Master of the house, doling out the charm...

Our last full day in London.

First on today's agenda was Buckingham Palace to see the "changing of the guard". This takes place daily at about 11:15. We walked from our hotel to the Palace.

 I didn't know what to expect. And even Lauren, having seen this prior, couldn't tell me what to expect. It is not like the "I Love Lucy" episode, where she walks up to the guard and attempts to get him to crack a smile. There are crowds of people and roads being barricaded. And there were guards behind the massive gates. So we waited and a few guards went through the gates. And we waited some more and more guards and a little marching band went through the gates. And we waited. And nothing. So we figured behind the massive gates they were "changing the guard". And since we couldn't battle the crowds to get over there, on we went.

We took the tube to our next stop which was St. Paul's Cathedral. We paid the admission and this time we decided to forgo the audio headsets and just take in the beauty of the Cathedral. There was a Eucharist going on. We saw Norma our tour guide from yesterday leading a tour in the Cathedral. We grabbed some lunch in the cafe.

Then we went to do the main reason you go to the Cathedral. Climb to the top of the dome. This was our first encounter with "European spiral staircase syndrome". European architects only know how to make staircases go in circles. And there were 528 steps to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral. And they all went in a circle.

Did I mention that schools were in session while we were in Europe?  We started our ascent behind a group of elementary school children who we later ditched at the first stop while they were resting. We made it to the top and had spectacular views.

So now we begin our descent. Which isn't as easy as it sounds. Lauren and I headed down and there were people behind us, so I was feeling the pressure to keep up the pace. But I was getting seriously dizzy. We finally made it to the bottom and we had to sit for a bit, our legs were like jelly!

We then walked over the Millennium Bridge which is a pedestrian bridge over the Thames River. It was opened in the year 2000 for the millennium and closed 2 days later after pedestrians felt it swaying....a lot. It was then closed for 2 years while modifications were made.

And then we did something we hadn't done the entire trip. We headed back to the hotel to take a break. We had big plans for the evening. This was our “night on the town”. We were going to actually sit down and have a nice dinner, (no sandwiches in the room!) and see a play.

We took the tube up the Picadilly Circus area. When you hear Picadilly Circus I automatically think of circus, tent, clowns, trapeze artists, the whole nine circus yard. But no, it is an area, like Times Square, Picadilly Circus, same thing.

We had dinner at Princi, a fine Italian restaurant. Lauren’s pick, she had eaten there on her previous trip.

Then we headed to the Queen’s Theater to see “Les Miserables”. Again Lauren’s pick. I had never had a big desire to see this play. I have a thing about foreign, period piece books, movies, plays, you name it. So I was hesitant. Would I understand the plot? Would I like the music?

Observations about London theater. We had to PAY for our playbill. 4 euros, not cheap. A lot of people were dressed for the theater and it was only Tuesday night. Everyone had a drink in there hand.

We had center mezzanine seats, or the queen’s dress section, as they say in London. By the end of the show I had a new favorite play. It was entertaining and the music was great. The only down side was that everyone dies.

It was the perfect way to end our stay in London. Tomorrow we head for Paris for the second part of our journey.