A lie-in, a funeral, a tour and a Phantom.

This morning, I had every intent on getting up at my normal time at 8:00 and get started, but I suppose it was not happening today.  I stayed in bed until 10:00am, I suppose I needed that.

I headed out and wanted to get some pictures in my neighborhood before I hopped on the Underground and headed back to Picadilly Circus to catch my walking tour.  I wanted to check out the church that was near my hotel.  St. Mary Abbots, and so I went in and there was a funeral happening, but I was handed a program and so I took a seat.  I was there to hear the Eulogy for a gentleman by the named of Niles Fawcett.  I then heard the choir sing "How Lovely is Thy Dwelling Place" by Brahms, and then I took off.  I've never crashed a funeral before  - especially one in an Episcopal church and of someone I didn't know - in a foreign country!

I took the Underground back to Picadilly Circus to meet my walking tour.  I bought the Walking Tour on Expedia before I came to London.  It included a walking tour of the sights of London and then Afternoon Tea at a local hotel.  Well, it turns out I was the only one that signed up for this particular tour on this particular day - so it was just me and my tour guide, Amber, who is actually from Texas.  

So, away we went.  We walked, she talked, I took pictures.  She had some great knowledge to share, not only about what we were seeing, but about some adages like "Break a Leg", "Mind your P's and Q's", "One for the Road" and "Off/On the Wagon". Lots of history of the kings and queens of England and how much the people didn't like Margaret Thatcher.  One of the highlights was that we got to go into the Westminster Methodist Community Hall where the first production of "Jospeh and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" was performed.  That was really cool.  It was neat to share some info with her that she can use on her tour.  We then went to a hotel for Afternoon Tea.   I was taught how to pour tea, add the milk, and gently fold the milk in and not to stir and finally not let your saucer stray more than 12 inches from your cup.   We had tea sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam and learned that there are two ways of putting cream and jam on your scone - either cream first and then jam - the Devon way, OR jam then cream - the Cornwall way.  I preferred that Devon way as the Cornwall way is more difficult to put cream on top of jam.  Amber and I talked for a long time about Downton Abbey, theatre, the USA etc... and promised to look up each other on Facebook!!   It was just the best afternoon ever!

I then walked back up to the West End and took some pictures of some theatres I hadn't taken pictures of yet and then made it to Her Majesty's Theatre for The Phantom of the Opera.   My seat was G9, almost in the center.  It was a great production.  The only thing I found strange was that Christine had blonde hair.  Not sure why that happened, but it was just different. It was sung very well, played very well, and it's always great to see the original set design.  

I took the Underground back to my hotel and fought with the WIFI.

Tomorrow is the big day.  Sunset Blvd. with Glenn Close!!!   But before that, a trip back up to Oxford street to check out the London Palladium.  I should have done that yesterday, but I didn't realize I was in the vicinity.  Tomorrow night I have one more show slot available.... Trying to decide to see something I've never seen before, or something else like Mamma Mia! 

Mind the gap - I'm trying to find Abbey Road!

There aren't a lot of pictures today, mainly because it seems like I was on the Underground most of the day to get to some of these special places that may be important to me and not as important to a London tourist.  But it's my trip, and if I see something instead of seeing something else, oh well.  London will always be here!  Here we go.

First off, as predicted, I slept better than I had the first night.  So, that was good.  I got up, got cleaned up and bearded down to breakfast.  After, I set out to pick up my bus as my intent was to catch the Cnaging of the Guards walking tour that was included in my bus ticket.  But my bus couldn't get me there in time.  So, the driver gave me some options.  I ended up standing in a place that was fine.  Hard to take picture and video, but here are some shots and since this blogger app won't let me post video, you'll have to find them on Facebook.

Ok, those pics show absolutely nothing.  Let's move on.....

I then got on the Underground and my next destination was Abbey Road Studios.  So, I used my handy dandy London Underground app and punched in Abbey Road and followed the instructions.  This what I saw when I got there.

So, I got back on the train and headed to the right Abbey Road.  Here are some picks from that adventure.

These are pretty sel-explanatory.  I'll post the video of me walking across the street on Facebook.  

Next up was Oxford Street so I could get a look at the most expensive department store in London and the subject of one of my favorite PBS series.

