London - first 2 days...

London Day 1

Our first full day in London, we headed to Leicester Square to buy discounted tickets to a musical.  Les Miserable wasn’t an option so we opted for Billy Elliot that evening and were not disappointed.  On the way to the show we stopped by a noodle restaurant named Wagamama a couple folks had recommended for dinner.  It was a sellout at the Victoria Theatre.  We had great seats and enjoyed every minute of the show.  We have always enjoyed Elton John’s music and he did a nice job with this score.  It’s the story of a coal miner’s son who decided to become a dancer.  His father  as was everyone else in the village was on strike.  Dad instructed him to take boxing lessons for 50 pence, which he did try, but in the end discovered he preferred dancing which was held in a nearby space.  The 12 year old actor who played the lead was amazing and had endless energy.  The singing was good as well but this youngster was just dynamite.  He started acting at 5 and  then dance beginning at 7 years.  This show was the stage for tap, ballet, and everything in-between.  Lots of fun!.  So to back track a bit earlier in the day, we explored Trafalgar Square and the National Portrait Museum.  The square is quite the ‘hang out’ place and is periodically in the news for demonstrations and the like.  The Portrait Museum, the building behind the square, was amazing.  They have all these really, really old paintings that go back hundreds and hundreds of years and the sheer size of them, let alone the quality for being around for that many years boggled the mind.  They used to mix their own paints.  I can’t help but think that played a part.

London Day 2

This day we opted to take a double decker bus tour of the city.  It gave us the ‘lay of the land’ so to speak but the second part of the tour got old fast because of traffic, detours and construction projects.  Part of this deal was we got a cruise on the Thames and that was fun.  There are a lot of construction projects all over the city and the contrast between hundreds of year classic Roman, Venetian, styles next to contemporary glass shapes is interesting.

 After escaping the tour, we headed to Covent Gardens for some lunch and a look around the area.  Below is a photo of a couple of guys cooking paella on huge sauce pans.  That was our yummy choice.  The market place also had some performers in the Piazza, and lots of artists and crafts men selling their wares.  Great place to people watch!

Later we hopped off our ‘cruise’ and headed towards Westminster Abbey and Parliament.  The House of Parliament building is enormous and is quite the contrast in architecture.  Apparently it had a couple of fires, one in 1512 and another in 1834, bombed in WWII, and then they started reconstruction in 1840 which lasted 30 years or so.  It’s also the location of Big Ben.  The story of Big Ben actually refers to the bell only – not the clock, but over the years the clock has been known as Big Ben.  This is the largest clock that ticks.