There will somewhat be a lack of student tales and pictures for today, because today was free time for everyone. As long as students stayed in groups of three or more, they were free to go anywhere they wanted. Oddly, none of the students stayed with us. We were all to meet near Piccadilly Circus at the Queen’s Theatre, where we were to see Les Mis in the evening.

Everyone took the opportunity to sleep in until around 9:00 or so, including the tour leaders. We all needed the sleep. Then, the students headed off in three different groups, while Mer and I went back to the room so I could blog and she could write up notes for any future trips. As such, we did not get out of the hotel until around 12:00.

The students, meanwhile, went all over the place. One group went to see the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221B Baker Street, but they decided to just look in the gift shop. They then went and found Abbey Road of Beatles fame, and then went back to the Globe Theatre to revisit the gift shop. The walked across the modern London Bridge to St. Paul’s, where they caught the Tube to the theatre. Somewhere in the mix they found time to go to a huge and old toy store on Oxford Street, London’s main shopping street.

A second group went shopping on Oxford Street, then found their way to Kensington Palace and gardens. They had lunch at a fish-and-chips shop, and they wrapped up the day with a visit to the grounds of Buckingham Palace.

The third group went to Buckingham Palace and then went to Oxford Street to go to the big toy store as well. It was funny to me and Meredith that all the kids ended up on Oxford Street and many went to the toy store. It sounds as if everyone did very well.

As for me and Meredith, we headed back to the Westminster stop on the Tube (near Parliament and the Eye), and we walked back along the river eastward to the Embankment Tube stop, where we were to meet a guide for the Sherlock Holmes walking tour. We were excited about the walking tour; we thought we could include similar tours for future trips if the tour was any good. We got there early, so we used the time to cross over the Jubilee Bridge, which is actually two pedestrian bridges, one on each side of a major railway bridge. The bridges are pretty, and one bridge has amazing eastward views of the Thames, and one bridge has amazing views westward. We walked across the eastward bridge and then returned via the westward one.

We still had time, so we wandered in a park near the station. It was very pretty, and there were a ton (or tonne) of monuments in the park. Two that were interesting to us were a statue of Robert Burns, the Scottish playwright, and another of a man who started Sunday Schools in England, although I am afraid I have forgotten his name.

We got back to the Tube stop in time to pick up our tour. Although it had been raining earlier in the day, the rain had stopped by the time we left the hotel and the sun was even starting to break through. We were very grateful for that. People in Maine and Ohio joke about the weather changing all the time, but neither one has anything on London. It rained in the morning, cleared up, started raining toward the end of our walk, stopped briefly, started up again, and then finally stopped while we were wandering around near the theater after dinner. On the whole, we have been very fortunate with the weather.

Our tour guide was a very British lady in her early sixties. She was quite slight, but had a huge presence and had no problem projecting or in keeping our group in tow along the two-hour walk. She is also an actor, so that helps explain her being rather good at her tour. Our group was about eighteen in number, but Mer and I never had any trouble hearing. The group was mostly Americans, with a college-aged school group along making up about eight of us. They were well behaved, although one girl did put in ear buds to listen to music along the tour, which made me very proud of our kids; they would not do something like that, and I was a little sad the girl did that. Her loss.

The tour turned out to be excellent, and this was apparent from within a few minutes of the start of the tour. Our guide was very witty and knowledgeable, but was not ashamed to ask for help from the horde of Holmes fans if someone asked a question she could not answer. The tour was Holmes-based in that our guide pointed out sights that were mentioned in the Holmes stories, but she also pointed out other facts along the way. We were shown some non-Holmes sights such as the former edge of the Thames (it is much deeper and narrower than it was in Conan Doyle’s day) and we were shown the church where Eliza Doolittle and Professor Henry Higgins meet in Pygmalion and My Fair Lady. That was very cool, since Mer teaches the first, and the second is CVCA’s spring musical this year.

