Eye Spy

Well today was a pretty exciting day. I crossed off three things that I really wanted to do before I left London. Those being the London Eye, the National Portrait Gallery, and a big time musical. Yup, I was a busy person.

So I woke up and did my usual routine of breakfast down in the warm computer lab which always makes me feel bad about being there. So I left and decided to go ride the London Eye. That's the big ferris wheel right on the Thames across from Big Ben. It was built in 2000 and is about 400 ft. tall. It's the tallest observation wheel in the world. It was partly cloudy but still sunny when I left so I thought it was a good idea to do it. Um, actually, it wasn't really. I took the bus over to Trafalgar and then walked across the Jubilee Bridge (picture 1). Outside the Eye, there were a bunch of street performers. They were pretty funny (mostly real-life statue people). I bought my ticket. Then I waited in line to get in my capsule. The wheel actually never stops moving (except for wheelchairs) so it's fun to watch people try and get on. The little kids love it. So as I was waiting in line, I saw a dark cloud on the horizon. Bad news. As soon as I got in the capsule, it started down pouring. :-( That is not good because the capsules have glass all around them and the rain drops just sort of stay on the glass. Thus, just about all of my pictures didn't turn out (except for picture 2 which I thought was pretty good). Which stinks, a lot. But at the same time, that isn't really that important to me. Sure, the ticket was pretty expensive but doing the Eye was something really important to me so just riding it and saying that I did it was nice. Plus watching the other people in the capsule was funny (picture 3). There was one little kid who kept talking about Superman. His dad was getting quite frustrated but couldn't really show it. Plus, the pictures didn't turn out but I could still see. It was awesome to see all the neighborhoods and areas of London that I have walked around. I have seen a lot! So I still think it was a good idea to do it but it could have been better.

After the Eye, I walked back over to the TKTS booth in Leicester Square (picture 4) and debated buying a ticket for a musical. Eventually I just gave in and bought one for The Lord of the Rings. It is a stage adaptation of my favorite books and movies. Granted I thought it was going to be interesting to see how they turned over 1000 pages or 10 hours of movie into a 3 hour musical, but I still wanted to see it. So I bought my ticket and found myself in the same predicament as the day before. I had a bunch of time to waste before the show started. So I went to the National Portrait Gallery.

The National Portrait Gallery is located next to the National Gallery. As the name suggests, it is THE place to see paintings of English people. The layout is totally chronological from the Tudors (Henry VIII) to the present. It was like a giant chronology of England. There was an info board in each room detailing what the room was about and who the people in the room were. I did have a few favorite portraits in the collection.My favorite, favorite portrait was of Dame Anna Neagle by McClelland Barclay (picture 5). She looks very beautiful in the portrait. The blue in the background and the gold of her dress match wonderfully. This was a favorite pin-up of the soldiers during WWII (it was painted in 1940). Another one of my favorites was of Edward Carpenter by Roger Fry (picture 6). Edward Carpenter was a socialist writer of the late 1800s and early 1900s. He wore sandals a lot and was gay and quite open about it which was odd at the time. I like the painting because Carpenter looks so so cool in it. I had a few other ones I liked like one of Princess Di and a photo of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

After the NPG, I sat in Leicester Square and read. My butt got sore from the crappy benches so I walked over to Stanford's again (picture 7). I went upstairs by where the Greece and Turkey books are and read some of them. I sat on a window sill with the window open and the sun shining (yeah, it was sunny all day other than when I was on the Eye). It was wonderful. On a separate piece of paper I wrote any tips that the books had because I don't want to buy the books. A woman was standing by me and said she used to do that too. We got to talking. She was going to go walking (long distance hiking) on Crete with her husband. She said that she has met a ton of Americans while she travels. They always list like 5 countries they are going to. She thinks that that is the wrong way to travel. She also told me that one of her favorite places is southwestern France (Toulouse, Pyrenees, etc.). Then she left. I left shortly thereafter and walked over to Covent Garden Market and watched some street performer until it was time to go to the theatre.

So I saw The Lord of the Rings musical at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane (picture 8). I thought it was a visual spectacle. By that I mean the singing was ok (Galadriel was fantastic), the story was ok (not nearly as good as the books or movies) but the set and costumes and visual effects were incredible. They had a stage that turned in a circle but there were about 10 different elements in that circle that turned that could go up and down individually. They had cirque du soleil type rope acrobats. There were some big choreographed music numbers. The cast was over 50 people. There was a wind turbine, smoke machine, leafs falling from the sky above the crowd, insane light effects, incredible costumes, a giant spider, and a bunch of other stuff. All those elements added up to an absolutely incredible experience for the senses. My one big beef was that Frodo's voice was nasally and insanely annoying. Other than that, I thought it was great and I was really glad I went to it.

After the show got done, I walked to the bus and on the way, bought some pasta salad stuff from Tesco for dinner (I had only really eaten around 11 am). I rode the bus back and ate my pasta salad in my flat. Then I went to bed. I had a lot of fun today even though it was kind of expensive. 5 days to Paris! Two weeks to Istanbul! AHHH!!

Bye!