Reach Cambridge July 2015: Day 8

After a relaxing Saturday at Brighton beach, Sunday was a chance to explore the capital! London, regularly crowned the best city in the world, holds no end of things to do and places to see. Students were given two excursions to choose from – a visit to the Tate Modern and Shakespeare’s Globe, and a trip to Greenwich, along with a cruise up the River Thames. The group that started their day in Greenwich had a chance to see the 19th-Century ship, the Cutty Sark, browse the market, and visit the Old Royal Naval College (where they filmed quite a lot of Les Miserables!), before boarding a boat on the Thames. The guided cruise goes all the way up the river – an easy way to sightsee as it takes in famous landmarks like the London Eye, the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. For the other group, their morning was spent in the Tate Modern, a gallery housing a collection of modern art from 1900 to the present day, as well as exploring the Southbank. The art gallery is right by the Millennium Bridge, and offers wonderful views of St Paul’s Cathedral, so many of the students spent time taking photos. In the afternoon we all watched Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure in The Globe Theatre. This was an amazing, authentic experience of what it must have been like for Tudor theatre-goers. We stood in the ‘yard’ of the theatre, entirely open to the elements under the ‘O’ shaped hole in the roof, just as the ‘groundlings’ would have done 500 years ago. Though one of Shakespeare’s problem plays, the performance was very funny, and we all particularly enjoyed how the actors interacted with the audience. Written by Flossie, Program Coordinator