Today was exhausting. Casual, yet somehow exhausting. Perhaps it was the lack of sleep and large amounts of walking catching up to us. Maybe it was because of the staying up late to watch an eardrum-blowing musical. Possibly both. In any case, i'm officially pooped.
We began today with Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. That was neat. They had the models in a very open showroom with seemingly little security on the actual models themselves (I say open because there was no set order and no display cases, just models standing/sitting there like dummies in a clothing shop. In reality, it was VERY crowded and many shots were ruined because of people shunting and moving in front of the camera. Eventually I got shots of all of the models that I saw. We had to leave early because the 24-hour bus passes were about to expire (they actually did technically expire before we got on the bus, but the friendly driver people let us on anyways. Or maybe they just didn't notice. They might not have even cared). Anyways, we continued on to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. We got off the bus across the street from the restaurant and got there an hour later. We couldn't figure out how to cross the street, then we got sidetracked to a park where there was an arch that had a statue that I discovered you could go to the top of. I was the only one who paid the 2 pound entry fee, even though it was really cool on top of the balcony. Meanwhile, Grandpa reserved seats. After a wait, we had lunch at the first Hard Rock Cafe ever built (fancy mac'n'cheese for me) and then took a short tour of the famous Vault at the Hard Rock Store next door. The Vault consists of what the Hard Rock Cafe considers to be the most valuable and important rock memoribilia in the world. I got pictures of everything from Bo Diddly's rectangular guitar to John Lennon's glasses to several rock stars' credit cards. It was a humbling experience.
Afterwards, we got quite lost and confused in an attempt to find Hatchard's, a 211-year-old bookstore near the Ritz Hotel. On our way, we took a stroll through Regent Park. Eventually we found our way but I didn't find anything of interest in the 5 floors of books.
Continuing on, we made our way to pick up our We Will Rock You tickets (more on that shortly). I found a place in the Covent Gardens Market called Pollock's Toys (used to be affiliated with the Pollock's Toy museum that I want to visit) but they were closed/closing. We had some time to kill so I looked through the London Transport Museum. It was really cool but they had a hard-to-navigate unstructured setup that included a ticket-punching setup similar to that of the Dole Pineapple Maze in Hawaii. I managed to get all of the punches, but I had trouble finding all of the stations (they were too well-hidden, especially for the under-six crowd that sometimes appears).
I find it worth mentioning that we were thinking of skipping Davenport's (I can hear Dad gasping from here) and going to a place called the Magic Cave instead. We were acting on a tip from the magician who was manning the Marvins stand in Harrod's. He said that they were of equal quality but Magic Cave was cheaper. We had tried and failed several times to find this elusive store (or at least I thought it was a store) and finally today our efforts landed us at a tiny little stall in the Covent Gardens Market. It was cra- I mean.... not that great.
Upon completing this expidition, it was time to see the show, located "5 minutes walk" from where we were. We walked for at least 20, then hailed a cab. The show was not unlike Mamma Mia in the sense that it was not about Queen but based on their greatest hits. It takes place in the future when musical instruments are banned and everyone are cyborgs that are essentially the same (they have the same musical interests because there is only one band to choose from and they are all forced to work for the one corporation in the world). But there is a group of people who share the dream of bringing the mysterious "rock and roll" back to the world. A tad cheesy, but overall pretty good. They even had one of the original members of Queen come in and do a guitar solo. It was neat and I won't be able to hear for a week.
So that's our day in a nutshell. Tomorrow we want to do some shopping and then we're headed off to Scotland.
We began today with Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. That was neat. They had the models in a very open showroom with seemingly little security on the actual models themselves (I say open because there was no set order and no display cases, just models standing/sitting there like dummies in a clothing shop. In reality, it was VERY crowded and many shots were ruined because of people shunting and moving in front of the camera. Eventually I got shots of all of the models that I saw. We had to leave early because the 24-hour bus passes were about to expire (they actually did technically expire before we got on the bus, but the friendly driver people let us on anyways. Or maybe they just didn't notice. They might not have even cared). Anyways, we continued on to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. We got off the bus across the street from the restaurant and got there an hour later. We couldn't figure out how to cross the street, then we got sidetracked to a park where there was an arch that had a statue that I discovered you could go to the top of. I was the only one who paid the 2 pound entry fee, even though it was really cool on top of the balcony. Meanwhile, Grandpa reserved seats. After a wait, we had lunch at the first Hard Rock Cafe ever built (fancy mac'n'cheese for me) and then took a short tour of the famous Vault at the Hard Rock Store next door. The Vault consists of what the Hard Rock Cafe considers to be the most valuable and important rock memoribilia in the world. I got pictures of everything from Bo Diddly's rectangular guitar to John Lennon's glasses to several rock stars' credit cards. It was a humbling experience.
Afterwards, we got quite lost and confused in an attempt to find Hatchard's, a 211-year-old bookstore near the Ritz Hotel. On our way, we took a stroll through Regent Park. Eventually we found our way but I didn't find anything of interest in the 5 floors of books.
Continuing on, we made our way to pick up our We Will Rock You tickets (more on that shortly). I found a place in the Covent Gardens Market called Pollock's Toys (used to be affiliated with the Pollock's Toy museum that I want to visit) but they were closed/closing. We had some time to kill so I looked through the London Transport Museum. It was really cool but they had a hard-to-navigate unstructured setup that included a ticket-punching setup similar to that of the Dole Pineapple Maze in Hawaii. I managed to get all of the punches, but I had trouble finding all of the stations (they were too well-hidden, especially for the under-six crowd that sometimes appears).
I find it worth mentioning that we were thinking of skipping Davenport's (I can hear Dad gasping from here) and going to a place called the Magic Cave instead. We were acting on a tip from the magician who was manning the Marvins stand in Harrod's. He said that they were of equal quality but Magic Cave was cheaper. We had tried and failed several times to find this elusive store (or at least I thought it was a store) and finally today our efforts landed us at a tiny little stall in the Covent Gardens Market. It was cra- I mean.... not that great.
Upon completing this expidition, it was time to see the show, located "5 minutes walk" from where we were. We walked for at least 20, then hailed a cab. The show was not unlike Mamma Mia in the sense that it was not about Queen but based on their greatest hits. It takes place in the future when musical instruments are banned and everyone are cyborgs that are essentially the same (they have the same musical interests because there is only one band to choose from and they are all forced to work for the one corporation in the world). But there is a group of people who share the dream of bringing the mysterious "rock and roll" back to the world. A tad cheesy, but overall pretty good. They even had one of the original members of Queen come in and do a guitar solo. It was neat and I won't be able to hear for a week.
So that's our day in a nutshell. Tomorrow we want to do some shopping and then we're headed off to Scotland.
4 comments:
Jeez! Take a break, already! Day 3: snoooooze. Actually - might as well make the most of it, right?
Jon
It sounds like you had another busy day ! Your folks back home would love to see some pictures.
:-)
Love,
Mom
Ahh! Don't miss Davenport's! It's been around since 1898!
Please go and try to get a picture.
I'm so enjoying your blogs. Glad you are having fun.
LOL at the mac n' cheese!
I'm exhausted just reading. But good thing you didn't let Grandma get on a scooter :)
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