Back to Holmes. We got to see some Victorian-era doorways with their torch-snuffers out front. We saw several hotels and restaurants mentioned in the stories, and we got to see Charing Cross Station and Charing Cross Hospital, which are both very important in Holmes’ world. We wandered up two narrow and still gas-lit alleyways (those were great). We got to see the London Opera House, where Holmes would go to relax. We got to see Covent Garden (where Eliza sold flowers), where Holmes and Watson tracked down where a gem-containing goose had been sold in The Blue Carbuncle. We ended up in Trafalgar Square at the Sherlock Holmes pub, where they have a mock-up of Holmes’ study. All along the way we got to see a pretty large section of the greater area of London (Westminster) around Charing Cross and Covent Garden. Walking in cities is a wonderful way to get to see them, and a focused tour like this one was very worthwhile. It was so worthwhile that we took a chance later during supper to call the London Walks company and see if we could book a tour for Saturday evening. It seemed a long shot, but the woman I talked to was very helpful and made some phone calls to guides. We had mentioned we were interested in Literary London, so she arranged a tour of London (the City – the square mile of the original city) focusing on Shakespeare and Dickens. We are very excited about that.

After the tour, we headed over to Piccadilly Circus and walked to our theatre to make sure we knew where it was. We found it with no problems (the signs are hard to miss). It was about 4:30, and we did not have to meet the kids until 6:30, so we walked across the street to Chinatown. London’s Chinatown is very small (only one block with scattered shops in the blocks around the main block), but seems to be authentic. The names of many of the restaurants are less authentic – Mer and I had an excellent meal in the Top of the Town restaurant.

After supper, Mer and I wandered around the area, including a hasty retreat from a turn into a red-light district. We were looking for dessert, especially if we could find a French bakery. We never found one, but settled on a couple of British candy bars, which were enjoyable.

We started to run into groups of the kids in the theatre area. It seems as if most or even all of them ate in Chinatown. All the students were there by 6:30, as we had asked. The show did not start until 7:30, so we released everyone again to wander until 7:00. Mer and I joined a group of five students in a coffee house, where we chatted about what they had done for the day.

Everyone was back in time for the show. The theatre was very nice inside, and we had pretty good seats, about half-way back in the first balcony. Balcony seats are great for big musicals because you can see the sweep of the entire stage, and musicals do not get any bigger than Les Mis. Happily, we were all seated together, so that was nice. I got to chatting with the British man next to me. He turned out to be a Christan (he identifued himself as such after Mer explained we were with CVCA), and was there with his extended family for a birthday celebration for his father. He was very kind, and it was good to have a chance to talk with a native Brit.

Les Mis lived up to itself yet again. This production has been running in London for twenty-five years. If you are not familiar with Les Mis, it is probably the biggest of the big-budget huge musicals that the eighties and nineties produced. It is based on the novel by French author Victor Hugo, and the basic story is about an ex-criminal who turns his life around after being shown love and kindness by a bishop. The ex-criminal, Jean Valjean, cannot seem to shake his past as he is perused by a relentless police detective, Javert. Along the way, Jean Valjean adopts the daughter of a dying woman, and so there can be a love interest between the daughter and a young man later in the book/play. It sounds a bit complicated, but it is a long book and a sweeping musical.

The set and costuming and music were all excellent. The makeup people did a great job of aging the two primary men as the years went by in the play. The famous barricade scene was especially well thought out, with the young men dying in slow motion and being scattered dramatically all over the stage. The part of Eponine, another girl in the play, was played by the understudy, and she was wonderful – she played a loyal, touching and tragic part and sang with feeling. The real musical star of the play, for me, was Javert, the police inspector. He had a huge and full baritone voice that was amazing to hear.

The end of the play is very touching, and left me misty, and Mer cried a bit. Many of the girls seemed a bit red-eyed as well. I think they enjoyed it; I know Mer and I had a great time. Literary London continues to delight us.

We got back home without any trouble, around 11:30 or so.