England again

It's hot here in Jaca, up to 34℃, and it was even hotter when I left Huesca at two o'clock this afternoon after doing speaking exams in a (thank goodness) air-conditioned school all morning. It was actually hot in England while we were there last week; to the extent that we didn't need jumpers or jackets, and I wore sandals all the time apart from travelling to and from the airport. Hot there isn't the same as hot here though. I think we were very lucky with the weather-it rained on Wednesday while we were heading for the airport, and nothing more.
Our first full day we had a long walk through parks and streets.

This is Dr Who's Tardis in BBC Langham Place! 

Later we went to St Paul's Cathedral. It cost us £18 each. The very beast thing is going up into the dome and climbing to the outside gallery at the top.

Just outside the City

The wonderful St Pancras Station with the wonderful statue of Sir John Betjeman, who made great efforts to save the building from destruction.

j

I loved the name on the blackboard

This is a massive sculpture of a (wartime) couple kissing,

with wartime station scenes on the base.

We had three fixed dates: Friday was Shakespeare's Globe, booked in April. Magic! We were there by 9am for the guided tour.

 These are someone else's photos of the theatre, which is a modern re-creation of a 16th century playhouse.It's a proper Shakespearian "wooden O" and it's very exciting.

 We had a lovely, rather dramatic guide. She asked people's nationalities, and I was the only British tourist. Most were from USA or Canada.
                                                     
                       

These photos are mine! The green tubes and white balls are for the forest in "The Dream"

After the morning tour we spent a nice half hour in Southwark Cathedral, then joined the seething crowds in Borough Market. You can see the most extraordinary food there.

gooseberries

and ecological  delivery vehicles

But mostly people and more people.

The play, A Midsummer Night's Dream started at 2 pm. We had seats (and cushions) quite high up in the first row of balconies. The production was unconventional in terms of sex: Puck was a woman,  https://www.facebook.com/ShakespearesGlobe/videos/10154451610405774/ the "rude mechanicals " apart from Bottom were women and Helena was Helenus with a passion for cruel Demetrius. Mortals were modern, fairies were tatty Elizabethan. Here's a link for a little video from the Facebook page: 

https://www.facebook.com/ShakespearesGlobe/videos/10154451610405774/

It was cruel, it was funny, it was magical!
Because the play started at 2 it was finished by 5 o'clock, which was too early to finish for the day, but not early enough for much. We went on the Docklands Light Railway to the Cutty Sark in Greenwich and walked up the hill to look at the view.

London from another angle.