Chicago - First target ticked off!

I can finally cross of the first completed task from my challenge! I went to London with a friend over the weekend and did lots of things! It was a very busy weekend and we certainly gave our legs a good stretching!

On Friday we went to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace before heading to the Tower of London. I had been to the Tower a few years ago but we went on a tour with a Beefeater this weekend and it was really interesting to hear some of the historical stories and history from him. He was also the Beefeater in charge of looking after the ravens so that was pretty cool. That evening we went to see Troillus and Cressida at The Shakespeare Globe. It was a play that I hadn't heard of before so was unsure what to expect. It turned out to be brilliant though and it's so good being able to stand so close to the stage. We were standing throughout so it was pretty tough on our legs especially after the full day in London before! Matthew Kelly was in it and he was so good. Definitely made for the stage rather than the TV.

On Saturday we continued on our mammouth trip of London. We went to the Globe exhibition and then a tour of the Rose Theatre. This is another theatre of the Globe's time just nearby to the Globe. They found the foundations of the Rose in 1989 when excavating the ground to build an office block. The office block has been built but the Globe Trust owns the basement of it with the foundations. They have had to recover the foundations so that they don't crumble away but they hope to be able to open them up again over the next 18 months and preserve them with a glass cover so they can be on show. They then plan to make a theatre on that spot so the foundations can be seen. The theatre will obviously not be open air like the original because of the office block but it is still exciting to have a theatre back on the original site. It was great to hear about the area during that time in history. It was very rural and stinking with very marshy ground. It would've been where all the entertainment of the time would've been such as brothels, gambling dens and theatres which not only put on plays but also were the venues for bear baiting.

After the Globe exhibition we walked a little further up the river and went to the Tate Modern. Again this is another place I've been in the past few years but it was nice to go back. They had different exhibitions on display and we had a good laugh. Following that we went to Planet Hollywood which was on my friends list to do (in fact she ticked of 7 things on this trip!). It was really nice food and I enjoyed it but it was a very very noisy place to eat!

Now comes the bit where I can cross of one of my targets. On the Saturday morning we passed through Leicester Square and went to the TKTS Booth there. This is where you can purchase half price theatre tickets. We got some fantastic tickets to see Chicago for that evening. I had some vouchers for the theatre so it worked out we only paid £7 for each ticket in cash and we were sitting 5 rows from the very front! I didn't know the story of Chicago before this but it was a brilliant show. All the singing and dancing was so much fun. It is definitely a musical of all musicals!

What with the Shakespeare play of Greek and Trojan Battles and Chicago with half clad men I think my overall lasting picture of my trip to London is of very fit men's torsos!