London: Day 2

We started our day with a huge English breakfast (I finally dared to have some coffee) then, fat and happy, we went straight to Greenwich. I must say, I was excited for Greenwich for all the cool historical stuff, yes, but mostly because Thor kicked some serious ass against Malekith in the Marvel movie Thor: The Dark World. I'm a huge Thor fan, both the Norse deity and the fictional Marvel comic character. We had our picnic lunch right where all the action happened near the huge pillars of the Old Royal Naval College that is right on the River Thames, and it was a lovely, cool day. We toured the Painted Walls gallery, which is another feature of the movie but has also loads of incredible paintings over each wall and the entire ceiling. They had guides of all the details and mirrors in which you could examine the ceilings without straining your neck. It was beautiful in there, and I have a softness for art history. The Chapel gallery was also quite stunning, and had fewer tourists so we got better photos in there. 

I kept having to sit down or find a loo every ten minutes, and I cannot deny that this day began the first of my really just horribly whiny days. My feet were really killing me, and when every step is pain, it is just a sad, sad thing to look up at the enormously steep walk up the Greenwich observatory and planetarium. We found a seat and watched the throngs of people climbing the arduous path to the Prime Merdian. After about 20 minutes of resting my stupid feet, we too began the climb. It was like walking up the steps to Mordor, but with no steps and a thousand flying monkeys every which way, criminey I get annoyed at people! They pay zero attention to anything but themselves, kids are dodging in and out and throwing my old, wobbly ass off kilter. I am becoming an old, grumpy curmudgeon. When we finally reached the peak, up in the clouds somewhere I think, we were graced with an absolutely stunning, sprawling view of London. I wish I had had been able to have more grace in the journey up, because once there, it was worth every step. 

We bought tickets to the planetarium show "Asteroids: Mission Extreme" which was the earliest show we could get, and since had tickets to the Globe later, we didn't want to be fussing around there all day. The show was a little cheesy, and both us took short naps once the lights went out, but it was pretty cool and narrated by Sigourney Weaver. We tried like hell to make our way to the Prime Meridian line, but they were charging separate admissions for every bloody floor and every bloody exhibit, so we finally just went to the front gate, snapped a photo and then made the long trek back down the scary, steep hill, back to the hotel for a little rest and to snarf down some Burger King before we hustled off to the Globe.  

The Globe Theatre. 

This theatre is so amazing to visit. We came in 1998 for our honeymoon, and we bought a brick to help support the renovation costs, and that certificate is framed on our little wedding shrine. But in '98, the season had not begun yet, so we were unable to see a play. Last night, we were finally able to see a Shakespeare play in the country of his origin, in the reconstructed theatre that celebrates his beautiful poetic theatre. And of all plays, we got to see my favorite: Macbeth. Words will not do it justice. It was so perfectly presented, interpreted, and acted. They did a phenomenal job with the music, which was some of the eeriest, bone-chillingly evocative music I have ever heard (and one of my favorite things is tracking down bone-chillingly evocative music.) There was cello, bells, piano/keyboard, percussion, violin, guitar, oboe, shawm, garlla (two instruments neither of us have heard of, but they were easy to hear in the performance for their unique sounds), and all four musicians sang. The main vocalist had an incredible, powerful voice and range, and in certain parts her voice was run through this really cool demonic kind of effect. (I totally want that vocal effect so I can sound like Zoul whenever I want :)) The actors were all stellar, and the subtle and not-so-subtle humor they brought to the show was perfectly delivered. Lady Macbeth was played by Tara Fitzgerald, whom we just realized is Stanus Baratheon's wife in Game of Thrones, and Macbeth was played by Ray Fearon, who was the voice of Firenze in Harry Potter, and Nadia Albina was also an excellent and versatile player who had a comepletely hilarious bit in the play, played numerous characters, including one of the witches. The depiction of the Wyrd/Weird/Wayward Sisters was absolutely, unequivocally out of this world. I had chills and goosebumps every time they were featured; the lighting, music, costuming and props made these four (yes, four witches in this one) some of the most convincingly creepy characters I've seen on stage. The show ended with the whole cast doing what I assume was some kind of Scottish country dance, and it was just joyous and everyone clapped along. This was a major highlight of this trip, as we knew it would be. We had a very romantic walk along the River Walk and over the Millineum Bridge, then hopped the tube back to the hotel to rave more about the show. Fan-feckin-tastic!