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Published: July 14th 2008
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Eros
At Piccadilly Circus London swings like a pendulum do……
No Bobbies on bicycles tho’. What a multicultural city London is. We think Oz is multicultural! I’m afraid the Poms are terribly outnumbered. Either that or they’ve all gone somewhere else to live. Our hotel is Eastern European. All the staff are and most of the guests are too. Very nice tho’. We dropped Lib off at Heathrow at 9ish. Fond farewell and so sorry to bid her farewell. Lib really brought a lot to our holiday and she was unstoppable. I think she had a good time. She kept us running often and the dinners we had….. Some of those will be great anecdotes later. Lib was pining for the kids and grandkids tho’. Probably a tug of war in her mind being pulled back to Oz.
We have internet access at this hotel, which is great and we immediately checked the West End shows, alas no seats available for any at such short notice. Damn.
First thing we did in London was to get a Big Bus tour, as you do. It was very good and the one thing I noticed was how many and how close the famous landmarks
Trafalgar Square
Notice anything different? I did!
No pigeons.
Certainly better without the flying rats. are. Virtually every turn of the bus brought on a new one. The old camera sure had a workout. As we went past Trafalgar Square, the (live) commentator mentioned that theatre tickets could be purchased at short notice nearby at Leicester Square, so we made a hasty exit from the bus which was a hop on-hop off type. We had a good look around the Square first and called into St Martins-in-the-Field Church and did a rubbing of Henry XIII to match the ones I did last time I was here, 13 years ago, which now hang in our games room. We made our way back to the scalpers and managed to get tickets to Les Misables and a newly opened comedy called “Female of the Species” Got back onto the bus and completed most of a circuit. Stopping at Tower Bridge and jumping on a river cruise. Back onto the bus at Westminster but as it was still sprinkling with rain on and off so we got off and visited Harrods. Walked around for a while in Harrods and marveled at the cost of things in that store. There was a desk I liked but at $30,000.00 it may
have to wait a little bit. There were a lot of women with the full robes and veils on, spending a veritable fortune. Obviously peanuts to them. The only thing we could afford was a sliver of Pork Pie, which I promptly scoffed. We noticed time was running short for the theatre and mad a hurried exit and arrived at the Queens Theatre with only minutes to spare.
Les Miserables, what can I say. I had been told, years ago that it wasn’t a very nice play. That put me off see it when it was in Perth. What a great love story it turned out to be. Two love stories, actually. The rendition of “Bring Him Home” was so moving! The acting and singing was superb! We had a walk around the crowded streets after the show and found we were actually in Soho where there certainly were some sights to behold. Supper afterwards capped off a great night.
Next day we went to Piccadilly Circus and picked up the inevitable London Pass which gave us free tube and bus travel. We made a beeline for Portabello Road to see the antiques market. On Portabello Road there
Eye on Big Ben
Haven't made up my mind whether I like this or not.
Makes 10,000 quid an hour, I heard. are shops that open up into Aladdin’s caves of treasures and antiques. Mainly jewellery and silverware. This consumed all the remainder of the morning and a good part of the afternoon. Back into the city for another shopping expedition at Selfridges and Marks & Sparks before again finding ourselves short of time and rushing off to find the Vaudeville Theatre. Female of the Species actually premiered in Melbourne in 2006, but this was the second show in London. The main female lead is a very accomplished Shakespearean actress. Fran enjoyed it immensely. I still cant work out whether it was a male chauvinist or a female chauvinist play. I think it was actually poking fun at Germaine Greer. We tubed it home that night with no problems whatsoever.
More sightseeing was the order of the day for Sunday although we were hampered by the fact that the Circle Line and a major portion of the District Line were shut down. Added to this, during the day, another section was closed down due to someone being under a train and then a station was closed by police due to another incident. We were criss crossing the city most of the day.
Tower Bridge
And the River Thames with HMS Belfast on the right. The weather was good but frequently changing. Fran was rugged up but I just had a short sleeved shirt on. Among other things, we went to the Duke of Wellingtons Memorial where there is a controversial monument showing a dead soldier. Some people, it seems, don’t like to be reminded that this actually happens in war. Also called in to Covent Garden, which I found somewhat disappointing. We ended up in Leicester Square during the evening doing a bit of people watching. We came to the conclusion that London people were much sloppier dressed on an evening than the French or Italians. Seems to us that people here wear jeans a lot more. Certainly a lot more casual than their counterparts in Paris and Rome.
Today is the last day for us in London. British Airways for us tonight to New York. We will spend the day getting to those spots we missed on the previous days.
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Alicia
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Snap!
Hey Dad and Fran, Did you know that Black Swan Theatre just featured the Female of the Species in Perth!!! Shane and I went and had a good laugh. Safe travels to NY. Love, Alicia