Mind the Gap

We started our day off with finding our local tube station "Kilburn Park" on the Bakerloo line. Once you learn the underground, London is an easy city to get from point A to point B. The station was a short five minute walk from the hotel. The tube was remarkably clean and comfortable (nice upholstered seats). After having rode the Path train from Newark to New York, the tube seemed luxurious. We headed over to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre for a really interesting tour. Christian learned about Shakespeare in school this year and tried reading Hamlet. He really enjoyed the tour of the Globe. The rest of the kids really like the gift shop. It did have some really cool stuff. After the globe, we headed to the London Eye. It really did provide you with a bird's eye view at the sights of the city. We could see Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, Big Ben and the House of Parliment. We walked along the Thames River and saw all sorts of street performers (looking for money, of course) but they were really entertaining. Then we made our way over to the museums near Kensington Park. We stopped in the Science Museum and Museum of Natural History. We would have like to have gone into Victoria and Albert's Museum (the V & A) but it was filled with antiques and thought the boys might not be too impressed. We also didn't have much time. All the museums close by 5:30 pm (which seems really early considering it stays light until 10 pm this time of year). After dinner, we headed over to Kensington Gardens to see the original play "Peter Pan". In honor of its 100 or 150th anniversary (not sure which) of J.M. Barrie's writing of Peter Pan, there was a special production this summer held in Kensington Gardens, the actual location where the story takes place. Earlier in the week was the Royal Gala with the Queen and Prince Charles in attendance. We couldn't fit our evening gowns and tuxedos into our suitcases (it was a black tie affair), so had to settle for Friday night's performance. It was a truly memorable experience. The play was based on the original version, not Disney's. The story was much darker than Walt's Peter Pan. In fact tinkerbell was no cute little fairie. She was downright mean and called Peter a stupid ars on more than one occasion. All in all, it was well done!! We had a great night and headed back to our hotel around 11:30 pm. Steve and I went for a pint and finalized our plans for the next day. Oh yeah, "Mind the Gap" is what you hear over and over again when you get on and off the tube. Not sure, but I guess they think people are stupid and might fall into the space between the platform and the train if they aren't told to mind the gap.