Friday was a mixture of disappointment and excitement. We were booked for the London Eye but as we emerged from the Tube, we could clearly see that it was not running. We walked across Westminster Bridge to see what was going on only to be told that there was a good chance that it would not be running at all that day. Oh well, no one can control the weather.
We walked back across the bridge past Big Ben and the Parliament to Westminster Abbey. It is an amazing place. People have been worshiping on that ground since the 700's!! The abbey was built in teh 1000's and added to as funds were available. They still hold daily services there and have a minute of prayer every hour. Besides the amazing architecture, it is incredible to walk around and view the tombs of royalty, kings and queens, artists and scientists. Handel's tomb is there, as is Jane Austen, David Garrick, Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. Ben Johnson is buried standing up.
We saw the coronation chair that was used when Queen Elizabeth was crowned in 1952. The women's chapel's ceiling is an exceptional piece of art just in itself. If you see nothing else when you are in London, you must see Westminster's Abbey. I haven't downloaded the pictures yet, so I'll post them later.
That night we went to the Victorian Palace to see Billy Elliot, the musical. It was a brilliant production, but the actor playing Billy had such a heavy accent we never were able to understand what he was saying. There is this one hilarious scene where Billy and his father are at the Royal Ballet for Billy's audition and his father is standing outside with another father from London. They say something to each other and they can understand what each is saying! Yes, I'm vindicated! When I was in Lancaster in July 2003, I couldn't understand most of the people in town. I could understand that Scots and Welsh better than I could the English. It was hilarious. It reminds me of going down south or when we moved from Denver to Dallas. It took us a while to understand Texan. :-)
Saturday we are going to hop a train and go to Windsor to see the castle. Should be fun.
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RE your visit to Billy Elliot: The dialect can be challenging the first time you see the show, but there is a glossary in the souvenir program.
ReplyDeleteJust thought you might like to know that at the moment, none of the London Billys is actually from the Northeast; they are all from the southern part of the country, but they have learned the accent well.:)
What an excellent reason to go see Billy Elliot the Musical AGAIN!!!!
ReplyDeleteNow that you've got one show under your belt, you'll pick up more and more of the very funny dialog. You can also buy the Original Cast Recording, or, I suppose, download the OCR onto the mobile player of your choice.
Just remember, you're all speaking the Queen's English, so you should get most of what's being said, someday. I mastered the show .... and I'm from Florida, where the mish-mosh of accents always leaves one guessing.