Day 6 – Ben Franklin House, Globe Theatre, Queen’s Ice and Bowl

So we went for a re-try on the Franklin House today. Success! From the description on the website, I expected to be seated in front of a screen, watching an informational video for about 30 minutes, then left to roam about the place. This is not what happened. We were seated in front of a screen, but only for 5 minutes. Then our tour guide, Polly, escorted us through each room. What made this tour interesting was that “Polly” was an actress playing the role of the daughter of Mr. Franklin’s landlady who also lived in the house at the time. Each time we entered a new room, this talented actress interacted with a pre-recorded sound file accompanied by projected pictures. During this interaction, she responded to the recording as well as speaking directly to us, informing us of the various goings on in the house while Mr. Franklin was there. The only odd part about the tour was the abrupt ending; she left the room, the video played for another minute, then stopped, all the lights came on, and we were escorted back out the front door. Bye then. Oookay.

The last historical attraction on our list was Shakespeare’s Globe theatre. Obviously, it wasn’t going to be the original that burned down at least twice. It was, however, a very good replica complete with thatched roof and wooden dowels holding it all together. According to the guide, the dowels allow the building to be completely dismantled and reassembled anywhere. I thought it was an exquisite tour. It wasn’t very long and there’s really not that much to see, but the guide was very knowledgeable. He described the history of the theatre and the area of London it is in, even how the theatre itself affected Shakespeare’s writing. For instance, he attributed the redundancies and intermittent summaries in Shakespeare’s plays to the fact that the audience couldn’t always see what was going on and there was no real scenery on stage. It helped them know where the characters were and what was happening.

After the Globe, we wanted to try to meet a friend of ours for some “Queen’s Ice and Bowl.” I found the description hysterical: “try your hand a game of bowling.” Really? I don’t need to “try my hand.” I’ve actually done it before, quite well actually. Anyway, it was a bad idea for a Saturday afternoon. As soon as we walked in, there were screaming British children everywhere! I thought Matt was going to take cover behind the shoe counter. We opted to try our hand another day and went for some late lunch. Unfortunately, Matt ordered a milkshake and surprise! it wasn’t the best. A little later, we took the train out to Uxbridge and had a lovely dinner with some new, English friends (a retired film editor and his fabulous wife). We are definitely looking forward to meeting them again soon! Maybe for a trip to Windsor Castle.

For more info on the Ben Franklin House:
www.benjaminfranklinhouse.org

For more info on the Globe theatre:www.shakespeares-globe.org