Tired of all the sightseeing, I was able to convince Henry to do a bus tour, rather than walking all day long. Part of this reason I was able to convince him was because it was close to impossible to walk to all the places we would want to see. But first, we grabbed sandwiches at Pret-A-Manger. Their sandwiches were surprisingly good, for something mass produced. Our first stop on the bus tour was to the National Gallery, another free museum. They have a cool feature at the museum where there are computer kiosks that you can pick and choose which exhibits or artists you want to see, a max of 10, and then you can print out a map (though it was hard finding the printer, it was in another room in the basement). Henry printed out a map and I printed out maps and we did have some paintings that we both wanted to see. It made our trip around the museum a bit faster.
We walked over to Leister Square to the tkts stand. We were expecting a really long line, but was pleasantly surprised. We picked up tickets to see Chicago for £60 a ticket, including the extra fees and surcharges. But the seats were in the front row, three seats in from the center. But we didn’t complain.
We hopped back on the bus tour for awhile but then got off to take pictures of Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace. Then there was aimless walking around and eventually hunting for food. We stopped at Garfunkel’s, it’s like a Friendly’s here. I got a good tasting cottage pie, but Henry’s fish and chips were disappointing. The fish was way overcooked.
We went back to our hotel to freshen up and change for Chicago. Did you know that they charge for programs? They charge £3.50 for each program, so for $7 USD, we passed. The theater was very warm. I really am convinced that they don’t believe in air conditioning. During intermission, Henry bought a little container of ice cream which cost us another £3, and I mean little! Being front row makes the whole cast look scary. You see how much makeup they have on, you see the microphones taped to the women’s foreheads, and you can see them sweating too. Out of the whole cast, we only recognized Maxwell Caulfield, he was Billy Elliot. The show was good and the cast had pretty amazing voices. I kind of want to see it on Broadway here now.