The meet-up with Leslie and Dennis went well. They had taken an early train from Windsor and were at Carluccio's Restaurant by 8:30 am. We arrived around 9 am, and caught up on our respective travels. L&D had a wonderful time in Ireland, hiking the Kerry Way and then visiting much of the rest of the country north of Killarney. We heard about their various visits. We walked with them to the boarding gate of the Eurostar. We will be rejoining them in 4 days time in Bayeux, France to begin the bicycle tour of Normandy and Brittany.
The afternoon was spent resting/reading and walking to the British Museum. We walked "around the museum," just not inside. One can get free "timed-entry" tickets (which we didn't) but the guards said entrance with no tickets was available at the back of the museum. So, we went that way (completing our circling of the museum) and rather immediately saw that the queue was quite long. We went next door and rested in the park (Russell Square) and considered options.
We decided to go see the Grant Museum of Zoology, which is on the campus of UCL (University College London). The museum is one room with over 8,000 specimens, many in glass jars and mostly in skeletal form. Here are few photographs that give you a view of the museum.
The museum is small but we walked in directly and could view all of the cabinets easily. There were maybe 10 to 15 other folks in the museum.
A Susu or Ganges River Dolphin, endangered.
Lots of prehistoric skeletons with actual fossil bones and a few 3-D printed bones to complete the skeletons.
Archeological finds.
Betsy caught this curious fact - limpet teeth are the "toughest biological material in the world."
Cabinet stuffed with skeletons.
A dugong skeleton.
The card so I could identify the skeleton.
Another famous fossil find showing that birds evolved from dinosaurs.
Bird species heads - a Hornbill is the one in the center, top.
On the walk back to the hotel, we saw another piece of sidewalk cover - over an "earth rod" for a building lightning protection system. An earth is another name for a "ground" in electrical systems.
And, now for the last part of the day. The best performance of a musical I have ever seen - the music was great, the staging was very innovative, the seats provided a close view of the action, and the energy of the cast was extraordinary. The show was recommended by Todd and Wenwen via his mother Sue. We left early for the theatre which was on the south bank of the Thames River by Tower Bridge. We arrived on the Queen's Walk and managed to get a bar table in the Cote Brasserie. We both had a mocktail, lightish meals (salad and tuna nicoise) with a side of frites. We finished with a shared cup of coffee which was excellent. We walked along the busy quayside for some good views across the river to the City of London, the Tower of London, and Tower Bridge.
HMS Belfast in front of the City of London. The battleship is the last WWII British ship remaining in existence and is available to tour inside.
The River Thames and Tower Bridge.
The Tower of London with a river cleaning system in front.
Another view of the City of London.
And, another view of Tower Bridge./
Lobby of the theatre.
As we entered the theatre, the scene was a New York City street scape with pavement, traffic lights, neon shop lights and even a manhole cover. It was all accompanied by the typical din of a city. As the show started it became clear that each section of the floor outlined in white lines could be raised up to about 5 feet from this lower level. There were at 6 independent sections in the center rectangle, along with 2 or 3 more in each wing out the center sections, letting the action happen on multiple levels.
Members of the audience could spend the show right on the floor during the performance as long as they stayed out of the way of the action and the moving parts of the sets. About a dozen cast members costumed as police officers herded the patrons back from the stage portions which would rise in the next scene or allow them to press forward after the stage returned to the lowest level. The police also were responsible for moving stairs into place for the actors to use to enter and exit, and for placing all props on the raised parts of the stage, mostly tables and chairs. It made for a very dynamic staging as platforms became the Hot Box Club, Mindy's cafe, a sewer tunnel, and the mission. The cast was terrific - the woman playing Adelaide was a bosomy black performer with a fabulous voice, Nicely- Nicely also had a great voice - multiple encores of You're Rocking the Boat, and Sister Sarah Brown was also a powerhouse. As a warm up to the second act, Nicely-Nicely and 3 other singers did 'doo-wop' versions of the show tunes.
Obvisiouly, this was only part of the stall patrons, since no photos during the performance.
The Shard at night. Sorry, it was too dark for a clear photo - we were hustling back to the Underground Station at London Bridge.
We are currently in Paris, after a smooth ride by train going as much as 125 miles per hour. We have checked into our apartment for 3 nights after an aborted taxi ride from Gard du Nord Train Station to near the Place de la Bastille. Lots of streets are closed in the area and there are police everywhere. We had to walk to our accommodation, crossing several barricaded streets. I pity the poor people who will endure this 'mess' for the next two plus weeks. We used an ATM, and I got a "Free" eSim card for my phone - the number is +33 7 44 93 25 97, if anyone wants to call me. Note: Free in this case does not mean no cost - it is the name of the brand.
Cheers!
Another fun day; great pictures too. ET
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