London Day Three - click title for pictures

This was our first day out in the city by ourselves. We first went to Leicster Square to a discount ticket place to see what kind of deal we could get for this evening. This particular booth only sells tickets the ‘day of’. We got there almost an hour before it opened and there were already 8 people in line. By the time it opened the line was close to 50. While Rikki waited in line I meandered a little bit about the square snapping shots at the ever present pigeons, vagrants sleeping on benches, and one older gentleman playing a flute for some coins. The funny thing was he was playing the same 3 measures over and over and over again. We acquired tickets for Jersey Boys. After this we went to Kensington Palace and did the 90 minute audio tour there. I came to love the audio tours. The device hung around your neck and you either held it up to your ear like a phone, or had earphones on to free your hands for pictures. It was a ‘tour at your leisure’ kind of thing, and that worked for us. I didn’t feel they let you see much of the palace, but I guess some is better than nothing. We saw a few rooms. In the basement – what we’d call the basement -- they had Princess Diana’s dresses exhibited along with a special exhibit on debutantes and what their life was like during ‘the season.’ It was interesting. The clear skies in the morning tricked me into wearing a short sleeve shirt this day, and I paid dearly for it by 10am. When we exited Kensington Palace, the skies were overcast and threatened to sprinkle at any moment. It actually did, but didn’t last long. What lasted was the chilly breezes. I decided that it was time to get my souvenir sweatshirt. It was perfect for the rest of the time here. My light rain jacket kept the rain off, but didn’t quite warm me up. From there we walked through Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park and St. James Park to get to the Buckingham Mews – the place where they keep the horses, carriages and cars of the Royalty. The carriages all started looking the same even though our audio tour pointed out the differences on each. The grand finale was seeing the 4 ton gold-gilded coach that carries royalty to weddings and coronations. It was massive, and was an art piece all by itself – without horses attached to it! We felt sorry for the horses to lug such a monstrosity, but I guess that is their lot and England’s tradition. We walked over to Westminster Abbey after this. It was beautiful, but they wouldn’t let you take pictures inside. The first thing that struck me was how crowded it was with memorials to the dead. It was almost cluttered with statues and sarcophagi. We had an audio tour here and it covered just the highlights. You could spend days reading every inscription on every monument, and even more days trying to translate the Latin ones. I was having a heck of a time with my audio guide – the battery died 3 times and I had to keep going back for another set. We had planned on getting to Westminster late enough in the day to attend Evensong at the abbey. There was a boys’ choir presenting the vocal parts this particular night and it was simply beautiful. Some of the phrases were very difficult musically and they had to sing a lot of Latin. The “program” was some kind of a ritualistic thing because the words were printed on a laminated card for the audience to follow along, and they repeated exactly what was on the card except for something they called the First Lesson and the Second Lesson, which were short stories from the Old Testament and New Testament. A lot of kneeling, standing, praying and listening. I think we both thought we were going to more of a concert of the boys, but were grateful to hear them sing at all. We walked our little socks off today! Rikki wore a pedometer for the first 4 or 5 days and we were averaging 10 miles a day. The Saturday we arrived we walked 9 miles, and this day we put in 12! And yes, our feet were feeling it. Thankfully we had both brought 2 sets of shoes. I think we ate dinner on the run that night, trying to get back over to Leicester Square for Jersey Boys. I thought it was a phenomenal musical. I had no reticence about jumping to my feet for a standing ovation when the four came out for their bows. The musical was based on the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and their ups and downs to stardom. Being from Jersey their language was pretty crude, but it was really fun to hear so much music I recognized and didn’t know that it had originated with them. It also gave you some background of how a song came to be, or what events were surrounding it. I knew I wanted a CD as soon as I could get out to the lobby.