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
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