NeVeR a DuLL dAy iN LoNdOn

Saturday, November 30th

Becca and her mom left today, but before they had to head back to Heathrow, we were able to get a little bit in. We left at 10:00 to go to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard. We were pretty early, but it was absolutely necessary to get the amazing spots that we did. We ended up standing next to some really funny people from Chicago, and a really… friendly guy from Boston.

The soldiers and horses and band all marched in, same fashion as last time, and played another concert before changing the soldiers. This time, we got to hear the traditional British marches as they came in, of course. However, the performance changed a bit as the next song was a Michael Jackson medley, including ‘Thriller’ and ‘Beat It.’ Next the marching band played a medley of the Indiana Jones Theme, Star Wars, and the Olympics Theme. I thought it was pretty cool.

After watching the rest of the show, critiquing the soldier’s roll steps (meaning… mostly making fun of our high school band teacher), and taking some pictures on top of the monument in front of the palace, we left back to my room to get their luggage and send them off to Heathrow Airport.

Hope you guys had a great time here! Thanks for visiting! It was a blast!

After I saw Becca and her mom off to the tube station, I ate lunch at ISH and then left to meet Cody and Rachael at Camden Market. As I was walking down to the platform, I heard someone screaming, and as I got down there, a woman who obviously was mentally ill, was accompanied by another woman, and some guards. She was probably upset with either the guards or having to go down into the underground, but it was kinda a crazy experience.

I made it to Camden, and looked through the markets with Cody and Rachael. It was mostly a bunch of tents full of jackets, fake Gucci and Louis Vuitton purses, silly t-shirts, and wool sweatshirts, all with people selling and bartering all over the place. Definitely a lively scene. We didn’t really buy anything, except for a few posters that Cody got, and after looking around for a while more, we decided to head out.

After being inspired by Becca and her mom going to Harrods to get an amazing ice cream sundae, we decided to head back there to get some ourselves. Rachael had not been to Harrods yet either, so we needed to make sure she got to see it as well. It was definitely 10 times busier than when I went with Becca and her mom earlier this week, but I guess it made sense as it was a Saturday afternoon. The fur protesters were outside again, and you practically had to elbow your way into the building.

We walked around the food stalls for a while, and then made our way to the ice cream parlor where Rachael got some mint gelato and Cody and I split an amazing looking strawberry sundae. Better be amazing I guess, because it cost 11 pounds… but the server offered to chip in his number for free, so I guess that counts… ha.

Harrods is such a unique experience. While we were sitting and eating our ice cream, we looked over the he pizza parlor next to us to see a man singing the Italian opera ‘Figaro’ song, while flipping pizza dough in the air. How cool is that? Also, on our way upstairs on the escalators, we heard all kinds of music, thinking it was just pretty music to keep customers happy. Well, on the balconies to one of the levels (there are elegant balconies on each floor with manicans and displays) was woman singing operas as well. Talk about high class… or just super touristy…

We kept going to the Christmas section, and the toy section, where all the crazy toys were being demonstrated (sorry you guys missed all of the crazy demonstrations Lamers family!). The lady with light up roller blades, flying helicopters and birds, flying saucers, and the snow demo were all going again. There was a really cute little girl too how kept bouncing this giant flying saucer at the employee. We also went through some of the clothing departments, and honestly, even if I had the money, I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing a single thing I saw there… crazy business…

We got on a bus to head back toward our place, hoping to see the Christmas lights through the city on the way back. Since it was only about 5:30 or so, we were looking for something else to do, and have quite a few things to cross off of our list since we only have two weeks left (only two weeks! I think I may cry!). Rachael was leaving to hang out with some other friends, and Cody and I really wanted to go to the play ‘Imagine This,’ so luckily I had the number to the theatre in my phone since I called just the day before, and we were able to get off and go directly to the theatre. Literally as we got off the bus, we ran into Shawn on Tottenham Court Road, and asked if he would want to go with us. Coincidentally, he was just wandering the west end, looking for a cool show to go to, and decided to come along with us. Talk about coincidental occurrences lately… ha.

We walked down to the area the theatre was in, but since there was a lot of construction the streets weren’t very clearly marked so we asked a man standing outside of a restaurant. Also rather coincidentally, he said he was going to the same show and we only had to walk a few blocks down the street we were on. We got to the New London theatre rather early and bought tickets for only 17.50.

Since we had a bit of time to kill, we went across the street to a coffee shop and bought a few drinks and then continued to walk down the street on a mission: we were on Drury Lane, and we NEEDED to find the Muffin Man. Cody and I are going to come back later in the morning sometime and buy a muffin on Drury Lane. Now, we walked up and down, and there wasn’t a SINGLE muffin shop. Doesn’t really make sense to me… Oh well, the coffee shop will have to do. Shawn probably thought we were crazy, but went along with it anyway. Ha.

We walked around for a little while and admired the Christmas decorations. We stumbled upon a shop dedicated to astrology and decided we will need to bring Rachael back here because she is really into this kind of stuff.

We decided to head back to the theatre and take our seats. We had tickets all the way to the side in the restricted view, but moved to the center where no one was sitting just before the show started to some amazing seats right in the stalls. The show was amazing. I mentioned how much I enjoyed ‘War Horse’ before… well this one ranks right up there. It was a musical that takes place during the Holocaust. It seems gloomy, and it was, but it also had really happy, comical moments, and it was so powerful. It was such an incredible feeling at the end of the performance. It is a story of a family in the ghettos, and he puts on a musical he writes about the story of Masada, when the Romans want to kill all of the Jews. It has love and hope and is supposed to be an inspiration for the Jews in the ghetto. The show tunes in and out of the musical that they are performing and the actors are faced with dangerous situations to send messages to the rest of the camp, endangering their own lives. The singing and dancing and choreography were incredible. Simply incredible. I wish it were a movie because I would absolutely make the purchase. And the feeling you have at the end of the show, possibly the most powerful emotion you could ever feel…

After the show, the three of us walked back to ISH. Shawn left back to ISH, and Cody and I stopped in TESCO quickly. We got back to our rooms, and I packed for our trip to Bath tomorrow, and went to bed.