Wenches and Trenches

Woke up to the sun shinning outside the window! After a nice breakfast of toast with jam and tea I made it down to the bus stop and began my journey towards London Bridge. Getting off at London Bridge station, I walked through the Warfs to the super big and amazing Borough Market, which definitely surpasses all of the farmers markets I've seen.

I wandered around the stalls for a while, trying organic cheeses and drooling (almost literally) over these:

 

I then headed over to Shakespeare's, The Globe Theater. First I took a self guided walking tour through their little museum display and saw some amazing costumes from different Shakespeare shows:

After that I took a guided tour, where they took us through the actual theater, while briefing us on its history restoration.

Those unlucky people in groups down in the Gremlin standing area were rained on a bit, but that soon passed. Since it was so close to their matinee time the musicians began rehearsing and we got to listen to some traditional Shakespearean music.
Afterwards I went to the box office to see if they had any tickets left for the 2:00 show, and met a very angry Spanish lady in line. Go figure. Unfortunately, the only tickets available were 39pounds, about 61USD. Unfortunately, but budget did not allow for such a splurge, so I walked over to the Tate Modern museum instead. The views from the balconies around the museum were my favorite part

 After sitting along the riverside for a quick lunch break, I returned to The Globe to look through the gift shop. No one was in line, so I tried my luck again at the box office. Still sold out except for $61 seats.
And one 12 pound ticket ($19) that had just been returned!!!
SO! I got to see "The Taming of the Shrew" by William Shakespeare in The Globe Theater!
What a treat. It was amazing. I loved it, loved it, loved it!
My seat was up in the third balcony level on stage right. My booth was filled with some very well mannered, uniformed school children on a field trip, with a teacher who was obviously a quirky theater fan. It was amazing. That's all I can say.

After the first act I gave up my royal person seat, and went down with the commoners to experience Shakespeare as a poor person in the "pit". It was really neat to be able to interact with the actors and see them up close as they went through the audience, rolled off stage etc.
I was pretty tired after the show, but still had enough energy to cross over the Southwark Bridge...

...and made my way towards the Tower of London

Did you know that the Tower's drawbridge used to have actual lions in the trench underneath it? Well, it did. Edward I put them there.

Those ones aren't real though...Just in-case you were wondering.
I didn't make it into The Tower unfortunatelly, because they were already done with tours for the day, so I walked along the river a bit and saw the London Bridge:

Once at home again, we relaxed a bit, lounging around in the living room before going out to dinner. Sophie and Adam took me to this tiny Korean/Japanese restaurant, as in six tables total tiny, where I had Bibimbap for the first time.
It was amazing!

It's a traditional Korean dish of rice topped with veggies, raw meat and an egg, served in a sizzling hot iron bowl. Once you get it you mix it all up and the bowl heats it and makes it all cooked and crispy. So delicious!
So, between the market, the theater, the play, the sunny weather and the yummy food, it was an amazing day. No better word to describe it.