England Trip Day 4 -- Globe Theater, St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey

First thing Friday morning we went straight to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and took a tour of it.  It isn't the original theater (that one burned down during a performance a few hundred years ago) and isn't in the exact same place, but it's fairly close and is an *almost* exact replica save for a few technological advances.

The wealthy sat in the higher balconies nearest the stage so that they would be seen by everyone, even if that meant not having a great view of the play.We got to watch them rehearse Romeo and Juliet for a few minutes.

We were excited about checking out the gift shop and getting something with our last name written on it, just to find all the Macbeth products weren't exactly our taste...

The Millenium Bridge (the ones the Death Eaters destroyed) takes you straight from the Globe to St. Paul's Cathedral, so we walked across it which was very convenient.

Ben was the one to convince me that we should take time to tour St. Paul's and I'm so glad he did.  I had no idea how gorgeous it was.We spent a couple of hours there.

A very London view from St. Paul's.

At the entrance to St. Paul's is a statue of Christ.  The artist wanted to make him look very plain and normal, which I think is very touching.

(All the pictures inside churches or abbeys are courtesy of google)

Like many cathedrals, St. Paul's is in the shape of a cross.  You sit in the center of the cross for church services.  At all the different churches we visited, most of them took the opportunity to have a moment where everyone stopped looking around so a prayer could be said over the speakers.  It was a very reverent experience.

You can climb up to the dome in the ceiling to two different levels.  Only the whispering galleries (the lower level) were open when we visited and the main staircase was also closed for maintenance.  So we had to take a tightly wound staircase in the back to reach it.  Now, I have climbed lighthouses before, but St. Paul's made me feel like I was going to die.  

The upper level is called the "whispering galleries" because you can whisper into the wall and hear the message on the far side of the dome thanks to its circular shape.  It was bizarre to hear different whispers coming from different directions.  

(So you get the idea of how big it is)

For lunch we stopped at chain restaurant called "Pret."  We ate there a few times because their food was so good.  We were excited to try our first Victoria Sponge (it was everything we hoped it would be) and a delicious chocolate praline.  

We then walked over to Westminster Abbey where there was a huge line to get in.  

Tomb of the unknown soldier surrounded by red poppies.

Queen Elizabeth I's tomb.

Her rival, Mary Queen of Scots, is buried on the exact opposite side of Elizabeth.  It was Mary's son's way of getting revenge with Elizabeth when he inherited her crown.

Wesminster is also huge.  It was built shortly before 1066 when William the Conqueror defeated King Harold.  William was crowned on Christmas day.  It was so interesting to hear how important 1066 was in England because it changed how the entire country lived.  

Ben was awestruck to be standing in a place where centuries of kings had been crowned, and I was awestruck to be standing in the place where William and Kate got married.  Ha!

We saw sooooo many tombs.  So. Many.

They had a section of the Abbey dedicated to famous English writers called "Poet's Corner."

Ben's uncle Richard mentioned to us that he had an ancestor who was buried here: Anne Bracegirdle.  Apparently she was the first woman actress to work under Shakespeare and was a favorite at court.  She had a duel fought over her as well.  Cool stuff!  We were so glad we were able to find her tomb with the help of the Westminster staff.

The view over Anne's grave.

The corridor that Anne was buried in.

Since we still had some time left in the day, we walked down to Buckingham Palace and on the way we got to see the militia practicing for the Queen's birthday celebration in June.

Then we came back to our hotel...

... to have a very healthy dinner.