London is not Paris

After a very pleasant trip on the EuroStar across France from Paris and ducking under the English Channel at Calais we arrived in London just short of midday. The train is amazingly comfortable and fast....only taking a bit over two hours.  

London is another world. The pace is even faster and certainly more crowded if that is possible. But, it is well organized and a bit easier to understand how the city is layers out. Uber is much slower to reap d because of the traffic and taxis are literally always within site. So we uses them. However, in London the tube is infinitely efficient and just takes a slight amount of map reading to master getting from A to B whilst changing from the Blue line west to Red line east or some such. And it is cheap for a pass.  

Our first distinction was the Tower of London. On place I had not been to before.   It is basically the prison; albeit lovely digs for certain guests before execution of sentence and not so nice for others. In contrast, the Crown Jewels are also housed in this fortress along other things. You can see the mass of red poppies outside the tower which was in preparation for the British Armistice Day celebration. Now we know the origin of the poppies in America sold here. 

Next we told the Tube to the station near the London Eye on the Thames. It is like a giant ferries wheel with a view of over 25 mile on a clear day. It affords a wonderful with of the Parliament building, down to Westminster, Big Ben and central London. 

But, highlight of the day was the last minute tickets we got from our hotel concierge for Les Miserables.  We had good seats in the lower balcony.  I stilling have the music ringing in my head. Oh boy, it was just an unforgettable experience.  The audience must have applauded for 6 or 7 minutes at the end....even though it's been playing at the Queens Theater for over 20 years now.  The movie with Hugh Jackman is certainly a great flick but nothing like the real thing. 

The play is long as you know so we walked across the street to a Chinese restaurant for another unforgettable experience.  Everything on the menu was £3.95!  The long family style tables were so sticky that you dared not leave your arm resting on it too long lest it become permanently attached.  But the food was really delicious! 

And, all the time we were there, there was an argument and near fight between a drug guy, the manager and two of his friends.  We tried to encourage her to call the police but she did not.  Who knows, she may not have wanted the police to ask here if she was in England legally. 

The evening ended with a taxi ride back to the Strand Palace Hotel. I turned out to be another lovely hotel choice in a very good location.  It was the nicest hotel yet.   

Cheers for now, Bob and Dawn. 

I typed this while on the train to Bath.