Noon Report:

• Location: N 51° 29.06′, W 000° 00.87′
• Speed: Anchored
• Course: Anchored
• Weather: Cloudy / chance of rain
• Temperature: 15.5º C, 60º F
• Wind: SW 8 knots, 9 mph

WE MADE IT!
Way back last year, when someone asked what our itinerary was, I would respond; “We’ll know when we get to London.” So now we know.

Of course there are other reasons to celebrate our arrival in this last port. We’ve made it. We’ve survived. We’ve been forever changed by encountering a world’s worth of cultures and people and food and beauty.

And we’re sad. Dinner tonight was particularly hard as we said good bye to some of our friends, both passengers and staff. On the other hand, this being a Viking family we know we aren’t saying Good Bye so much as See You Next Time. We’re a traveling people and the odds are definitely in favor of future encounters.
The same goes for the staff. We have yet to find one who said; “This is my last contract.” Every one has talked about the ship they will be on after their stint on the Neptune (and a couple of months off) is done.
So no, it’s not Good Bye. But it still feels a bit empty.

OK, enough maudlin moaning. Let’s talk about today.

We had a late excursion call so we slept in. When we did finally hoist ourselves out of bed I toddled on down to the gym for the final weigh in (both of us mostly made our weight goals).
We celebrated by going you-know-where for you-know-what for breakfast. I even had maple syrup on my waffle.

Getting to the excursion meeting point was an adventure in itself. The ocean-going Viking ships are the largest that the River Thames can accommodate – no ship bigger than ours has access to this port.
From the gangway we walked onto a floating dock tied to the ship. From there we boarded a “water Uber” that took us to the shore (about 100 yards upstream).

There we met our guide Leo (That’s right, Leo from yesterday.)

Once we were all gathered and Micah (in the red cap above) and the tour rep (in the yellow vest) agreed we were all there we headed out. We walked past the Cutty Sark (the world’s fastest tea clipper ship at that time)…

and boarded our bus. While Leo was counting and untangling her speaker box wires, she handed the “lollypop” to Cheryl to hold. We’re talkin’ real power here!

Once on the bus the driver started driving and Leo started talking.

So here’s the deal with what the Cutty Sark figurehead is holding.
The story goes that there was a guy in Ireland who was returning home from a hard night at the pub.
As he passed the church he saw lights on inside. He looked in the window and saw that a coven of witches were dancing while the devil played the bagpipes. One of the witches, the young and beautiful one, was wearing nothing but a nightgown (sark) cut so short that it really didn’t do an adequate job of concealing her nether regions. In the parlance of the time, that was referred to as a “cutty sark”. So he did – refer to it; “That’s a fine cutty sark,” he whispered. Of course they all heard him and they came flying out of the church to catch him. He spurred his horse to a gallop and made for the river. (Everyone knows that ‘things that go bump in the night’ can’t cross moving water.) The race was on and the beautiful young witch, being young and in shape, was gaining on him. Just as his horse leaped into the stream he felt a yank as the witch grabbed on to the horse’s tail, pulling out some of its hair. He was safe – but the figurehead of the ship still holds onto the horse’s tail hair.

After driving a bit thru the streets of Greenwich and London we arrived not far from the current (3rd) incarnation of the Globe Theater. We took a short detour to view the location of the original Globe Theater which originally had been much closer to the river.

This original theater (1st) was destroyed by fire in 1613 and rebuilt (2nd), then torn down during the Puritan takeover of government and culture in 1642 (Christmas was banned, pubs were closed, theater plays had become very bawdy, and the Plague made times even blacker). After the military puritan leader died (Oliver Cromwell), the people rebelled and wanted the monarchy back – Christmas and pubs were restored and theaters blossomed around the country. The actors and writers performed under the approval of the nobles.
The current theater (3rd), rebuilt in a dryer location but in the same medieval style, was completed in 1997 thru the efforts of American actor Sam Wanamaker. Subsequent additions include a large administration building, an indoor theater for winter-time performances, a restaurant, modern bathrooms, and a museum shop.

The theater is right on the Thames River so Leo pointed out some of the ‘named’ buildings on the other side:

On the way back to the bus we walked past The Anchor – claiming to date to 1615. That would mean the pub was there while Shakespeare was alive and working nearby.

While walking we saw a few other interesting sights.

Back at the ship we had lunch and then (while Cheryl had a massage) I began to pack. She joined in when she got back and we were able to finish before the 6:00 show (we’re going to have to leave some stuff behind – amazing what you accumulate in 4 1/2 months).

At 6:00 the ship gave us one more surprise and we were blown away by the English boys choir “Libra”!

Their voices were amazing and angelic – they brought tears to our eyes with the purity of their tone.

Returning to the stateroom we finished up the ‘Dover’ blog and started on the ‘Greenwich’ blog but then headed for bed. Tomorrow we fly home. The sun rises early tomorrow – and we must be up with it.

Nite all,
R

Randy’s factoids:

Here are a few statistics about consumption between Los Angeles and London:

• Distance traveled: 28,341 Nautical Miles
• Cookies consumed: 168,000
• Eggs consumed: 180,000
• Fillet Mignon consumed: 17,000
• Wine consumed: 10,000 bottles
• Beer consumed: 6,000 litres
• Spirits consumed: 2,000 bottles
• Toilet Tissue: 35,300 rolls

Cheryl’s Factoids on the Globe Theater:

• Plays were held in the afternoons as, with the open roof, they could use natural light. The theater is small but could hold 3,000 people and had great acoustics. Originally was many sided, not really round – had 18 sides. Poor people, who could only pay a penny, could watch the performance (3 hours with no intermission) if they stood on the ground in front and around in stage. They were called “Groundlings” or “Penny Stinkards, as they came straight from sweating at work, drinking beer, and chewing garlic to keep off the plague. Cross-dressing boys with their high voices and no beards were used for the women’s parts as there were no female actors until 1660. The writers were so worried about someone stealing the idea for their plays that they only gave the actors a roll of paper with the lead-in entrance line before their speaking part (from which we get “role”). On a first performance the actors often didn’t know how the play would turn out. The writers would set the plays in foreign lands so any criticisms of government or nobles couldn’t be referring to the local situation.
• In the 1400’s, it was the Church that helped theater productions. Since most people were illiterate, the Church supported players that would put on traveling “Morality Plays” telling the stories from the Bible. By the 1500’s these traveling players were seen as wastrels. By the end of the 1500’s we see a rise in interest of plays. By 1660, in the return of the monarchy, Charles II (the Merry Monarch) opened up theaters again and allowed females to participate as actors. Shakespeare came to London to be an actor but became more famous as a playwright. He joined the theater team of “The Lord Chamberlain’s Men”. They became so resentful of the theater’s owner who wouldn’t let perform until they had paid the monthly lease bill, that they took the theater apart (when the owner was out of town), ferried the pieces across the Thames, and rebuilt it on the south bank of the Thames (this is where all the gambling, pubs, and prostitutes were) as “The Globe Theatre”. The owner protested when he came back, but the Lord Chamberlain paid him off.