Day 4

Tour: The Hatfield House

We took a 40 minute train out to the historic Hatfield House… and almost left Louis behind. Fortunately he made it just in time, and we proceeded to take a tour of the House from what Nate described as the “most British tourguide” he’d ever seen. It’s hard to explain what he meant by this, but he was definitely right.

The Hatfield House

After our tour, we explored the gardens of the house, enjoyed the surprisingly good weather, grabbed some pub food, and took the train back to King’s Cross.

Colorful stained glass windows from the early 17th century, inside the chapel of the Hatfield House.

Show: Madame Butterfly at the London Coliseum

This was our first experience with an Opera, and it was certainly an experience. First of all, the London Coliseum was magnificent, and Professor Clum knows how to select seats. We were seated in the Upper Circle, directly in the middle, although some of us had a more difficult time getting to them than others. I accidentally sat upstairs in the balcony, and found myself sprinting down a level through closing doors to get to my seat on time. And Jay, Rob, and Ryan originally thought the show was at the Royal Opera House, so they sprinted over a mile to get to their seats on time. So despite what others may have thought, the panting during the complete silence of the first few minutes of the play was not because we were getting emotional.

The ornate London Coliseum, located right in the center of Leicester Square.

The play was in three acts, with 10-minute intervals in between each act. The actor who played Pinkerton actually came down with a case of Hay Fever mid-show, which was announced during one of the intermissions, but he thankfully agreed to finish the performance. His reward was one of the bigger rounds of applause during his bows– second only to the one given for the Bunraku puppeteers who worked the little boy.

Quote of the day – “Milk.” -Ryan

~ by danlerman on June 19, 2009.