Today was crazy. As it was the last day we're here in the city, we had to do so many things! After breakfast at the hotel, we headed straight to St. Paul's. Today was the day of stairs. We hiked up all the stairs in St. Paul's. We heard each other whisper in the whispering gallery and then kept climbing all the way to the top of the dome. Beautiful views up there. Too bad London is under construction. There were cranes blocking all the main icons in our view, but it was still beautiful.
We were going to walk to the Tower of London, but we got caught in an absolute downpour, so we rode a bus most of the way there. We got off a bit early to go see St. Dunstan in the East, which is a cathedral ruin they've turned into a park. It was beautiful (and rainy!).
Then we got into the Tower of London. Because of the rain, the Beefeater did a 20 minute talk in the chapel and then we walked around on our own. The rain passed as we were in the chapel, so it was pretty lovely while we walked around. We saw the crown jewels and the other towers. The Beefeater told a story about a Bishop who had levied major taxes and was later executed, and he said "We're opposed to Taxation without...." and some of us said "Representation" and he said: "I see we have some Americans here with us today. You probably haven't understood a word I've said. Americans are great at history right up until the time the Bible ends. Then there's a big black hole until 1776. What we're talking about is in that hole. If you want to learn history, learn it from a country that's established!" We also saw a female Beefeater, which I've never seen, so that was cool. There were school groups performing on a stage by the white tower. It was strange hearing "there's no Business like Show Business" as we're walking around this really old tower.
From the Tower, we took the tube to the British Museum. We were short on time, so we raced through a few of the galleries and hit the "top 10" that is included with the map.
Tom wanted to stop by the original Hard Rock Café and maybe get a T-shirt, so I decided we'd go eat there. It turned out to be super fortuitous today because today is the 45th anniversary of the opening of the London Hard Rock Cafe! So for tonight only, they served the original menu at the original prices. So we got a cheeseburger and club sandwich for 60p each. Desserts were 40p. So with dinner, dessert, drinks and tip, we were only out 12 pounds! (Tom felt better about buying a t-shirt because of that). We sort of feel like this whole trip so far has been like this. We've been so lucky. There's been tons of rain, but we've only had to be out in it for a few minutes and never when we're actually needing to do something outside. Also, we walked into the Hard Rock Café around 4pm completely unaware of the event. Then we saw the menu. We each ate our dinners and our desserts. Then, just when we finished our desserts, a lady showed up with plates of birthday cake on our table. It was hilarious. When we got out of the restaurant, there was a huge line waiting to get in.
From Hard Rock Café, we walked from the Southeast Corner of Hyde Park all the way back to our hotel on the Northwest Corner. We had to drop off our camera before heading to Harry Potter (no cameras allowed).
Something I forgot to mention after the first Harry Potter: They apparently used an owl in the first preview last week, but it got loose in the audience, so they weren't allowed to use them anymore. That would have been cool.
Part 2: This play was less magical than the first, though the wizarding duels were much more convincing than the first one. The story itself was better. JK Rowling said if you didn't cry, she questioned your humanity. I didn't cry because we felt like the finale could have gone further. I really expected it to get to the point of tears, but it ended before then. The story itself was satisfying. It redeemed itself after Part 1 being somewhat predictable. I was distracted by one of the main characters saying: "prophesized" and "undoubtably" - I'll have to see if those are the actual words in the script when it's published. Overall, it was really fun to be there and it was very entertaining and a great story. Also really fun to be there with Harry Potter fans that reacted MAJORLY every time something was mentioned or someone appeared. GASP. It was hilarious and fun. And everyone went crazy at curtain call. The cast came out three times to bow. Overall, my favorite characters/actors were Harry and Scorpius . That's where I bought myself a t-shirt. As Tom said: "To make everyone in the world jealous."
We got back around 11pm and walked down Queensway just so I could walk around my neighborhood one last time.
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