London: The Globe Theater, V & A Museum of Childhood, and Weavers Field Playground

We began the next day at The Globe Theater.  

Our friend Nick met us there and was a great sport as we showed him what traveling with kids was like. 

Shakespeare's Globe is a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, an Elizabethan playhouse in the London Borough of Southwark, on the south bank of the River Thames that was originally built in 1599, destroyed by fire in 1613, rebuilt in 1614, and then demolished in 1644. The modern reconstruction is an academic approximation based on available evidence of the 1599 and 1614 buildings. It was founded by the actor and director Sam Wanamaker and built about 230 metres (750 ft) from the site of the original theatre and opened to the public in 1997, with a production of Henry V.

 

 We took the tour.  The tour guide was good and entertaining, but there were too many people.  There were also several other tours going on at the same time, which sometimes made it hard to hear.  There is also a small museum inside the building, which explains the history of the theater and a bit about Elizabethan times.

 London is a good town for walking.  The two new building are referred to as the cheese grater and the walkie talkie.  Whey first built, the reflection of the walkie talkie was melting cars.  This has since been fixed.

 

 We walked through the financial district looking for lunch, but everything closes down for the weekend.  We walked as far as Leadenhall Market.  You may recognize Diagon Ally.

 We walked by a Harry Potter tour being given in Spanish

After lunch we went to the Victoria and Albert Museum of Childhood.

This is basically a toy museum.  most of the toys are in cases and can't be touched.  They have an area for kids to do arts and crafts and there was a visiting exhibit on an author the girls like.  It was very odd to see toys from my childhood in their original packaging being displayed in a museum.

 Weavers Fields Adventure Playground 

was not far from the museum.  This is basically a drop off free daycare for local kids.  We payed 50 p. because we weren't members (membership is free).  If you are over 8 you can come and play on your own, under 8 and your parents need to stick around.  The playground is staffed by volunteers and funded by charity organizations.  It is a safe, fun place for kids to be.  There was an inside area with ping pong tables, and other games, where many girls were making Rainbow Loom bracelets using plastic forks.  There was a snack bar and snacks were subsidised.  Popsicles were 30 p.  The girls had a great time and I was impressed by this effort to help kids in a low income neighborhood.  There were many volunteer workers while we were there.  One of them told Pierre that this land was empty because it had been bombed during the war.

 zip line!