London, First weekend (1 of 2)

(Originally posted 24 March 2007)

Today, 24 March, I went on a walk on the Southbank, which is so called, because, well, it is the south bank of the Thames. This area has become quite built up since my last visit to London, on my honeymoon in 1998. This part of town is where you will find the best views of the House of Parliament, and is where the "London Eye" - that giant Ferris wheel that dominates most cityscape's of London now, is located. I haven't been up the Eye yet - saving that for visitors.

I actually work on Southbank - both the IBM offices and the client offices are right in the heart of Southbank - so it felt strange to be there on a Saturday. But I'm glad I did, because now I know what's around. For example: the Tate Modern.The Tate Modern is the offshoot of the Tate, and houses their massive collection of all art since 1900. It is housed in an old Turbine factory, and is really geared towards families, with lots of activities for kids, which I think is just great. I saw Claude Monet's "waterlilies" (one of them anyway), Alexander Calder's mobiles, Giacometti, Miro, Arp, Dali, Rothko, etc....all the artists I grew to love and appreciate when I studied art history (I confess I still don't really "love" Dali - but I've grown to appreciate him). It was packed. I must go back one evening after work to look more in depth with fewer crowds...

The next thing I did today was go on a tour of the Shakespeare Globe Theatre. That was very interesting! This Globe theatre was a work of love for Sam Wannamaker. It was researched and built as close to what they believe the original looked liked. It has the first thatched roof in London since the 1660's - properly fireproofed, of course - and has an open roof (the thatched roof covers the balcony seats only). Even the costumes are created as originally as possible, using as much nature materials and construction as possible. The tour was very interesting, as it explained what the atmosphere was like in the 1590's England entertainment scene. Certainly not "Theatre" as we know it now. The stage sets all use the same backdrop, as it would have been done in Shakespeare time. The guide explained that this was part of the reason that William always set his plays' location in the first line or two - so that the audience could imagine in their own mind and not be distracted by details from the actual play. The season starts in May, with "Othello". You can get buy a ticket for as little as 5 GBP (about $10.00) to stand in the pit right in front of the stage - but if it rains, you get wet - no umbrellas allowed! And no sitting down either.