long live the queen

aparently pirate kidnappings are only a week long.. at least this one was. my pirate returned me to the karlsruhe shores safe and unharmed (well..mostly.. can't say my foot isnt a bit sore). this was definatly the best birthday present i have ever had.. or heard of anyone else having.
the first two and a half days were spent in oxford, where we saw a lot of sights and then biked over to the josh ritter concert (this was the real reason for the whole trip). the oncert was amazing.. he played well over two hours. i had a seat on a sofa for part and then sitting on a little table for the rest. andreas was bored. he claims to like metal.
the rest of the week was spent in london.. where we came no where near to seeing everything. but we did go to the glorious undead church to meet up with some friends of mine.. kameal and his wife (and surprisingly tina, who i forgot lives there). the GU is similar to the jesus freaks, and i knew some of them from freakstocks past. we of course followed church with a visit to brick lane for indian food.
we were also able to attend st paul's cathedral for evensong. but the real highlight in london (for me) was that we were able to (after standing in a line for over an hour) get tickets (for the very best seats in the house) for "as you like it" (the one with my favorite monolgue) at shakespeare's GLOBE!!! (ok, the 1997 rebuild of it)
and.. as if this wsn't enough.. we saw 2 space invaders and 1 banksy!! thats it really for street art.. but we went to a few museums, since they are all free! we saw the tate modern and the national gallery.