Easter Sunday

LT in front of Samuel Johnson's house

The travelling duo got up a bit later than usual, since they had had a late night at the theatre.  In fact, when they got back from Hamlet, they both succumbed to hunger and micro-waved up their favorite soups before retiring.  So, later on Sunday morning, they took an easy walk in an eastern direction this time towards the Inns of Court and Chancery Lane--site of John Mortimer's "Rumpole of the Bailey" series and many very sad, pathetic scenes in Charles Dickens' novels--where inheritance is tied up in court for decades before the rightful heirs can claim the money.  They walked down Chancery Lane, visited the quad of Kings College--where Allie had actually investigated spending her junior year instead of the University of Kent--and finally reached Fleet Street.  They walked a few blocks and tucked down a tiny street next to "The Cheshire Cheese"--Samuel Johnson's famous coffee house in the mid 1700's and found themselves in Gough Square, site of Samuel Johnson's actual house.  It was closed, but LT described the interior to Allie and how James Boswell recorded nearly every word Johnson spoke and preserved in in "Boswell's Life of Johnson."  They admired a small bronze statue of "Hodge" Samuel Johnson's famous cat--"a very fine cat indeed" was how he describe Hodge.

Easter Lunch with Prosecco from Italo
and lamb chops alla Allie

Next, the pair headed down Temple Lane and Temple Avenue until they reached the Embankment and the River Thames.  They continued along the Thames until they reached the Waterloo Bridge, climbed the 1000 or so steps -- it seemed -- took a half circle on the Alwych, regained Kingsway and walked back to Holborn and their apartment.  Once inside, they began preparing an Easter feast.  Allie was in charge of all cooking, and after a serious technology problem with the French touch-controls on the "hob" (as they call the stove top here), she finally got it to work and began frying six lamb chops and boiling some brocolli, cauliflower, and carrots.   The pair were enjoying their chops and sipping the Prosecco that Italo had given them the day before, when Eli's Skype call came through, so they caught her up on all the London gossip while sipping their wine.

LT in front of The Globe where we saw our
second Hamlet

Later on towards six, Allie and LT walked back to the Waterloo Bridge and down along the bankside of the river to the Old Globe Playhouse--site of Shakespeare's re-constructed Globe from the late 1500's--where they are going to see another Hamlet on Tuesday evening, the night before LT must return to Los Angeles.  It was a 45 minute walk, but very pretty.  The skies were blue, the sunny a bright yellow and there was a cool breeze, so the walking was very fine.  Once they reached the Old Globe, they visited the gift shop, and then re-traced their steps back home.  They wanted to see exactly how long it would take them to walk back from Hamlet on Tuesday evening--assuming the play ends at around 10:40PM--just like the Hamlet they enjoyed at the much closer National Theatre on Saturday night.  They had a nice walk, which they have made so many times that they can recall each shop and anticipate each street.