London
Day 5
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Today: Serendipity and a lazy day out: Trafalgar Square, St Martin in the Fields (brass rubbings and concert rehearsal), cows, cows and more cows, Tea at Fortnum & Mason, Jermyn Street, the kindness of strangers, Lion King (half), window shopping on Sloane and home.
Today was the day for everyone to sleep in. We were all pooped from staying out late and getting up early every day.
We rolled out of the house just before noon, and went over to the Lyceum box office to get tix for the Lion King. We got excellent seats (again). We walked around the corner to Caffe Nero and had a quick lunch and coffee.
Max and I went to the post office while Lauren & Patti finished their lunches. On the way there, we saw two cows. There are a number of ceramic (?) cows scattered throughout the city, painted by various artists. We were to see quite a few more during the day.
After rejoining the gals, we decided to just walk over to Trafalgar Square. Originally, we were going to go to the V&A and see a few other sites, but we decided to make this a lazy day out.
At the square, Max and Lauren posed on the lions prior to going to feed the pigeons. The pigeons ate out of their hands, sat on their arms, and everyone generally had a good time!
Then, we walked over to St Martins in the Field church, just across the way, to make some brass rubbings. Down in the crypt, where lots of folks are buried, they have a brass rubbings center where, with wax crayons and black paper, you can color over a brass engraving to make a copy of the image underneath. The kids loved it.
We each finished our drawing, and then walked upstairs to see the church. There was to be a chamber concert that night and the ensemble (not the Academy St Martin in the Fields) was rehearsing. It was lovely! We sat and listened for a while.
Then, we walked over to Fortnum & Mason, where we had a traditional afternoon tea at the restaurant on the 4th floor, something that was on Patti's must list. She was in heaven! It was quite good. The kids enjoyed it too. We couldn't eat everything we were served, there was so much food.
From there, we went onto Jermyn Street, just behind Fortnum & Mason. They had closed the street on Thursday evening to celebrate the Queen's Golden Jubilee. There were about 15 cows scattered throughout the street. The stores were all open. There were clowns, magicians, bagpipe players... you name it! It was a party!
A magician gave Max a private sleight-of-hand show with just 4 coins. He was quite amazing! We would have stayed there forever, but we had to get to our show, which started at 7:30.
At one point we were thinking we had time to go to Hamlyn's, a huge toy store, prior to the Lion King. So we asked this lady for directions. She offered to walk us towards there to show us. When we told her about when our show was, she said "Oh dear, you don't have time to go to Hamlyn's! Let me show you how to get there." We figured she'd walk us a little ways and then point the way from there. But instead, she walked with us the whole way to the show (~30 minutes walk), and we just made it on time!
Our seats were wonderful... we were in the middle of the theatre in row Q. The costumes were wonderful too. But the show stunk. I can't say why, but it just wasn't that funny, the music wasn't that good, and it was really rather boring. Okay, it SUCKED. Don't see it. Really.
Max kinda liked it, so Lauren and I decided to leave at the half, and Patti stayed with Max to watch to the finish. Lauren and I took the tube back to Knightsbridge, and then walked home along Sloane Street. It was still light out, and we were able to do some window shopping in the (posh) stores along the way.
When we got home, I was able to get all my stuff packed in anticipation of the morrow. Lauren wrote her material for the website.
In the meantime, Patti & Max were finishing their show. They left the theatre immediately after the show, and no sooner than they had gotten outside did a man approach them to ask them if they wanted a taxi. The cost? 15 quid! (we had typically paid 8-10 quid for the same ride). So she told him to buzz off and found a real taxi driver, who took them home.
It was a wonderful unplanned, relaxing day, full of surprises!
And now for...
Lauren's Li(n)es!
To all the faithful fans of Lauren's Lines:
The staff at Lauren's Lines is reluctant to announce that there will be no Lauren's Lines today. Never Fear! She is only writing post-cards at the moment and already wrote tomorrow's LL. Pattie Smith! If you're reading this....tell me your address!!!!!!! Please! Love you all.
The Management