."

We just got back to find champagne and dessert and a card wishing us a happy 10th anniversary from the hotel. I'm telling you... the treatment is divine! (Not really sure what to do about the champagne, but we're definitely doing to dig into that yummy dessert before sleeping super soundly!).