Saturday began with a tube ride that stopped short because of a "disturbance on the track" - not sure what that was all about but we opted to walk along the north side of the Thames. Walking is always easy here because of the endless pedestrian paths. We had a short guided tour through Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.
The lady who toured us through appeared to be in her late 60s. She was extremely animated about the way things were back in the day of Shakespeare which made her fun to listen to. The original theater was only 5 minutes from this reconstruction. It burned to the ground during a performance when a canon being used in the play was shot, starting the thatched roof on fire. They rebuilt the theater and later it was torn down by the puritans. The theater is constructed without any nails - instead interlocking tongue and groove, as well as wooden pegs hold the building together. Something else that I found interesting is that the plays were designed to hear more than they were to see. Brennin liked the wood wind making machine. He also thought it was funny that during performances a number of people in the groundling area always fainted.

We ate our picnic lunch next to the Tate. It's surprising to see people picnicking with wine - it's completely normal here.

Westminster Abbey was our next stop. Another vast space ornately decorated.
Kate and William married here, and coronations of British Kings and Queens throughout history were here as well. There are also many graves in the church including Issac Newtons'. The kids were glazing over at this point so we didn't stay too long.

Last time we visited Covent Garden it was quiet, most shops were closed and the street performers were gone, but on Friday we arrived when it was in full swing. We saw mime artists. The kids' favorite was the levitating Yoda. At one of the street performer shows Darius was chosen as a volunteer. Darius had to lay on the ground wearing a vest while the performer attempted to jump over him with a pogo stick. After a lot of wind up he didn't jump - of course Darius wished he would have.

Brennin and Tim went to the transport Museum while the rest of us visited the shops. Some of the shops were tiny with low ceilings and staircases going up to another level. Belia had to use the bathroom which proved to be a challenge. We needed coins to pay but the bathroom didn't make change from bills. After finding a place to make change we went back, but this meant crossing the square a few times - we are definitely getting our exercise As we walked towards our meeting point a long procession of bikes were making their way through the crowds of people. Over 1000 naked cyclists streamed by it was a shocking site! Belia asked if they were too poor to buy clothes. Tim and Brennin were also watching from a different spot and thought we would never believe what they saw so Tim took some pictures. What next? Lol. They were cycling for a few causes; cyclist awareness, and stopping our dependency on oil, in any case we thought it showed their nuts ... I mean that they're nuts. Oops. Lol

We chose an outdoor restaurant at the square. A street singer with a beautiful voice was singing music from the 40s. Pigeons flew by every so often but none landed on the buildings because of the long pins to keep them off. We had pizza. The kids ordered hot chocolate since it was a bit chilly. Tim and I warmed up with some red wine. While we visited the kids looked through a few stores next to us. Belia bought a build-a-bear with London clothes. She named her Lana from London and the lady who stuffed her let her pick two hearts because we're from Canada.

We took the tube home and had no trouble sleeping after our full day.