Talk about rather overwhelming.... I was in and out in 10 minutes.  But, can say I've been there.  

Also on Oxford Street, I saw this and went in.... 

They had little to nothing that said "London" on it, so I left.  I headed to Harrods.  Here's a pic...

Harrod's is like a small city.  It makes Macy's seem like a 7-11.  I asked about the Disney store that's located IN Harrods, and I was handed a GUIDE BOOK for the store.  Let's talk about department stores in general - what's up with dousing you with perfume as soon as you walk in the door?  Same with Selfridges, there's like this light cloud of perfume over the first floor of the store.  Anyway, Harrod's was a bit too much for me.  But I got a few pics...

On my way out, I got lost.  Couldn't find the exit.  Between the perfume and the fact I hadn't eaten since breakfast, I was feeling kinda crappy.  So, I got back on the Undergroud and headed to Leicester Square to get a ticket for a show.   I ended up getting a ticket for "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and headed toward the direction of the theatre to try and find some place to eat.  I'll be honest, I HATE trying to find a restaurant when I'm on my own, especially if I really want to try and be faithful to the cuisine of the country I'm in.  There are a lot of chain restaurants around (have I mentioned that I haven't been to a Starbucks yet?) and I could easily eat there, but why do that when I can try and support local business'?  So I stumbled upon a pub I had seen yesterday.

The food was good - I had fish and chips and several diet cokes.   I finally felt better, and my feet were happy as well. Oh, and I saw this hanging up in the pub

I then stumbled upon Covent Garden.  It's like an open air market place, so cool. I thought I had pics, but I guess I don't.  I'll try and get back there and take some pics.  There was another small DIsney store there.  

Looks like they are doing some construction here.

I then attended "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" which was being presented in the Theatre Royal Drury Lane,  very famous theatre in London.  

The show is written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Whitman, the same guys that wrote Hairspray and the music of for Bombshell on "Smash".  So, besides "Pure Imagination", none of the score from the Gene Wilder movie was included, and it didn't need it.  The story was updated quite a lot, and it worked well,  The physical production was reminiscent of the mega-musicals on the 80's-90's, big sets - and a very touching story. I give this 2 thumbs up and hopes that it will do well when it comes to Broadway next season.  This production is right on par with The Lion King's and the Beauty and the Beast's.  I took the tube home.   

Tomorrow, well, I don't know yet. Maybe a tour of Royal Albert Hall, I have a walking tour that I booked though Expedia which includes Afternoon Tea, and then tomorrow night, I see Phantom in it's original home, Her Majesty's Theatre - even though the outside is covered in scaffolding!

On My Own, Exploring London, England

On par for any first night in Europe, you try to go to bed at your normal time even though your body hasn't adjusted to the time change, and while your body is tired, you actually fall asleep.... For about two hours and you wake up and it's the middle of the night and you are wide awake.  At least British TV is in English, it's harder to watch TV in countries that don't speak English.  Anyway, you get tired again and you finally fall asleep.  Then your alarm goes off at the time you really want to be up, in this case it was 8:00am and you don't want to get out of bed because you are now really tired.   Anyhow, you think about all the things you want to accomplish and you are finally motivated to move.  You get in the shower and all now seems right with the world and you are on your way.  Breakfast in the hotel, included with the room, good enough to get started and away you go!

I made it to my tour bus "The Original London Tour", or something like that, and hopped in.  I really wanted the "yellow" line, but the "blue" line is the one that stopped near me, so I transferred to the "yellow" line at Picadilly Circus.  You know, there are no animals at Picadilly Circus, Circus is Latin for "Circle" - I had no clue, now it all makes sense.   Here are some pics from the bus.  I'll try to caption them as best I can.

First, here's some music you can play while you scroll through these.   This is one of my favorite oldie but a goodie...

Oldest tube station in London

Interesting thing about the windows.   You can tell they get smaller toward the top.  Now Walt Disney would say that is force perspective to make the building look bigger - however in this case, in the 1600's, some king created a window tax.  Yes, as in taxing the land owner for the size of the window.  Later on, another king decided it was wrong to pay for daylight and the tax was lifted.  

Ah, Harrods.... I'll be visiting tomorrow I think.

More Harrods

Canadian Embassy - I don't know why I took this.

