We left the East End for an entirely different piece of London – Hampstead. If Brick Lane was loud, motion-filled, and crowded, Hampstead is a haven of tree-lined lanes and ivy-covered homes. Even the “commercial” section where we alighted from the tube felt peaceful. After browsing in the shopping area and eating some lunch, we headed into the neighborhoods to find the home where John Keats lived shortly before his death. It is also the location where he wrote his famous “Ode to a Nightingale” under a plum tree in his front yard. That tree is now gone, but I posed for a picture under the small new one that replaced it:
After visiting Keats’ home, we wanted to take advantage of our position above the city to get a panoramic view. Though in Keats’ neighborhood we were immediately adjacent to Parliament Hill in Hampstead Heath, we decided to walk toward Primrose Hill in Regent’s Park instead. As our London map does not cover areas that far north, we had to rely on the not-to-scale map in our guidebook to show us the way. Now, those of you who know Michael and me know that we are in pretty good shape, but this walk was a challenge. We had already walked a great deal earlier in the morning morning, and we added several miles to get to Regent’s Park. Then, yes then, we climbed the hill to see the city. And it was a nice view:
And so we sighed, took some pictures of London’s skyline, and headed back down the hill to the closest tube station to get a ride home. After a thirty-minute tube ride (one connection) and a 15-20 walk to our neighborhood, we had about an hour to rest before heading back to the tube station to make our way to the Globe. As the main lines near our area are still closed for the weekend, we had to go well out of our way and walk from more distant stations to get where we want to go, but I was looking forward to seeing a Shakespearian play performed at the Globe.
Though our tour guide told us yesterday that she felt the groundlings (those who stand just in front of and beside the stage) have the best “seats” in the house, we were glad to be covered in the middle gallery during the rainy performance. I enjoyed the play in some respects, but I was disappointed in the actor playing Iago. He just did not seem like the nefarious villain he is supposed to be. Othello was loud and booming, but perhaps a little overacted. Desdemona and Roderigo did a good job, and like the rest of the crowd, I enjoyed the comical musicians who performed before and during the play.
After a late dinner at an Italian restaurant back in our neighborhood, Michael and I are ready for bed as we have an early start tomorrow. We are hoping the rain lets up!
2 comments:
So do the tickets for the front row seats go for super cheap like in the old days when the beggars plagued the close seats? You know, like a keep the tradition alive kind of thing? That sucks about Othello. You know, some people just don't play as good of an Othello as Lawrence Fishburne.
Hi John - Yes, the groundling seats are only five pounds, which is about ten American dollars. And while it is somewhat of the same kind of tradition, there were only perhaps 300 people in the groundling area on Sunday night, whereas our tour guide told us that double that number would have squeezed in hundreds of years ago. Also, none of them seemed particularly drunk or rowdy as the case likely would have been in Shakespeare's time. In any case, I am glad that we had seats since we have been doing quite a bit of walking during our trip.
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