Day Six 17th July 2010 - Globe Theatre / Hampton Court

A very Tudor day today.  The journey up to London goes quickly and before long we are disembarking from the coaches to walk across the Millennium Bridge - the approach to Bankside and Shakespeare's Globe.  The view is dominated by the Tate Modern (formerly Bankside Power Station) and some of us get to look inside this gallery of modern art later.

This modern Globe theatre (completed in 1997) the brainchild of American Sam Wanamaker, is a working theatre and is not quite on the site of Shakespeare's original.  The Globe is a way of being able to perform plays as Shakespeare would have seen them.  Performing in an open theatre makes the action more raw and more involving of the audience.

We get a guided tour of the theatre and learn some of its secrets before going to see the exhibition attached to it. A lunch in the shadow of the Tate allows us to then pop in the gallery before we walk to Southwark Bridge and get on the coaches for the journey to Hampton Court.

Henry V111's resplendent palace is worth the visit!  It was a palace for monarchs for over 200 years.  Two palaces are joined together; the 16th century and 18th century. Walking through the kitchens of Henry V111 you get an idea of the size of the place. 1200 meals a day would have been produced here.  It is easy to imagine the place bustling with chefs and servants.

The 18th century palace has some incredible treasures in the form of paintings, carvings, tapestries and gardens.  Some of the finest craftsmen worked here - Vanbrugh, Grinling Gibbons and Capability Brown.

An afternoon cannot really do the palace justice but it gives us enough time to take in the splendor of the place.