Saturday! Saturday!

After some frustration yesterday we decided that we would stick a little closer to home today because tonight is our big event!  Our goal was to go to the V & A Museum. This museum was the dream of Prince Albert growing out of his masterwork, The Great Exhibition.  It was opened by Victoria in 1857 and only a year later encouraged late night openings due to the installation of gas lighting!  Hotel Alexandra is just across the short side of Kensington Park.  We then planned to go to Kensington Palace and hoped to be home about three to change for the evening and use the Big Bus to go out.

We walked back up to the stop and boarded the 9:30 Blue Line Bus and everywhere we want to visit is on that line.  The museum opens at ten.  Traffic!  Not expecting it this morning since it is Saturday.  During the 45 minutes it took us to go the short distance we decided that we may want to take a taxi tonight as that will be more direct.

These signs seem to work.  Even in bustling London people, and drivers, are polite!  You will hear the hum of the passing vehicles but hardly ever a horn honks!  Then it is usually a rental car and probably and American driving!

I am learning on this visit that Prince Albert proved to be a bit of a genius.  He wanted this museum to focus on industry and design as art.  It still does.

The exhibits at the museum are most interesting.  Like everywhere we go people are most helpful and friendly.  Like docents everywhere they are an exceptional breed – we want to tell you everything we know about everything!  We visited the two floors of the British exhibit first.  It walked us through time from the dawn of civilization to today but did so quite interestingly.  Exhibits were small, cohesive, and clearly labeled without too much extra detail.  

 

Maddie, this instrument had about five separate layers of metal and strings inside the cavity.

 

A turned three legged chair.  Quite comfy.

In a between - the - exhibits children's space this glass ceiling has real instruments hanging above it.

We enjoyed it thoroughly and visited most of the exhibitions.  We didn’t make it up to the furniture but decided to have lunch in the tea room.  Can’t go wrong with current scones and tea!  These were so big they really were enough to eat with packaged clotted cream and strawberry preserves.  I have learned the trick to enjoying the prepackaged clotted cream.  Simply stir and stir with your knife to bring it from a butter consistency to a cream one and then enjoy.

The Tea Room

 We went out into the warm sun chastising ourselves for spending such a pretty day in a museum!

The central gardens were welcoming but a little chilly for we Southerners to enjoy dining outside.

We waited for our bus and once we boarded and saw how slowly we were going we decided two things:  No time for Kensington this trip, No Taxi tonight!  It took over an hour and a half to go up the short side of the park and back to our hotel.  Carol and I could easily have walked it in less time!

It was 3:30 so we changed quickly and set out, back up to the Paddington Station tube stop. We had no trouble remembering to go on the Bakerloo line but this time we changed at Piccadilly Circus.

The stations and trains were packed shoulder to shoulder with protesters still carrying polite signs, wearing EU berets and scarves, or Brexit shirts.  Many claimed "Lay Brexit to Rest" or some such sentiments.  Others wore shirts appearing to be on fire or having pictures of dying polar bears or Venice flooded to the top of St. Marks Cathedral dome!

We went above ground at Covent Garden.  We figured out which way to go and the fun began.  I remembered being here in August and had Carol take my picture in front of the place we had drinks.  I, of course, being me, had Eliza Doolittle wanting to be in ‘a room somewhere’, smudges on her cheeks and violets in her hand!

The musician playing challenged the kids to do certain dance moves! We had drinks in August just inside this balcony!

We got to The Strand, the street by the Market, and knew exactly where to go from there.  We were in no rush because we had avoided the increasing traffic so we had time for dinner at Salieri’s.  Elegant, Italian, fine dining.  A gentleman in a fedora and tuxedo came through selling roses to the escorts of the smartly dressed ladies.  Elva had a very fancy dish of sea bass and prawns.  Carol declined that do to shrimp allergy and I declined because of wine sauce.  We ate a delicious but mundane fish and chips!

We took our time because as often happens, we thought we were going to be late but actually in allowing for the prevention of that, we were early. Less than a block away was our 'event' and quite an event it was going to be! 

The entrance to the Lyceum Theatre deliberately was blocked from view so as we had to walk up the street and turn up a smaller alleyway.  The elegantly dressed crowd seemed to swell and the excitement was rising.  People without tickets were taking our pictures, won't they be surprised when they look at them in the morning and we are nobody!  Turning back toward the theater we went through a brief security check and then, as we stepped onto the Red Carpet we were handed souvenir programs.  At first Elva didn't take hers, she thought you had to pay for it which would be a usual thing. 

Beautifully dressed ladies were removing their coats to show off their sparkling formal gowns.  Despite the weather long dresses, exposing bare shoulders or backs, were covered in sparkling sequins or were of colorful shimmering fabrics.  Some of the ladies and even men wore colorful Africa styled materials.  Shiny golden or silver or ruby sandals were the preferred footwear.  People posed under the yellow glowing lights of the logo! 

We did not have a handsomely tuxedoed gentlemen to carry our coats so we just kept them on.  Our clothes were American tourist / cruise ship formal so that was no loss as we couldn't begin to compare to the ladies arriving.  I was taking pictures of everything and many of the guests when Steven escorted us from the Red Carpet and away from the throng.  He took our pictures for us and handed us off to Joy who had the accessibility assignment for the evening. I knew that was her post because I often work the same position where I volunteer.  She led Elva to a lift and took her up to the balcony near our seats. 

Carol and I climbed three steep flights of steps to reach the same place.  Along the way, at the upper balcony bar, I collected our complimentary glasses of bubbling Proseco before heading down equally steep steps to our fourth row, aisle seats in the Dress Circle. When Elva arrived a few minutes later, there were apparently several people needing the small elevator, Joy ran back up to get her Welcome Drink. We would have another at the "interval."

                

Can you feel the beat?  Do you see how many drums are hiding away in the boxes!

Yes, I had landed us at the Sir Elton John 20th Anniversary Performance of The Lion King!  The benefit was for Sir Elton's two charities, one supporting AIDS sufferers and one for the Institute of Performing Arts Scholarships.  A mere 62.50 GBP had landed us among the glitterati of London's West End! 

I had never seen the show and it was so very good especially on this occasion.  I was glad to see it from above because I think it was less distracting than seeing human faces on giraffes!  A short walk up that same alleyway we entered when we first arrived and we had found a taxi back to the hotel.  I revel in the excitement of the theater and this was no different.  I wasn't tired despite the long day so made sure my bag was packed and everything was ready for the morning. Tomorrow our London adventure ends.