Our Sunday in London started out as a traditional English Sunday should - in church. We attended the Sunday service at Southwark Cathedral on the south bank of the Thames.
Although this has only been a cathedral church since the early 1900's, the building itself is dates to the early 1200's. It is much older than the church buildings in London which were destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666.
This would have been Shakespeare's church when he lived in London and did his work at the Globe Theatre. His brother is buried in the church, though we never did find the grave. Here is a memorial to Shakespeare which adorns one of the side aisles.
I'll spare everybody a review of the service other than to say that the visiting choir - this is summer so the usual choir is on vacation - was really good. Even if they were from Dallas....
One of the reasons we went to Southwark Cathedral is that we had tickets to see a production of Euripides' Helen at the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. This reproduction of an Elizabethan theatre is located only a few blocks away on the south bank, right next to the Tate Modern Museum. It was strange show to see at this theater since it is a very, very modern interpretation of a Greek comedy presented in a Tudor setting. Here is the stage with some rather odd stage stuff.
Here is the seating of the theater. There were benches instead of seats - John was not keen on that - and standing area in front. We were glad we had seats even if they were benches. We had enough standing last night at the Royal Albert Hall.
Here is an exterior shot of the theater.
After the play - the plot is too strange to recount in a sentences or two - we went to have lunch. Then we headed over to Chelsea because John was scheduled to speak at a meeting there. While he was doing that, I wandered around Chelsea and Battersea Park. I actually found some people playing cricket.
We drove back to Brentford where Vicki prepared a fabulous dinner for us. She is so wonderful. Why does she put up with us?
