Smoking and the Pubs

Well, the mystery of the people hanging outside the Globe Pub on Wednesday night was quickly solved.  There are gangs of people outside of every popular pub--they are the smokers who were chased outside when London outlawed smoking in pubs about three years ago.  On a guided walk on Thursday night, we passed a number of pubs with masses of people outside and hardly anyone inside.  Apparently Londoners would rather be uncomfortable, and perhaps cold, rather than give up their fags.

The tour Thursday was of the "ancient city" at night.  The City of London is actually a smaller section of London as a whole.  It is on the site of the Roman settlement Londinium, and has a number of pieces of the original Roman Wall (circa 200 AD), one near the Tower of London and another close to the Museum of London on a street called, appropriately, the London Wall.  It is also the financial center of the city, with all the new and modern buildings that implies. So on the walk we go past some very old structures, like the Royal Exchange, founded by Thomas Gresham, who I have already mentioned.....

lit up appropriately in green at night.....and this new building housing Lloyd's of London.....

This entire area was devastated by the London fire of 1667 and many of the older buildings date at around that time-the work again of Christopher Wren.  Apparently Wren was anxious to tear down many of the pre-fire buildings to try to get some order and structure into the city plan.  He was able to do a bit of that after the fire, so our guide Peter....

implied that Wren started the fire.  After stopping at a wine bar and a pub along the way, I was half-way ready to believe him.  By the way, the night time tours with pub stops are a great way to meet your fellow travelers.  I had a lively conversation with a couple from Sidney, Australia and a guy from Castle, Germany, home of the brothers Grimm.  Scarily, he could name the major sports teams in Philadelphia, when I told him I was from there.  (Upstate New York confuses people who often think I mean New York City).

Friday I decided to go to Regency Park, where I have never been.  Like other parks here, it is beautiful and, if not in full bloom, getting there.  Here are some scenes from this lovely space.

I felt so calm after being here that I went home and had a nap.  Earlier, I had gone to the half-priced ticket booth and gotten a ticket for Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, which did not get the best reviews, but I figured how bad can a play be when it's in London's West End.  Pretty bad, as it turns out.  It's almost comforting to know that even England does not have an unending supply of fabulous actors.

I was trying to be cool going to the theater by myself, but I do cool very badly.  As I stepped into the theater, I tripped over a marble step (recovering before I hit the floor).  I had to roust six people out of their seats to get to mine.  Then while I was taking off my scarf (an absolute essential here--everyone who's anyone wears a scarf) it got all unraveled and covered my head.  I ended up looking like I was taking off a tea shirt, and doing a bad job of it.  After that I had to let the fellow next to me out of his seat and almost fell on the floor trying to lower my seat again.  No one seemed to notice any of these ridiculous maneuvers--the benefits of being unknown.

Random notes.  It is extremely easy to get around Central London because there are these signposts everywhere, directing you to where you want to go and even telling you how long it will take to get there.

London is like the tower of Babel.  I have never heard so many languages spoken in one place.  Many are ones that I have never heard before and can't make out where they came from.  Europe, Africa, Asia are all represented many times over.  Of course the worst is when I listen very carefully to try to decipher what language is being spoken and finally realize it's English.