Covent Garden and Dreamgirls

It was theatre day! Always a treat to see live theatre in London. We were going to see Dreamgirls, but were planning to go to Covent Garden and walk around first...and maybe see Bob the Streetcat! Yeah, that last part probably wasn't going to happen, but we were hopeful.

We got off at Embankment station and saw this monument in front of the Charing Cross railway station. It is one of 12 Eleanor Crosses, which King Edward I had erected in different locations between 1291 and 1294 in memory of his wife, Eleanor of Castile. This is a replica erected in 1865 and one of the more lavish ones. Only 3 of the original crosses remain.

It sort of reminded me of the intricate work on the Familia Sagrada in Barcelona.

Heading up the Strand towards Covent Garden...

This guy was amazing. He carried this plate of glass through a doorway without hardly stopping. He's clearly done this a few times.

Kinky Boots, another show I'd love to see sometime...

The fab four with Dreamgirls in the background...

We continued on to Covent Garden...

Beautiful flowers...

There are some very upscale stores...

It was a former fruit and vegetable market, but now is home to upscale shops, artists and buskers.

The area where the buskers perform...this guy was taking a break from his unicycle.

And then was back with a whip and a potato as I recall. I think he was warming up (I hope) as his first attempt at slicing the potato was unsuccessful. They take that in stride as they have some quips ready to explain any missteps.

Lots of beautiful, expensive shops inside...

The shops line the walls, but in the interior are the crafts and artists. We all managed to spend some money here. I resisted a beautiful pair of Italian leather shoes. I really, really wanted them. I mean, really! I went back a couple of times, but was having a hard time to justify $350. Admire and move on...

There is usually a classical singer at the base of the stairs and this time was no different. I guess the acoustics must be good there?

Yum, this afternoon tea looked delicious...

We stood outside for at least 15 minutes and this guy had still not got to the end of his routine. Lots of school kids in attendance...

I wanted to be up there!

These gorgeous flowers surrounded their menu...

We finally chose a place for lunch which, in typical fashion, involved stairs. The service was soooo slow that several people left. We had time to kill before the theatre so weren't in a rush, but after being there for almost an hour, this is what we had to show for it. I was getting quite nervous about the cost of this water!

Lunch was not memorable, but it was nice and relaxing, and we headed off to the theatre at the Savoy.

Love live theatre!

We had snagged inexpensive, but good seats in the front row balcony. More stairs for me sissy...

Intermission and the safety curtain was down...it's meant to stop fires from spreading from the stage to the audience in larger theatres.

We could have been like the muppets in the theatre box...

No photography allowed, but I did sneak a photo or two during the curtain call. Effie, the lead character, was amazing. "And I am telling you, I'm not going..." ♫ It must be super hard to sing that song when you have Jennifer Hudson's performance to live up to.

A fun afternoon!

The time is flying by...tomorrow we're off to Carshalton to see if we can find my grandmother's grave.

Changing of the Guard and Other Fun Stuff in London

We had been to the Changing of the Guard on a Saturday and arrived 90 minutes early at the recommendation of many on-line posters. There were only small crowds that day, which I thought was surprising for the weekend.

Buckingham Palace with the Victoria monument in front...

Victoria doesn’t look too amused...

This was one of the bobbies keeping his eyes on the crowds. Some of them get understandably angry with the tourists who are lolling about outside the barricades in front of traffic. One of them ran down the street yelling at people "Get inside or I’m going to chase you.” At least some of them still have a sense of humour.

Clearly, we should have read the memo on the Changing of the Guard. I really had no idea what was happening. Bands went one way; bands went another way.

I believe these are the Queen's Life Guards who went down the Mall from the Palace.

And then this band came back up the Mall and went inside the gates of the Palace...

This is as much as I could see of what was going on inside the gate. You almost have to go twice. Once to see the guards coming up the Mall, and a second time to be close to the gate where the changing of the guard takes place.

Next thing these other guards came from a different direction...

This was the crush of people at the gates, so there was no chance of getting in close to see what happens inside. We decided to try it again on Monday, only this time we would position ourselves at the gates.

Being as the Saturday hadn't been that busy, we figured it would be even quieter on a Monday, so we only left ourselves about 30 minutes before the ceremony began. Mistake! There were crowds of people and many tour buses on Monday and we couldn't even get close. Next time...and we will read up on it.

We decided instead to walk to Harrods...cue Google maps to lead the way. That worked really well until Google kept telling us we were there and we couldn't find it. We walked around the same block twice and I was thinking "Who can't find Harrods!"  Google was having a moment I guess. After entering the address instead of just the store name, Google finally decided to lead us there. Success!

I was taking a photo of the storefront, and Jim was telling me to take a photo of the Ferrari. "Where is it?" I asked. Oh, right in front of me...here you go!

I looked through ladies' wear and checked out the lovely washrooms. I didn't think things were unreasonably priced, but more money than we wanted to spend on anything, so off we went to a place we could afford...the food hall! Now, we were talking! Everything is so clean and beautifully presented.

The London Collection…cookies, shortbread...look at those teddy bears. Definitely for the tourists...

The sweets section...

Look at these veggies...yum! We made a few purchases including a yummy macaron that barely made it out of the store before we devoured it. Caramel and sea salt...you cannot go wrong.

We went to see The Book of Mormon at the Prince of Wales Theatre in Piccadilly Circus. It was really funny...totally irreverent and politically incorrect.

We decided the next day to go back to Piccadilly Circus and also to visit Covent Garden. We walked past the Gherkin...

This quartet was playing to a crowd of lunch goers in Covent Garden...

Mixing classical music with humour...

And there were the usual buskers performing...I guess I was more interested in the buildings than the buskers.

Across the street, I could see a sign for St. Paul's Church. In my mind I was thinking St. Paul's Cathedral and kept looking for the big dome. Suddenly I clued in that they are two different churches.

But they were having a charity sale so we popped in. Many different charities were selling Christmas cards and other items. We found some pretty ones to support the MS Society.

Back on the street, we wandered by a book store. I had been stalking James and Street Cat Bob hoping he would be doing a book signing somewhere near us, but it wasn't to be. Buying the book would just have to do.

Now we were in Leicester Square. The London Hippodrome opened in 1900 as a place to showcase variety shows and animal acts. It is now a casino.

One of several casinos in the area...

Often you would look down a small street and see a little pub; this one was called the Slug and Lettuce. Loved it!

OMG Cinnabon...I was off like shot.

Mmmm...

The fountain in Piccadilly Circus. There were lots of people and lots of buskers.

Piccadilly Circus is supposed to be like New York’s Times Square, but on a smaller scale.

We walked back to Trafalgar Square where these two guys were drawing flags of the world. People were throwing coins on the flags for the country of their choice.

Aiming for Canada, I hit it and the coin promptly rolled off onto Peace & Love. Oh well, that's good too.

These buskers seemed to be the new thing. I have no idea how they are elevated. You can see the guy giving the busker a backward glance “how the heck is he doing that?”.

These kids were trying to get the busker to smile without much luck...

 We got our Fitbit steps in that day. Back at the flat with my Cinnabon and Bob book...a great day!

Tomorrow we're heading to Southampton to meet up with Barb and Ed...