Wednesday: Shakespeare Walking Tour

This day started very nice. We all met at the station to take the underground to Temple Station, where we walked to Middle Temple Hall, so named for the Knights Templar and where many students now go to study law.

The walk in to Middle Temple Hall

It wasn't easy to take pictures and keep up with the group at the same time, but I still managed to get some interesting features in my shots.

Middle Temple Hall contains one of the oldest Great Halls still in use from medieval times.

http://www.middletemplehall.org.uk/

It is the hall where Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night' was first performed and one of the templates for Hogwarts Great Hall.

 As you can see - there is plenty of room!
A very nice usher took us on a private tour of some of the rooms not open to the public, including the armory in the basement. It was quite a sight to see, including watching and waiting for 30 odd people to shuffle around.

Armory in Middle Temple Hall

We spent around an hour in there, and as we came out it started to rain - imagine, rain in London! But this wasn't the rain we'd had before, it was a downpour worthy of a desert flash flood alert! Since this was a WALKING tour, the majority of us had umbrellas or hats and raincoats, that didn't wear too well. By the time we crossed the Millennium Bridge practically all of us were sopping wet. I was. So I didn't get a lot of pictures for all that. I think the rain lasted a little less than an hour, but since we were outside the entire time I'm not certain. By the time we got to the last stop of the tour it had stopped raining, and we were standing in the courtyard of the oldest standing Gabled Inn and Pub in London, The George.

A brief explanation after the rain!

After the tour I hopped on the tube to get back to the flat. Being the first one back I was able to shower without worrying about hot water, but boy, did it feel good to be dry and warm!