Trip to England - Part 2

After sleeping in on Saturday, we met as a group to head to Shakespeare's Globe.

During our tour, we got to see the interior of the Globe, which is a reconstruction of the original. The building was constructed entirely by hand using authentic construction methods and took 3 1/2 years to finish.

The stage and ceiling are elaborately painted, making up for the few props during the play.

Outside the Globe, the dome of St. Paul's is clearly visible across the river.

After our tour, we went inside to view the exhibit which has (among other things) costumes from their former productions! You can easily guess what interested us... We also had a demonstration of clothing featuring Ophelia's outfit and one of the ladies from our group. Courtney was dressed entirely in 16th century clothing including this lovely block-printed skirt (an exact reproduction of one in the Museum of London's collection) and jacket. I love the color combination!

After finishing up there, Mom and I split ways. Mom went to various markets, including one that was closed (bummer!), and I went to the Dulwich Picture Gallery with several of the ladies from our group. Since I didn't go to the markets, I'll just report on the Gallery. :-) At the Globe, we all decided to wait for lunch until we got to Dulwich. Well, after a confusing and long trip, we arrived at Dulwich at 3 o'clock. We ate in the cafe right by the Gallery, but unfortunately it took an hour for the whole meal! By this time, we only had an hour to tour the gallery, but that ended up being just about perfect. The Dulwich Picture Gallery first opened to the public in 1817. Notwithstanding the fact that it houses Rubens, Van Dycks, Rembrandts, Raphaels, Canalettos, Reynolds, and many more, I must admit that I was a bit disappointed with the selection. Too many landscapes and works depicting classical scenes. *sigh* I guess that's the price you pay for being so picky! I did find one picture I really liked depicting a mother holding her child. The mother was wearing a beautiful spencer and the child's dress was so charming! Too bad they didn't have a postcard of that one.... Dulwich itself (at least the little we saw of it) was very nice and greenery abounded! I was starting to tire of the lack of vegetation in London, so it was a very refreshing break! :-) On the way home, we decided to navigate ourselves and not follow the instructions again and found our way back using a much more logical way. A little bonus was the fact that we switched to a tube at Victoria Station. After watching "The Importance of Being Earnest", I was hoping that somehow we'd be able to go there.

A charming shop in London. I loved the beautiful stone buildings that abound there and the oh-so-common hanging flower pots. Chicago has nothing on this!

In the evening, Mom and I took a walk along the Thames and saw this. Nothing can capture the beauty of St. Paul's lit up at night. Especially not this blurry picture.

Stay tuned for Part 3!