Day 17 - London UK

Sunny with showers from time to time - 12 degrees or so

Busy Dowtown London

Traffic disruption as they go for the Queen

Wednesday arrived without a real plan. We had sort of decided to make this a touring day using one of the 'hop on hop off' buses but not really firmed up what we were to do. After breakfast at about 8:00 AM we set off and purchased Big Bus Tour tickets as they offered a second day usage for free (just for asking) for a slight uplift over the Original Bus Tour folks. (£29 which included a river cruise). We took the western swing first and managed to get the front upstairs seats to get a clear view of where we were going. Freddi chose to sit in the open area a little farther back. This blue tour was used an audio set to identify key areas and we had the option of joining a red tour that has a narrator as a tour guide. We toured through Gloucester and then xxxxxxx and finally we got to Picadilly Circus which is really only a couple of km from where we started. It was informative and fun to watch the traffic and the people from above as the bus driver wended his way through the busy and tight streets. These huge buses as almost zero turning radius as they made some corners that would be difficult in a car. We saw lots and shot a number of photos but at Westminster we thought it would be good to do the river cruise early and departed our bus. The river cruise was full and we sat/stood on the upper deck until the rain started. We saw lots of changes since our last trip on the river. We erred by not getting out at the Tower of London and catching a return trip from there as we carried on to Greenwich which included a 30 minute delay before we poked back along a less interesting portion of the tour. Back at the Tower, we filled up with people and returned to the original Westminster dock. We were fortunate enough to be first off as it was now 2:30 PM and we had not had any lunch. We found the upstairs of the Red Lion in the government area and enjoyed fish and chips. The food was good but the service was not very cheery. I guess the girls had had enough of tourists for that day.

Parliament and Big Ben

We then set out to see about Westminster Abbey but the long line to get in threw us as we had to get changed and go to the theatre later on but not too much later on. We meandered back to the tube and took a couple of lines to get back to Bond street. This time the walk down Oxford was easier as we did not have luggage. Once back in the hotel we rested for a short period and then changed and set off to the theatre. The subway was backed up due to overcrowding and they had closed the entrance. We emerged and took a cab to Victoria Palace Theatre. We picked up our pre-ordered tickets and dropped into the local for a beer and some nachos. That was a fun experience as lots of people stopped there for a quick one on their way to where-ever.

The play convened at 7:30 and our guess for seats in the 'stalls' turned out to be perfect as we were only 8 rows from the stage. Billy Elliot was a story about a young boy in a coal mining town who wanted to be a dancer - a ballerina actually - but he did not receive much encouragement from his family. The young actors and actresses were wonderful as they unraveled the story which eventually getting Billy enrolled in a ballet school in the city. The young Billy was played by a group of 4 12 year olds (I am guessing) and they actually changed the lead at Intermission as the first lad was not feeling too well. The play was delightful and the small cast were very energetic and believable in all of their roles. It also helped to be staged such a great theatre with all of its history surrounding you in your wooden upholstered chairs. The finale was really well done and the dancing was excellent. We emerged from the theatre at about 10:30.

Long day taking pictures

We walked for a while but realized that we had taken a wrong turn so we hailed a cab to get back to the hotel. The driver took us in the wrong direction in error as he heard a different instruction than we had given him. None-the-less we got back to the hotel safely and fairly quickly. We tried to Skype with the western family as Skylar was enjoying her first birthday. That didn't work as they were off-line so I Skype called their cell phone and left a message. It was then time to retire as the day was late and we had planned an early start to the day.