Barnett Vicarious Adventures: May 10, 2013 Globe, Westminster Abbey, Churchill War Rooms and Horse Guard Museum

On yesterday’s post about the Tower of London, I forgot to mention the visit to the Crown Jewels. An amazing site. Any one of the crowns with their imbedded diamonds, rubies, emeralds, etc. could feed a small country for a year. Then there are the scepters and the golden dishes. Display after display of the most amazing wealth. Finally, there is the world’s largest cut diamond.at 545.67 carats!!!! Of course you cannot photograph any of the jewels and any description of mine would not do justice. Just suffice to say they were dazzling. Missing from the display was the most famous crown. It was being worn that day by Queen Elizabeth II for the opening day of Parliament. Elaine loved the crowns. Maybe that is why she is addicted to “Crown Royal.”

The Globe Theater. Shakespeare’s original theater sat on the south bank of the Thames River. In those days, the Bankside area had 3 famous theaters. The Globe was dismantled and moved across the river to London. When the lease on the land expired, the new landlord, being a Puritan, did not want plays being performed on his land. So, the theater was dismantled again and sat in a warehouse for years. The late movie actor and producer, Sam Wanamaker, dreamed of restoring the Globe to its former glory as a place for the production of Shakespeare's plays. Unable to locate the remains of the Globe, he used drawings of the old theater to rebuild it to an exact likeness as possible. He did not live to see it finished, but his daughter, Zoe Wanamaker, carried it on and thus the theater stands today on the south side of the Thames just a few hundred yards from its original location. There is a museum showing Shakespeare's context in history and a timeline of his plays. The season opens every year on his birthday, April 23, and runs through November 23.

Still an open room theater. It costs a mere $7.50 to stand in the area where the poor people stood. If it rains, you get a little wet as umbrellas are not allowed.

Plays at the Globe are performed daily and they run in a series so that no play is performed two nights in a row.

Westminster Abbey – of all the places to visit in London, Westminster Abbey is among the top 3. The other two are the Tower of London and Windsor Castle. You are not allowed to take pictures in Westminster and explanations do not do it justice. It is the coronation site of kings and queens for over 1,000 years. The list of famous personages entombed in the abbey would be too exhausting to list, but as an example, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, William Barrett Browning, R.L. Tolkien, Mary Queen of Scotts, Elizabeth I, Henry VIII. Well, you get the picture. All these and more entombed in its walls or buried in its floors. There is also the tomb of the British Unknown Soldier. It is the only one you do not walk on. It is very disconcerting to walk around on the tomb stones of very famous people, but you cannot avoid it except for the tomb of the unknown which is roped off and surrounded with poppies.

Churchill War Rooms – preserved beneath 10 Downing Street is the bunker complex from which Winston Churchill directed the British forces during World War II. It was thought to be impregnable by the German bombs of the day, but it is now known that if a bomb had hit the bunker, it could have wiped out Churchill and his entire upper command. It is a very historic site and quite amazing to see how primitive the equipment and quarters were compared to today’s standards. There are “hotline” phones to Roosevelt and phones painted a specific color so that you knew the line was scrambled when issuing orders to field commanders.

The list of Churchill’s top war ministers and the conference room where they met daily said to be exactly as it was left when the lights were turned out for the last time at the end of the war.

The door up to 10 Downing Street upstairs. The map room. And below the communications room that were manned 24 hours a day.

Horse Guard Cavalry – The Queen’s Horse Guards are the ones that wear the famous silver helmets. Each helmet costs over $2,000! There was a punishment issued more than 100 years ago when the Queen, while strolling in St James Park, discovered a Horse Guard drunk while on duty. She decided to punish the entire unit by requiring them to parade in full dress and mounted every afternoon at 3:30pm for the next 100 years. The punishment was carried out and the 100 years has not expired, but they continue to parade everyday as a tradition except during the 2012 Olympics when their parade ground was covered in sand a foot deep and used for the beach volleyball competition.

O2 Arena, British Music Experience Museum and Cable Car – Off to the 02 Arena, a massive domed entertainment venue with room supported from poles making it look somewhat like a pin cushion. It is the site for the Final Four European basketball tournament. The entry teams are Moscow, Madrid, Barcelona, and Piraeus, Greece. Games were being played today and it is a rowdy crowd.

If you cannot read the name of the restaurant above, it is, “The Slug and Lettuce!” Don’t ask me why. Does not sound like a place to eat.

“The Armadillo,” a Santa Fe style restaurant.

The British Music Experience is a sort of Rock and Roll Museum and a history of British Rock from 1956-2010. Guitars, costumes, posters and memorabilia. There are also various headphones where you can hear some of the music from artists you may not know.

A little friendly rivalry between supporters of Barcelona and Madrid. Each fan is holding the other ones colors. Wish peace would always be so easy.

You can actually purchase tickets to walk on the roof of the 02! Climb the stairs, they hook you to a tether and you walk basically on trampoline material to the top where I am told you get a great view of London. The 02 was built specially for the Olympics and is now both a sporting and concert venue.