We utilized every minute of our day today. We started our day's proceedings with a trip to the Imperial War Museum. A group of us spent four hours in the building and we still didn't see everything they had on display! They had extensive exhibits on World War One, World War Two, and the Holocaust specifically. There was also a gallery of photography about the Syrian Crisis which was stunning. I am fascinated with history so I loved exploring all of the artifacts and information they had on display. I took a class on the Holocaust last year, so it was especially interesting to read about things I had already learned. It was also eye opening to read information from a perspective other than the US.
Because we spent so long in the museum, we were forced to grab sandwiches and eat them en route to the River Thames to meet the whole group for our afternoon tea. We got there with a few minutes to spare and we waited to be ushered onto the pier to begin our afternoon of being British.
Our group had to enter the boat last, but our group was shown to the front of the boat with three tables set aside for us. We sat down and were quickly served a choice of either tea or coffee. My tea was perfectly delicious after a splash of cream and two packets of sugar.
We also were served a three tiered serving platter with scones, assorted pastries, and sandwiches. Alas, no cucumber sandwiches but everything was very delicious. The table I was at polished off all the platters within twenty minutes. After the plates were bare, a few of us wandered to the top deck of the boat to see the views unobstructed by windows. We took several pictures and headed back down. The sun, contrary to the norm, was quite ferocious and I was already starting to burn despite multiple layers of sunscreen.
The boat ride lasted an hour and a half and was completely delightful. We saw Big Ben and the London Eye from the river.
Our tea then came to an end and we took a river boat bus down to the Globe Theatre.
There, we attended a lecture about the Twelfth Night play, which we saw afterwards. We stood on the ground level for the entire show, which was not as bad as I feared. The play was actually a musical and was amazing. It was entertaining and very funny.
Alli,
ReplyDeleteIt was definitely interesting to walk through the Imperial War Museum as a US citizen and learn more information about war from the Side of the British!
I was also surprised by how much I enjoyed the play at the Globe! Our group spent a long time in the museum as well, so after having been on our feet for a large portion of the day already I wasn't super excited about standing. But, the show was amazing enough that I hardly minded!
The muesum was very interesting! I enjoyed what I saw! The tea was my absolute favorite! The trays of scones and other desserts were wonderful and a dream come true! My tea however consisted of a splash of milk and many, many sugar packets! Yum! The tea on the boat was one of my favorite activities so far!
ReplyDeleteI agree, it was interesting to learn about the World Wars through a different perspective. For example, while I was in the Holocaust portion of the museum, I learned that it was Russians that had liberated the first camp. That was fascinating to me because I was always kind of under the impression that it was actually American troops that did.
ReplyDeleteWhile exploring the causes of WWI and what it was like, I was disturbed to see some patterns that seemed to be occurring today. For example, the unrest that the lower class was feeling towards the richest population. It makes me sad that we can't learn from history.
I enjoyed the museum so much, however, I felt frustrated with the amount of children that were running and screaming in the museum. I felt like they were being disrespectful and their teachers should have waited until they were old enough to understand the significance of what they were seeing.
Anyways, tea was equally as wonderful and that show! Oh my gosh, I've seen Shakespeare before, and this was by far my favorite adaptation! I felt like if the Bard would have seen it today, he would have been proud. I left begging for more!
Tea Time was amazing once we got onto the actual boat! While waiting on the dock, I was getting motion sick (it didn't feel so good). I loved being able to go onto the rooftop of the boat because we were able to take many cute pictures!
ReplyDeleteThe play ended our night perfectly! It was one of the best plays I have been to!