London, Day 3
I’m actually writing my wrap-up of Day 3 events, stuff done on Thursday, Saturday afternoon in an Internet Cafe’ in Bristol, England. Thursday night was hectic and Friday was even more, so keeping up was impossible. Trying to keep a log while traveling is hard, but I’m determined to keep these memories alive for myself by having a record of them. So, without any further delay, here’s a run down of Thursday’s events.
- Started out the day with the typical Continental Breakfast at the Kensington Rooms. Fruit, pastries, cereal (corn or wheat flakes), yogurt, toast (it’s actually just bread) and jam, tea. I’ve never been much of a breakfast eater, but I’ve found I really like this set-up. May have to adopt this once I get back to the states.
- First thing we did was hop on the tube to Trafalgar Square. Arune and I got confused and thought Trafalgar Square was where we were to go to pick up discount theater tickets. WRONG! Lescter Square. No problems, Trafalgar Square worked nicely. We checked out Nelson’s Column, then made our way over towards the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey by walking a bit, then hopping on a bus once I realized the walk would be longer that I liked. Arrived at Parliament and checked out Big Ben. Pretty impressive standing there. Reminds me of the feeling I had the first time I saw the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. back in 2000 (pictures from that trip can be found here).
Directly across from Parliament is Westminster Abbey. Gorgeous. Simply gorgeous cathedral. I’ve seen some of the finest in the world and this ranks up there. I’ve visited the Vatican, seen the Cathedrals in Venice and Florence, saw the National Cathedral in 2002. Westminster Abbey ranks right up there. Unfortunately no photos were allowed while inside Westminster, but I took plenty of the outside. The Internet Cafe I’m at now won’t allow me to plug in my laptop (LAME) so I can’t upload pictures now, but when I get back to London on Sunday I’ll try to upload more photos to the Gallery.
- After we were done there, Arune and I made our way to Lecster Square to pick up those theatre tickets. Rich Johnston had recommended either “Jerry Springer: The Musical” or “Dance of Death” starring Ian McKellan. Once we arrived in Lecster Square we found the right ticket agent (there are numerous rip offs. If you visit you want to go to The Original Discount Ticket Broker” or something along those lines.) and opted for tickets to “Dance of Death.” More on that a bit later.
- Once we had our tickets we decided to take in a movie. We both had been running around like mad and needed a break, so we took in “The Matrix Reloaded” and the Warner Village Theatre in Lecster Square. Nice theatre that apparently is owned by Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow Production, the two companies conveniently behind “The Matrix Reloaded.” Nice theatre. I escaped to do my thing in the bathroom during the annoying Zion scenes, and slept through the other boring bits, but saw all the good stuff again so I really enjoyed this showing! The movie needed a good edit and I was able to give it one.
- The movie ended and we made our way to the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge. The Tower Bridge is that very familiar bridge you see whenever scenes of London are shown in movies or on the television. Pretty cool being there. We decided not to take of Tower of London tour as we didn’t really have the time. The play was at 8:00 and it was already 5:30 and we needed food, bad.
- Took the train back to Kensington, changed and had a great meal at an Indian Restaurant that got great reviews down the street. I’ve tasted Indian Food many times before and it can range from very good to just right plan bad. Bad Indian food suffers from over spicing and soggy meats. This place was quite phenomenal.
- After Dinner it was back to the Lescter Square area. We got off at Picadilly Circus, it’s at the far end of Lecster Square. Picadilly Circus is another very famous area of London, with the huge digital advertising billboards you’ve seen often. Made our way to the Lyric Theatre to see “Dance of Death” and found ourselves in the middle of what could only be described as a red light district. Clearly I had made a wrong turn! Arune and I didn’t have time to enjoy the craziness as we were running late, so we asked some folks directions and got to the theatre on time.
Now, asking for directions of anyone in London is a nightmare. See, street signs are a rare occurrece in London and when they do exist, they’re even harder to find. So, when someone gives you directions it goes something like this:
“Go up that away, take a left at the first street, then take your second right. Go up and take a left at the You’re A Pissed Face Jackass Pub, four blocks up on your right is the Place You Get Shit Fucked At Tavern, where you’ll turn left, go past the shops and up the way, then when you see the She’s An Ugly Bitch Pub and Tavern you’ve arrived.”
Sometimes it’s better just to wander around and hope for the best. - “Dance of Death” was playing at the Lyric Theatre, which is one of the original theatre’s in the theatre district in London. Very old and very classic and very nice. This is how theatre houses should be. The play itself was fantastic, but sadly during the first half I was right exhausted. So much so, that I fell asleep for about a minute at one point. During intermission I got myself a Red Bull which kept me wide awake through the second half, where the play really picked up.
“Dance of Death” is essentially about a very sad, very evil couple celebrating their 25th anniversary together. Their cruelty towards one another is astounding. Ian McKellan played the husband and wow, was he utterly fantastic. All the actors gave phenomenal performances. If you’re interested in learning more about the play, there’s a nice review here from the BBC.
That’s it for Thursday. Hopefully I’ll be able to upload some more photos before I come home and will have a chance to write up Friday and Saturday.
