Globe Theater (London Day 3)

For our last day in London we got a late start and went straight to lunch.  We heard that the Asian cuisine in London was very good so we ate at a Vietnamese restaurant down the street from our hostel called “Me Me”.   The food was great and our waitress was very friendly.  

After lunch we went to see Shakespeare’s Globe Theater.  The original Globe theater was burned down in the 1500’s during a performance of Henry VIII and was rebuilt in the early 1900s.  Along with the Globe Theater, Shakespeare worked in the Rose Theater and the Swan Theater.  We were able to take a tour of the Rose Theater which is currently being excavated after recently being discovered during renovations of another building.  Because of this, it was very hard to see much of what still exists but it was interesting to see that over the years, without any special attention to the theater, the city had been building over it.  We also explored the Globe Theater museum and learned a lot about the production of plays during Shakespeare’s time.  The theaters were originally located outside of the city, before the city had expanded that far, because it was forbidden by the Queen to have theaters within the city walls.  However, when Queen Elizabeth wanted to see a play, the whole crew would have to come to the palace to perform the play. 

After the Globe theater, we went to Picadilly Circus.  It was like London’s version of Time Square.  There were huge department stores and signs everywhere.  There was even a China Town nearby.  We walked around for a while and had a good time making fun of some of the European clothing in H&M.  After enjoying the scenery, we went to dinner at a restaurant in China Town and from there we went back to our hostel to pack and then went out.  Our flight to Amsterdam the next morning was at 6am, which meant we had to leave at 3:30am for the airport, so we decided to stay up all night.  We went to a Lebanese restaurant/hookah bar and hung out there until about 3am, then headed for the airport after saying goodbye to Julian.