National Gallery

This was my view from the bus of the changing on the guards.  I might do the walking tour that includes a better view.

I hopped off the bus near the London Eye, because I wanted to visit Westminster Abbey.   I couldn't take any photos inside.  I attended a communion service at 12:30 which was cool considering I don't think I've ever done something like that before.  Before I took my seat, I asked if it was ok because I was Catholic. The guy chuckled and said "of course". It was a lovely service, very much by the book and no sermon, which I was hoping for.  The priest was a woman, which was neat.   It was different hearing words I normally hear from a male priest come out of a female's mouth.  One of these days, the Catholics will catch up.  I toured the Abbey using the provided audio tour and visited some of the side chapels, which were crypts as well.  I saw where Handel was buried, which was neat.  

Outside, I took these pics

Nearby, there was this church - which is said to be the church where the very first performance of "Jospeh and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" took place.

I thought this was cute

And here are a few pics of the London Eye - which I decided not to partake in.  

And Big Ben and Parlament

Big Ben doesn't refer to the actual clock tower, but rather the bell inside the clock tower.

Parlament

Back on the bus and heading toward the city of London, which is guarded by dragons.  When you pass by one of these dragons, it mean you have entered the actual City of London.  Also, I found it interesting that the Queen has to knock before she enters the City of London.

The City of London is basically the financial district of London and is only 1 square mile.  It's where all the money is made.   The bus took us down Fleet Street, but I didn't get a picture and yes, I did look for Sweeney's Todd's Tonsorial Parlor.   It was no where to be found.  I think I'm going back down there for a tour on Friday, I'm not quite sure where said tour begins.

Here are some pics from the City of London....

The dome of St Paul's

Steps of St. Paul's .... No bird woman to be found... Or birds for that matter 

St. Paul's again

London Tower Bridge

Old Tower of London and the new Tower of London in the distance.

I took the bus back to Picadilly Circus and hopped off and explored TheatreLand.  Well, before that, I made sure I got a ticket for Les Miserables for the evening.  Here are some marquees and stuff like that

The Mormons have set up shop in the West End

Behind the scaffolding is Her Majesty's Theatre.... I guess. LOL

This is for my brother, Chirs.

TKTS booth in Leicester Square

I didn't know this was playing.... I love Show Boat!!

Well. I guess the Piragua Guy won't get any business here in the West End  :-(

Ooooo, Drury Lane!!  I looked and looked and counldn't find the Muffin Man :-(

But I found Charlie!!!

And an iStore?   Apple Store?   I dunno....

And The Lion King theatre

For dinner, I went to Jamie Oliver's restaurant "The Diner" - which was kinda just OK.   Nothing really exciting.

I then attended my first West End show, Les Miserables which is the longest running show in the West End.  

I went on and on about not wanting to see this production because of the orchestrations - and bear with me as I totally geek out for a minute.

I saw the show for the first time in SF in 1990.  It was the show that may have been the beginning of my love for theatre, which is why I have such a soft spot for the British Mega-Musicals of the 80's-90's.  While I've seen the show several times since, you never really forget your first time.  There was a major overhaul of the show for it's 25th Anniversary.  There were some nips and tucks made, the U.K. and subsequently the US tour had a new physical production (new set, no turntable, new staging etc)and that seem to be the norm for the show from that point forward.  Well, for those of us that loved the original, this was a sad day.  However, I still had hope that in London, while they were unfortunately using the new orchestrations, they kept the original staging.  Well, what's in London now is the original set... and that's about it.  The staging is basically the new staging but on the old set, and that was sad to me also.  We won't mention the bits that were added after the movie came out.  So, what's at the Queen's Theatre in London is a mash up of everything new on the old set.   FAIL.     But that's just my opinion... It still hit the right moments musically, and I still cried at the end of Act One and Act Two because the score is just that good.  The voices were cast correctly (almost) and it sounded great.  Except for the fist French Horn player - I wonder if he/she was a sub tonight,it didn't help that I sat almost right in front of the brass section.

Well, that's enough of THAT. 

I took the tube home quite successfully.

Tomorrow.... Well, I have some ideas which will probably see me on the tube most of the day and then back in the West End in the evening, ether for a concert or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory....we'll see.

Mattei