Day 9 - Trying to Make Up for Lost Time

Callista woke up feeling just fine, full of energy. She wanted to go back to the British Museum to we split up in the morning. I went to Covent Garden for shopping and they went to the King’s Cross Underground station to get her picture at the 9 ¾ platform from Harry Potter. Then they went to the British Library to view the Magna Carta, Shakespeare’s handwriting and the original scribbles of the Beatles. After this they walked over to the British Museum to see the mummies and a few other exhibits.

I went to Covent Gardens and shopped a bit. Not a lot of vendors were open because it was so cold and a Monday, but I did manage to buy a teapot made in Chelsea, and a very cool bag for Callista. I also found a birthday gift for Satori, my granddaughter. I was hoping to find a nice piece of jewelry but never really came across anything that screamed “I have to have this”!

Callista went to ‘class’ with George and apparently the students enjoyed having her there. She made really funny faces when George talked about what he thinks about when he is on stage to make himself cry. She’s already an honorary Bradley student.

After George’s class we took the Tube to the Charing Cross station to go to Trafalgar Square. The photo op is to have your picture taken by one of the lions, but there’s no easy way to get up to the lions other than boosting yourself up about 5 ½ feet. George cajoled Callista into getting up there, but halfway up she changed her mind. But we were not to be deterred from our photo op and both of us together pushed her up, almost throwing her up on the platform. We were laughing so hard that a few other visitors laughed with us. But we got her up there, whether or not we had to throw her up there or not! I really wish someone had been shooting video, truly. Since it’s been below freezing for a week, the fountain of course was not running and the pool was frozen over, so the square itself didn’t really hold any further appeal beyond the photo op.

We had some extra time so we trekked up the hill to the National Portrait Gallery. George wanted to show us the Tudors, portraits painted of the members of royalty around the time of Henry VIII. One artist in particular (I’ll have to look up his name) was able to capture the details and perspective to bring the paintings to life. They look almost like photographs. Amazing.
We ventured through some of the other galleries to see the other incredible paintings. We couldn’t stay too long because we had to head back to the Hotel for High Tea.

The entire Bradley group attended the tea, not just George’s group. We had egg salad sandwiches and two different kinds of scones with clotted cream and strawberry preserves. We had our choice of coffee or tea as well. To cap it off, cake was served, a wonderful concoction of chocolate cakes with a light whipped frosting with raspberry liquor in the center and chocolate shavings on top. Absolutely yummy!

After tea we ran off to see our last show, The War Horse at the New London Theatre. First we had scrumptious pasta at Pasta Brown’s (appropriate, don’t you think?). Our last meal in London. I would have liked to have one last serving of Bangers and Mash, but the pubs were very full. So Italian is was and it was delicious.

How do I describe the War Horse? It is such a moving story anyway, about the horses used in the British Calvary in WWI and the absurdity of having a charging Calvary go up against barbed wire, machine guns and bombs. But the story is about one horse in particular and the boy who raised and trained him, how he was sold to the Calvary and captured by the Germans. It’s truly an amazing story written by Micheal Morpurgo.

But the puppetry used to conceive the horses was brilliant. You can see a video of some of it on the website - http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/warhorse. The three puppeteers are outside of the puppet when he is just a foul, but then he bursts on to the stage as a full grown thoroughbred standing 7 feet tall (I don’t know how many hands that is) and he is breath-taking. Two of the puppeteers are now inside the body and the one who controls the head and neck movements is still outside but within minutes, seconds even, you stop seeing the puppeteers and only see the puppet as it come to life. The movements, sounds and reactions of the puppet are so perfected that you can’t help but let him come to life on the stage for you. On other puppet that is worth mentioning is a goose puppet. Again the puppeteers skills are such that you stop seeing him running behind the full size goose puppet and start see the it as a real goose.

All I can say is that you must read the book and if you ever get a chance to see this production, you must, absolutely must see it. Come to London even if only to see this show!