London 20/10/12

Happy Birthday to Sarah and Nerida!

Not a huge sleep in today as we had to be somewhere by 10.30. So after breakfast we headed off to Paddington Station to get a travel card for today and jumped aboard a bus that took us to Piccadilly Circus. Given that it was still early it hadn’t got too busy as yet so we took a couple of photos here as well as some of the Theatre's along the way!

We needed to catch another bus that would take us over Waterloo Bridge, and after walking in totally the wrong direction and through China town, we had to back track to where we had started and then board the correct bus! We arrived at the National Theatre where I was booked to do a Backstage Tour of the Theatre. Michael had no interest in doing this so he took himself off for a walk along Waterloo Bridge and then along the Jubilee Gardens walk where there was a book Market being set up and slowly coming to life.

Meanwhile I joined a very small group and we had a one and a half hour guided tour of the backstage and auditoriums of the Theatre's at the National Theatre complex. The 3 theatre's are: Olivier Theatre which has seating for 1,110 people, Lyttelton Theatre which has a typical proscenium stage with seating for 890 people and the Cotteslow Theatre which is a studio theatre on 3 levels with flexible staging and seating fur up to 300 people. The National Theatre is a working building producing 20 new productions every year. Rehearsals, set building, prop and costume making all happen on site. It was fantastic to wander behind the scenes, on stage, through dressing rooms – the smell and sound brought back so many memories. 

Once this was finished Michael and I found a seat at BFI Southbank and had coffee and cake before we explored the book stalls that were by now in full swing. The number of tourists and locals attracted to this area had increased also!

We wandered along this walk taking in all the sights – particularly the various different kinds of street performer’s that were scattered along the way. A group of Jamaican acrobats were the largest group to perform and were very good; other street performers were on their own hoping to impress you enough for a tip!

Our destination was the London Eye! Fortunately I had booked tickets before leaving home, so we were able to avoid huge queues and join a fast track line. After only about 5 minutes we were up and away enjoying the view of London from yet another perspective. The ride lasts about 30minutes and for someone who is scared of heights, it was great! (Much better than the cable car ride up Mt Titlus in Switzerland).

Once this was finished we caught up with an old Whitehorse Theatre friend of mine (Brett) who was also in London for a week or so. We had not seen each other for 30 years, and it was amazing how many memories of Whitehorse came flooding back as we re-lived the days and caught up with new chatter also. It was lovely to see Brett after all this time.

It was getting dark by the time we said farewell, so Michael and I walked back to catch our bus back to the Hotel.

Given that it was nearly 7pm we decided to head straight for a restaurant for dinner before returning to the Hotel for a quiet night.