London UK
After a 10 hour non-stop British Airlines flight, (not a full flight so the middle seat was ours) from San Diego, we arrived at a well situated Hilton in Kensington Olympia. Just outside the front door, was our go-to double-decker bus, #9. We usually managed to snag the front row seats on the upper deck so the 30 minute rides were like a "hop on" tour bus minus the narrative in four languages. We purposely kept our plans simple, art museums everyday, pub meals during the day and sleep. We walked to dinners at night and went to bed early.
We did one "touristy" trip to the Tower of London. It was cold and we didn't really pack enough warm clothes (Our safari provider mandated that we have a soft sided duffle bag, with no wheels, and no bigger than 22x12x11 inches and under 22 kg , plus a small backpack for cameras, binoculars, meds and ipad) so when the sun came out we celebrated. Tea with scones and clotted cream was on my London to do list and provided a warm place to spend a couple of hours one afternoon. I used to time to sketch so I drank luke warm tea. Christopher had two lattes. Then we had a really nice pre-theater dinner at Browns in the theater district.
Our last night was at the theater to see Six the Musical. Most of my sketch was before the show started, hence the empty seats. It was a really small theater and was sold out (I bought our tickets two months before). This was a rock musical, with 6 actresses and a band all on stage the whole show. The chorus said it all, six wives of Henry the 8th...one annulled, one killed (decapitated), one died (childbirth), one divorced, one more killed (decapitated) and one survived. It was like a Queen for a Day competition as they each tried to convince the audience that they were the Queen to be remembered...totally hilarious lyrics and a wild evening. In the end, (spoiler alert) they all agreed that the only thing everyone remembers about King Henry the 8th, was that he had SIX WIVES.
That last night was a late one for us...we usually hit the sack by 8 PM. We awoke to housekeepers knocking on the door at 11am, which coincidently was check out time. We dressed fast, left our bags with the concierge and walked to the Design Museum and then to a late lunch. We took the return prepaid express train back to Heathrow for our flight to Africa leaving at 6:30 pm and arriving in Johannesburg at 7:30 the next morning. Plane was packed!
