Another London day out

It might only be 'up the road' from me (well 40 miles-ish) but it's amazing how much of London I haven't seen. Whenever we have booked to see a show in the evening, we tend to go up there in the morning and make a day of it. Two of the tube lines were closed AGAIN and this included Tower Hill station so we walked instead.

The Monument was fairly close and as I'd never climbed it before, decided to start there. I honestly thought the 311 steps would knacker me but I was surprisingly okay. Not spectacular views when you compare it to the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building and the World Trade Centre but the weather wasn't too bad so you could see quite a bit of the city. It's a bit of a squash up there so we descended after ten minutes. It's a case of wobbly legs syndrome on the way down and a bit of dizziness with the very tight spiral steps.

We found a tube station that was open and made our way to Tottenham Court Road which was the nearest one to the British Museum. Hard to believe I never went on a school trip here, never mind in all my years since then. I've had a fascination with Ancient Egypt since I was a child (I recall doing a school project on the subject once) so that was the first section to be explored. Having visited the actual country twice, there's no way you can compare a few exhibits to the the experience of 'being there' but the mummies were pretty good. I also have a bizarre fascination of weird masks, which my brother used to call 'funny mans heads' when he was little! We certainly found loads of those in the Americas section. Anyway, me being in love with my camera, I took heaps of pictures. You would think they'd be a restriction on photography but there was none whatsoever which was very pleasing!

After about three and a half hours, we moved on and had a mill around Leicester Square and nearby areas, went to collect the tickets for the show, and then the heavens opened. We dashed into the nearest establishment which happened to be a bar so that was okay. The rain was coming down in torrents. There was nowhere to sit so we literally had to prop up the bar. After 5pm the sun was back out and we went to find somewhere to eat. Usually, there are plenty of decent pubs to eat in but there seemed to be a real lack of them around Drury Lane. Getting bored of walking around, we ended up in an Indian restaurant right opposite the theatre. John said his was really tasty; mine was alright - nothing to write home about. Still cost £51 though! I couldn't believe it.

Anyway, on to the show 'Lord of the Rings'. This is totally not my thing - I watched the first film and fell asleep five times! I just can't seem to get my head around fantasy. I recall reading 'The Hobbit' at school and didn't have a clue what was going on! Even reading the plot act by act in the brochure, I still didn't understand it. However, I have got to say that even if you don't like Lord of the Rings, I would recommend seeing the show. The stage, the set and the effects were all STUNNING! I'll try my best to describe how the stage looked: picture an enchanted forest with tree branches growing and entwining everywhere (no leaves, just branches)...that effect was all around the stage, above the stage, and all around the balconies. When we first entered the theatre to get to our seats, the hobbits from the cast were all running around trying to catch fireflies (twinkly lights) with nets. They were also crawling under people's seats and walking over them too! Very funny.

The stage had several smaller platforms which rose out of it, all different combinations. The lighting and smoke effects were brilliant. At the end of the first act, they created huge gusts of wind as Gandalf was standing on a raised platform in the middle of the stage and thousands of pieces of paper went flying through the theatre. It was amazing! After the second act, the baddies all came out of nowhere around the audience, making people jump.

Large horses, actors on very high stilts being trees, a giant spider, actors being levitated....there were so many great effects, it's incredible how much they can do on a stage nowadays. The show won't be remembered for its songs - in fact, it's debatable whether it should be a musical at all.

Not having brought a map, finding an underground station which was open proved fairly difficult as we didn't really know what direction to head in! However, it only took about ten minutes and we came across Holborn. A few stops to Bank and then we had to walk to Fenchurch Street because of course, Tower Hill was shut.
Got home just before 1am, having really enjoyed the day.