Please excuse the lateness of this post. The internet has been in and out most of the day.
As you may know, I’m a big Sherlock Holmes fan. I grew up with Jeremy Brett’s Sherlock and have been hooked ever since. Thus I was excited to visit Baker Street and the Sherlock Holmes Museum. We’ve passed by Baker Street many times but this was the first chance we had to go when the museum opened and there wasn’t a giant line (or queue as they say here).
We arrived early and were surprised when the museum opened over 15 minutes late and we saw half the staff locked out. I guess that and the lack-luster website should have been a clue as to what I’d see. I should say that I did enjoy the museum but I came in with the misconception that this was more a Arthur Conan Doyle museum than the fictional Sherlock museum it actually is. The museum is filled with "artifacts" from Sherlock's cases, which is cool to see as a reader.
The first floor contains Sherlock's bedroom and the living room. Some of the things there included Watson's medical bag (see picture above) and Sherlock's violin and hat. The next floor contains things from their various cases like the golden pince nez, the gun from the Solitary Cyclist, a picture of the Baker Street Irregulars, etc.
 |
| Baker Street Irregulars |
The third floor was admittedly odd. It contained wax figures from various cases. Pictures will explain this section better than words.
 |
| Moriarty |
 |
| The uncle from one of my favorite stories, The Adventure of the Speckled Band |
 |
| The hound of Hound of the Baskervilles |
So yes, it was gimmicky but it was fun too. They had people around wearing period clothing who were great about explaining various parts of the rooms. One woman mentioned, for instance, that a silver tea pot was recently added to the collection per its reference in Hound of the Baskervilles and the staff certainly knew their Holmes adventures.
Later that evening, we had our class adventures. We started by visiting the London Eye, which gives you a Ferris wheel view except it travels at a super slow speed.
The views were absolutely spectacular. The Eye is right across the street/river from Parliament, Westminster, and the National Theatre and you can really see a view of almost the entire city.
 |
| Big Ben with Westminster Abbey in the back |
 |
| View of London (The dome belongs to St. Paul's Cathedral) |
After our awesome adventure on the Eye, we walked over to the Globe for a viewing of A Midsummer Night's Dream. While not the original Globe, which was destroyed by fire in the 1600s, the new globe resembles it.
The play was simply amazing! The actors make such great use of the space and seem to feed off the energy of the crowd. They don't limit themselves to a one-dimensional stage but would climb the pillars and run out into the crowd. They would also lean out into the crowd from the stage and even direct some of their lines to the people standing below. So utterly amazing. London, you're going to make me into a theatre fiend!
Another thing that I loved was that they stayed true to form. Certainly the actors were allowed to make their own interpretations and it was interesting to see an awkward Puck and a manly Oberon, but they still wore Elizabethan costumes. The part that really amazed me though was that I could see how the play was shaped for an audience of the day. There was ensemble dancing, singing, humor, tragedy, and romance. It really had something for everyone. Loved, loved, loved this. If you ever have the chance to visit the Globe do!
Next, we did some nighttime photography. The Globe is along the Thames and there were beautiful lights from the buildings and bridges. My camera handled the shots wonderfully both automatically and with fiddling with the ISO and using a tripod. Here are a couple of my shots:
