"Oh What Fools These Mortals Be"

(The author is misguided in thinking that quoting Shakespeare will class-up his blog.)

Friday, June 14

Besides the Bailey's Irish Cream, one of the other items we found in the kitchen cabinets was a jar of Marmite.  This is a British culinary oddity that I first became aware of back in the `80s but had never tasted.  For some reason, probably because of the similar color and texture, I had thought the primary ingredient of Marmite was molasses.  Marnie likes molasses so we thought we'd try a bit on toast for breakfast.  It was the most disgusting stuff I've ever tasted and it isn't easy to get its taste out of your mouth.  We didn't look at the ingredients until it was too late -- Marmite is primarily made out of yeast extract left over from brewing beer.  The manufacturer's marketing slogan is "Love it or hate it".   You can buy Marmite in the States at World Market and it makes a great gag gift (as it makes most people gag).

We managed to get to Shakespeare’s Globe Theater just in time to join the 9:30 tour and we had a very knowledgeable guide whose talk never seemed scripted.  After the tour we spent a few minutes in the theater museum and had fun with an interactive exhibit where a recorded actor would read the lines of one character in a Shakespeare play and you'd read another character's part into a microphone.  The two recorded parts would then be merged and played back.  Another exhibit featured recordings of famous actors (i.e. John Gielgud, Marlon Brando, Judi Dench, Ian Holm and others) performing the most famous bits of Shakespeare plays.  Their unique voices and cadences were like soothing music and it made me wonder where I could get my own copy of their performances.

 

 

 

Afterwards we walked across the Millennium Bridge to St. Paul's Cathedral where we immediately tackled the 500+ stairs to the top of the dome.  This wasn't particularly strenuous because the steps have a low rise and for some reason I had only gone half way up in my previous visits in the interior of the dome.  I had been missing out on the commanding view from outside at the top of the dome (the image below looks south to the Millennium Bridge, and the Shakespeare Globe Theatre on the left and the Tate Modern on the right on the far side of the Thames).

This picture from the top of St. Paul's shows the OXO Tower on the river bank, behind which our flat was located.

 

St. Paul’s now costs £15 ($23) but our London Passes covered the fee as well as the £13 for the Globe.  I have to agree with Marnie though that the exterior of St. Paul's looks more like a government building than a church.  It may be a magnificent building, particularly the interior, but I'd still take a medieval cathedral over it any day.  We had a light lunch in the cafe located in part of the crypt and headed for the Borough Market back on the South Bank.  This market actually would have been a better source for lunch had we been able to put off eating a little longer; it's foodie heaven but all we bought were some strawberries. 

We then took the RV1 bus back to the flat for 90 minutes of rest and then walked to The Strand to catch the #9 bus to Knightsbridge.  We took front row seats on the upper deck and had an interesting ride during the Friday rush hour.  I hadn't previously appreciated just how many buses were on the streets of London; while we waited for the #9 to arrive other buses went by about every 30 seconds.  I used the London Underground on all my prior trips but I think I missed-out on the better experience of bus travel.  It's slower but you get to see much more than on the Tube where all you have to look at are other people in a rush to get somewhere.

 

We had planned on seeing both Harrods and Selfridges but the former was disappointing so we never made it to the later.  Everything is upscale at Harrods and incredibly expensive but luxury goods just don't seem to be all that interesting to me anymore.  It might have helped if we had found the Food Halls but we somehow missed them despite later learning we had been on the right floor.  We did find the Pet Department where we watched some very pampered dogs get groomed. 

By the time we got to Hyde Park we were ready for a rest, so we paid £3 to rent two lawn chairs for an hour at the Serpentine Lake and watched people and all manner of fowl.   The sun was out and we basked in the 66 degree weather which was one of our best days of weather in London.  You can witness a moment of this in the video below:

 

We walked to Piccadilly Circus to find the Whole Foods but ultimately decided not to bother buying anything.  We then walked through a very busy Soho where various pubs had patrons packing the sidewalks enjoying their drinks.  At first glance it looked like people were lined up just to get in to the pubs, but they already had their drinks and were actually on the sidewalk because the weather was so fine.  Marnie had fond memories of Soho from when she was previously in London but that had more to do with hip little shops she remembered which we didn't run across.

 

We continued on to Covent Garden [360°] where we watched an old Chinese man play a traditional flute consisting of a dozen or more pipes and at about 8:30 hit Sagar, an Indian vegetarian restaurant. It didn’t seem like it was that late because sunset near the summer solstice at this high longitude isn’t until 9:20.  Our RV1 bus stop was just steps away from the restaurant and it dropped us off at the bus stop right in front of the door to our flat.  We went to bed almost immediately with the beginning of blisters on our feet.  Even with the bus rides we had probably still walked at least ten miles.