I am not alone in anticipating and watching The Crown as soon as the new season came out.  It is the history my age group remembers; Margaret Thatcher, violence of the IRA and most of all, Princess Diana, and her tragic death.
     We happen to live a few doors down from the school that William and Harry went to for their primary years.  Daily, we see the nannies, security details and the occasional parent drop off their children in their extremely adorable uniforms.  So, when we watched in Season 4 episode 2 Princess Diana dropping off William at school, we knew, firsthand, of the door to which he was dropped off.

​I never realized how isolated Princess Diana must have felt.  A friend of mine has children that went to school with Prince William.  She tells of her son having play dates together with the young Prince.  In fact, she told me once that Prince William was over and he told her that his Grannie was coming to pick him up.  As you could imagine, my friend panicked.  That would be the Queen picking up her grandson at their home ?!#*!?  Oh my, what would she say?  What should one do?  Invite her in?  She didn’t have time to tidy the house, so many things ran through her mind.  Of course, that did not happen.  To her relief, the security detail dropped off and picked up, as usual.  But consider that the playdates were not entirely different than when our own children would have playdates with neighborhood children.  And that is the rub.  It was different.  Of course, you would be excited to have your child be invited over to Kensington Palace for a play date, but would you be prepared to know what to say to Princess Diana when you picked them up?  Would you talk about everyday trials and tribulations about parenting with a Princess?  You would think she would have nothing in common with you.  We falsely attribute having different emotions to people of such privilege.  When Princess Diana dropped Prince William off at school and all the mums/nannies were gathered around chatting it up, did anyone reach out to Princess Diana to join in?  Of course not.  My friend said, nobody even knew the proper way to address her.  They all left her alone. Could she have joined the group?  Possibly, but we all recognize now, she was dealing with her own insecurities.  Besides, the paparazzi would never have given her the opportunity.  She did not feel she belonged anywhere.  Not at home.  Not with her own peer group.  And, unfortunately, not with the Royal Family.  In fact, it was unclear if she even had a friend with which to blow off steam, to share her darkest secrets, or to laugh till they cried.  She was, by definition, as alone as one could get.  While Princess Diana carried all that pain alone, we all thought she “had it all”.

​     David said it reminded him of the pretty girl syndrome in high school.  You would never ask out the “prettiest girl” because everyone thought, “she would never go out with me”.  Couldn’t she date anyone she wanted?  Yet, her “having it all” appearance made her unapproachable, and she was never asked out.
     Princess Diana was marrying a mature stranger, who unbeknownst to her was in love with another woman and entered a role she was not sure how to navigate.  When I was her same age, I was immaturely balancing university responsibilities with partying and learning how much fun was too much?  Is it no wonder she did not have the emotional intelligence needed to succeed?  And in time, her compassion and humanity came through and she found her place and her purpose despite everything.  It was too bad, nobody understood her.  It was disastrous that the paparazzi did not give them their privacy. It is tragic when any human being feels so alone.  Princess Diana deserved a better goodbye.

     Since we were about to go into another full lockdown, we decided to get out and explore. We started with Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Whatever you see or wherever you go, there are pieces of history you pick up that you didn't know before. In my case, lots of pieces. 
     Covid has been horrible for everyone. However, one silver lining is that there are no crowds. So we were able to go on and behind the stage! The columns that look like marble from afar are actually painted wood and the backstage is as small as it appears! 

​     Now people have assigned seats, but in Shakespeare’s time, that was not a thing. They would cram as many people in as they could! More money! There were also no bathrooms or intermissions then.  Our docent explained that most people could “hold it” and so there was no need to use the loo, but if you could not wait the two hours, you would just relieve yourself right there at your seat. Women might have had the advantage due to the long skirts they would wear. 
     When the play was about to start, they would raise a flag. Townspeople from London would take a barge over to get tickets and a trumpet would sound for people to take their seats. (The City of London banned any theatre INSIDE the city limits. Clearly too many undesirables.) The Globe Theatre is not “exactly” in the same spot as it was originally, but nearby. They did as much excavating and learning about it as they could and then reconstructed it exactly as it had been, which means they rebuilt it with no nails! It is something to see! Anyway, someday we will see a play there. If the theatre can stand the test of time during the Bubonic Plague (it closed 1603-1608 to slow down the spread), then it can get through Covid!

     After the Globe, on our way to a quaint pub we had read about, we happen to walk by the Brunel Tunnel Museum. We would have just kept walking except I had just read about the tunnel the night before, and we were curious. It was practically the 8th wonder of the world, an amazing engineering feat -- successfully digging a tunnel underneath a navigable river! Others had repeatedly tried but failed. Marc Brunel’s tunnel was started in 1825 and was supposed to take 3-5 years. Instead, it took 16. Before constructing this tunnel, Brunel had been involved in many unprofitable engineering projects and was heavily in debt.  He was sent to a debtor’s prison (where his family could join him!?*#?!  Crazy, right?), but Arthur Wellsley recognized that he was too brilliant of a mind to lose, so he convinced the government to clear his 5,000 pound debt (that’s equivalent today to $724,775.00).  You may remember Arthur Wellesley as the Duke of Wellington,  the man who defeated Napoleon! Anyway, Brunel successfully designed a tunneling shield, a reinforcing wall in which miners could dig, and slowly the shield would be moved forward as the walls were reinforced, creating the tunnel under the River Thames. He had hoped that this amazing achievement would bring trade between the ports, but they could never find a way to get a horse and carriage down into the tunnel.  Consequently, it was limited to a pedestrian thoroughfare charging 1 shilling to walk through.  The news of the tunnel traveled fast and it was visited by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Within the first 4 months they had over 1 million visitors! 

​Today we use similar machines for tunneling, and yet 177 years ago this engineering marvel was limited to a tourist attraction. The tunnel, in Brunel’s lifetime, never made a profit or was used for what it was designed for, and so it's possible he never realized his contribution was recognized for its true importance. You can view the original tunnel, still being used,  and its brickwork connecting the Rotherhithe and Wapping Stations (metropolitan line) in the rail maze of the underground called THE TUBE.  This was a real find and if you have the time, I recommend the visit. Pre-Covid, concerts were performed down in the great hall.  I would have enjoyed experiencing that.  Maybe another day or another lifetime.

​     The Mayflower pub, near where the Mayflower would have taken off from, was across the street. They have a marvelous deck on the water’s edge, so we were able to eat outside.  You could hear the splashing and slapping of the waves against the pilings. If you can prove you are a descendant from the Mayflower, they have a book you can sign. David should have been able to sign that book, but the documents necessary for proof were destroyed in a fire decades ago. The other fun fact is that it is the only place in England where you can buy a UK and a USA postage stamp.  We did not actually challenge this fact and wonder if it is still so.  We might have to go back for another pint and a postage stamp.