Food, Pubs, & Sisters

The next day Becky headed out with another student who invited her to go see her internship. Kelsey did a book club each week with a couple women from all different ethnic backgrounds and each person just brings something to share. Becky found it very fascinating. I headed downtown and found myself at the Borough Market. It is a place that has existed since the 1000’s. It has seen many, many changes and now is an openair market with much of it under railroad tracks and bridges. On this April day it was jammed back. Many of the UK sites are as all the schools are on Easter Holiday. This is a two-week break that lines up with Easter every year and is a time between semesters. I grabbed a fried chicken sandwich that was very good.

I then walked over to Southwark Cathedral. It was Southwark Priory for hundreds of years and then after the dissolution of the monasteries it became a church. It was not till 1905 that it became a Cathedral. The area was hit with over one thousand bombs during the blitz in WWII, but the cathedral only took minor damage during that whole time. As is with so many cathedrals in this country it was gorgeous. Small in comparison to others, but very nice in its own way. It is much more of an active church then other cathedrals we have been in.

Becky met up with me and we then took off to find a pub she had been very interested in finding, the Prospect of Whiby. It is sitting right on the Thames River and has been named The Pelican and Devil’s Tavern. It was originally built around 1520, but has been rebuilt many times. One thing it was noted for was the place that pirates were hung. It was also a place known for sailors, smugglers and others from the rougher side of life. It was a wonderful pub and really off the main roads to anywhere. We enjoyed our time there.

Next, Becky heard of the called the Mayflower Pub. It has existed since around the 1550’s and gone by the names Shippe and then Spread Eagle. It also sits on the Thames River and is where in 1620 the Mayflower set sail for Plymouth in America. Again, it is another pub out of the way but was so wonderful to be in and the food was very good. Becky even setup a reservation to come back and have her birthday dinner here.

While at the Prospect Pub we decided to go to the Mayflower Pub and Google Maps showed that we could walk there and that the walk would take us through the Rotherhithe Tunnel. We love tunnels and so we headed off. It was going to be about 30-40 minutes. What we were not ready for was that though the tunnel was originally built for both pedestrian and other traffic, in 1908 that other traffic was horses. Today, that other traffic is cars, that drive very, very close to you and that put out a great deal of exhaust. We made it through 4,862 feet long tunnel that is 48 ft below water level, but it was not a fun walk. Afterwards I discovered there are people who have walked it like we did, but most do not recommend it. Neither do we. Hey, we can check that off of things to do.

This day was not done, and neither was the walking. The students in the Arts class were all going to see The Three Sisters at the Globe Theatre. We also got tickets to join them. We left the Mayflower and typed in our CityMapper app that we need to get to The Globe. We got on the train and arrived right on time, unfortunately it was the Globe pub. The theatre was on the other side of the river and a 20-minute walk or 35-minute train trip. We booked it and made it with 4 minutes to spare. Turned out our seats were at the very top of the upper level and were standing room.

The theater is in the shape of the old Globe Theatre of Shakespeare’s, and they stage it and light it just like they did back then. This meant it was lighted by candles, many, many candles. Sitting at the top it was pretty hot, especially after almost running to the theatre, standing was also not good for Becky’s ankle. She had to leave and head back early. I stayed and the show as not bad. Anton Chekhov is not my favorite playwright, but it was great to see how they used the space and lit the show. They also had understudies for two of the characters and for this company the understudies just were black and carry around a copy of the script and read their part. Again, very interesting and made the show fun to watch.

Step count for this day was over 31,000 steps.