A day in the park, and night at the theatre

Relaxation station set up on Round Pond, right across from Kensington Palace

After a long weekend (longer for some than others.. cough cough Prof Williams' arrival to London in the wee hours of the morning!), we were given a later start date for class and the afternoon off since the Globe performance was in the evening. I set off west to Kensington Garden and Palace, the former home of many years of royalty, and my personal favorite, Princess Diana.

The pristine garden and fountain surrounding the palace.

My favorite two exhibitions of the palace were the archives of Diana's dresses and the records of the last debutantes of London. I recognized the black dress below from her famous twirl with John Travolta!

Official picture on the right from the White Musuem

After my tour of the palace, I took my time and walked from Kensington Gardens to its eastern neighbor, Hyde Park. The park was crowded, and there were many paddle boaters on the Serpentine boating lake. Still on a Diana high, I walked past the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain too.

On a lakeside stroll in Hyde Park

Our evening activity, seeing William Shakespeare's "As You Like It", walked us across the Thames on the Millenium Bridge to the Globe Theatre. The theatre is a reproduction of Shakespeare's own theatre. It is open air, and the seats are around the stage in several tiers. To allow us to get the full effect, Prof Williams bought "groundlings" tickets, which meant we stood right in front of the stage for the production.

Christina and Mal

Jenny, Ros, Nicki, Muriel, Ethan, Angie, and I

The show was great! We were right in the middle of the action by being actually at the level of the stage. We were so close I actually thought we would be spit on by the actors pronouncing strong declarations! The Shakespearan language is a little tricky for me to understand sometimes, but the expressive and comedic actors helped the audience along. At the end of the show, they did a big dance number... not very Shakespeare-esque but very very entertaining!

Perry, Kelsey, Alison, Emma

The stage, complete with a trap door!

The circular Globe Theatre

We walked back across the Thames on our way home, and the waterfront was so pretty lit up. After busy weekends, I think we all could agree it was nice to be back in London and our flats.

Looking across the Thames: Millenium Bridge on left, with St. Paul's Cathedral straight across