But as our journey to the Cotswolds, Oxford and Stratford upon Avon starts, I can get into the day we had yesterday. It began with a few items left to check off of our London bucket list. First, we headed to the Globe Theatre. The current Globe Theatre is apparently the third one of its kind, having been lovingly reconstructed by bard superfan Sam Wanamaker. They still do plays at this theatre, and they still offer the standing-room seats that, in Shakespeare’s time, went to folks affectionately called the “groundlings.”
It was a very cool tour, and our guide for that one was as charming as she was pleasant. Just in case we were feeling a little too historic, though, the next stop on our journey was the Tate Modern, London’s own modern art museum. Man, there’s some really weird stuff in there. No- for real. An employee of the museum even said so, as did our tour guide just this morning. Apparently, any Londoner you ask can assure you that the collection at the Tate Modern is “weird,” I absolutely agree.
We spent a little bit of time exploring the art that was free to view, opting not to engage in the ticketed attractions. We didn’t intend to stay long enough to make tickets worthwhile- there was plenty of weird art to see for free. We saw some work by Salvador Dali, a bit of Andy Warhol’s handiwork, and some decidedly stranger things. There was the inexplicable canvas with little beads glued on in piles, with each bead-pile crowned by a plastic eyeball from a toy doll. That was properly strange. We saw the enormous sculpture of the spider that had to be placed in a central space with a tall ceiling. Of course, there were things that were slightly more traditional- paintings and such, but certainly, everything was modern.
When we left there, it was time to find some really good Indian food. Cas had a restaurant all picked out and a backup plan in case the place didn’t look good when we got there. Everything was wonderful. We had samosas, a chicken dish and some very yummy garlic naan bread. There were four people near us, one of whom was filming every single thing that happened. He filmed as the waitress poured beer in a glass. He filmed as a woman seated at the table scrolled on her phone. He filmed as the food arrived. Not knowing why, I decided they must be the stars of a reality show I was inventing in my head called “Three boring Brits go to restaurants.” I’m sure my imaginary show will be cancelled after half a season and replaced with a baking show. The waitress told us what the filming was all about after the table was cleared and the four people were filming their way down the street- I feel like it was maybe a beer commercial? I honestly didn’t care enough to follow up. We were just glad they left and took their camera with them.
Our final destination to check the last item off our London bucket list was Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese. While there is great debate about which pub is the oldest, and I’m sure it will rage on long after we’re tucked into our bed in Dallas, the pub we visited was on a site that has housed a pub since 1538. We were in a building that went up in 1667, though if you walk down underground a but, you’ll find a bar inside a 13th century Carmelite Monastery. I asked the manager, and he said there are something like 20 rooms in the pub, and though it wasn’t open for seating right then, he invited us to visit the room that Charles Dickens most liked to sit in- we even spotted his favorite seat. We probably spent as much time at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese as we did at the Tate Modern- and each spot was a museum of sorts, but unsurprisingly, the hospitality was better at the pub.
After that, we were kid of over being in crowded spaces and jockeying for position on sidewalks, so we hopped into a tube station and made our way back to the hotel, by way of a grocery store where we could grab some snacks for today’s bus adventure.
It’s our last full day in England today. We’re leaving tomorrow afternoon, and through the miracle of time zones, we’ll arrive home the same day. We’re about half an hour away from Stratford upon Avon right now, so we’ll get into that later.
For now, here is a photo of me and Cas drinking pints of cider in a bar tucked into a 13th century Carmelite Monastery. Because of course we did…
And here’s the photo album: tinyurl.com/dunlap-pl
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