All’s well that ends well, BUT parting is such sweet sorrow!

O.k. had to edit this one – It was LATE at night folks!

Today was incredible! This morning, Natalia from the British Council took us to meet Gareth Neame  (the producer of Downton Abbey and a lot of other amazing shows) at his office where we had a great chat. He was really nice, and when we were about to leave he gave me a book on the making of Downton Abbey SIGNED BY THE ENTIRE CAST – Including the amazing Maggie Smith or should I say Dame Maggie Smith! He also gave us a dvd collection of The Hollow Crown! We had to say goodbye to Natalia after she set us in the right direction on the tube. Natalia and Emily from the British Council were great and helped us out so much on our trip!

Next, we went to the Tate Modern and saw lots of great art by Salvador Dali, Picasso, Joseph Beuys, Lorna Simpson and tons more, but we had to run through just taking in some highlights.

Then, we had to run to The Globe Theatre (a reconstruction of Shakespeare’s Globe theatre) where we went on a private tour, which was really informative and hilarious. Our tour guide had a great sense of humor describing the “penny stinkers” who were poor people who paid a penny to stand in what amounted to an open toilet / beer garden in front of the stage where reeking people, who hadn’t bathed in months, were pinned shoulder to shoulder drinking heavily and urinating freely, all while chewing garlic (to fend off the plague)! I’ve been to a lot of concerts, even a Black Sabbath concert and it wasn’t even close to that! But then we got to leave the pit and experience the best seats in the house. There were four of these rooms, and we were told that the Queen herself had sat in one of them on her visit to the Globe – so we had a one-in-four chance that we were warming the same seat as the Queen once had.

THEN, we went to the London Eye, which is a humungous ferris wheel over 400 feet high overlooking the entire city!

THEN, we thought we were done, until we had the idea to try to see a theatre show. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was sold out, School of Rock (which was highly regarded by Gareth Neame) was closed on Tuesdays, and then we decided to attend something completely different in a theatre right next to our hotel. Ed Harris and Amy Madigan were starring in the Sam Shepard play Buried Child. There were some tickets left, so we picked up three. WOW, what a play! Hilarious, crazy, sad, maddening, every other feeling imaginable in 2 hours and 40 minutes! THEN, dinner and back to the hotel to pack for tomorrow and now, phew! BED!

We fly home tomorrow, but we don’t want to leave! I’ll be following up with a  small thank you \ summary of my trip after we get home and get some rest!