Day 4 - All the World’s a Stage

Today we were off to see The Globe - a theatre rebuilt to the same specs and materials as the original Shakespeare Globe.  We had a wonderful engaging tour and got to see the view from many perspectives. There was a crew working to build scenery for their next production, and that was interesting as well.  

We also saw our first sun.  I made Rich take a photo but I realize now you can only see it a tiny bit in the reflection on the water.  London is fantastic - but even grayer than Rochester.  And this tiny little burst didn’t last.  But it was the first day with no drizzle.  It hasn’t rained yet (coming Sunday I hear) but London is always kind of damp in our experience.

We also visited one of London’s top foodie destinations - Borough Market.  Lots of food stalls and vendors, fresh meat and seafood, cheese, breads, etc. It was lively and the food looked gorgeous.  

We had fresh pasta for lunch at a market side restaurant and it was great. 

We did a quirky little museum that allowed us to climb a very very narrow turret of 50 some steps to reach a mid-1800s operating theatre.  Only 3 kinds of surgery happened then - removing stones from your bladder, amputation, or drilling holes in your head to release pressure.  Blood loss and infection often killed you anyway, even if you survived one of those procedures (with no anesthesia). But it was still a frontier of medicine and many training doctors came to watch here.  And now seems an appropriate time to thank my knee surgeon and anesthesiologist without whom this vacation would not be possible. So much walking!  More than 10 miles one day.  But I’m doing great.  My feet hurt but not my knees.  Modern medicine is the best.  

After thanking my lucky stars my surgery took place in 2025, we walked along the Thames and admired our first real look at St Paul’s.  We got a better view at The Tate Modern art gallery 3rd floor. 

Tate Modern is housed in a vast former power plant.  We took an informative docent tour, and spent some time trying to understand modern art.  This was art… not trash from the Borough Market: 

But there also some very cool paintings and art.  And like the Portrait Gallery yesterday, it was free.  It helps ease the confusion about pineapples on rocks when at least you didn’t have to pay to see it. 

We walked some more on the Queens jubilee walkway along the river and were planning to check out a famed  graffiti tunnel. But we stumbled upon a graffiti skate park in the act of bring re-graffitied.  That seemed like enough street and modern art for one day.  

 

Home on another bridge. 

Many small plates of vaguely Moroccan food at a hip small plate small restaurant in the happening Seven Dial neighborhood for dinner. And did I spy adorable Dylan from The Great British bakeoff at the restaurant?  Maybe!

Some after dinner wandering and a stop at the food court with bar service that is the Seven Dials market.  We had been there before but it seems they have bands and music at night. 

Dodged the pub drinkers - all pubs in downtown London seem to spill out into the street (and even across the street at one we saw).  It’s not just  banished smokers here like in the USA - just everyone having a pint with their mates. 

See you tomorrow!  Alls well that ends well.