London on the Eurostar and Les Miserables

We took the Eurostar high-speed train through the "Chunnel" to visit London and see Les Miserables, some of my favorite music--even through I've never seen it live on stage.

Paris Nord train station, our point of origin for this side trip.

 

We dumped our bags at the hotel in Kensington and jumped on the tube to Piccadilly Circus and the historic Queen's Theatre to see the play. I'm the tall one in the gray jacket in front of the theater.

 

Me on the second row from the stage. If you're coming this far to see a performance, then you ought to really see it! No photos during the performance, of course, but it was magnificent. Alfie Boe in the starring role as Jean Valjean. He has to be one of the greatest musical tenors of all time. The cast was great--all with strong voices. The set was wonderful, mechanized, and transformed itself from scene to scene. Overall, the show was all we had hoped it would be.

Next morning, we are off to the Tower of London. The "Tower" is actually a collection of 20 towers, some of which look like regular buildings, that overlook the Thames. It was started in the early 11th century on foundations of an old Roman fortress by William the Conqueror, shortly after he became king. It was enlarged over the centuries and at  one time was a royal residence.

Now the only royal things that reside here are the Crown Jewels. We went to see them first to avoid the crowds. They are indeed spectacular. The largest diamond in the collection is the Great Star of Africa, 530.4 carats, mounted at the top of the Scepter of the Cross--a magnificent gold scepter presented to the king or queen of England at his/her coronation to symbolize the authority of the monarch. The exhibit also includes the "Royal Regalia" which is all the serving platters, punch bowls, christening bowls, etc, etc, used by the royal family. They won't let you take photos of the CJ's and they were watching the jewels like hawks, but I sneaked this photo when no one was looking. It is a gold punch bowl. You can't tell from this photo, but it was about 4 feet across. I said to Tim when I saw it, "Is that a punch bowl or a hot tub?"

 

After the Crown Jewels, we took the live tour of the Tower of London conducted by one of the Warders of the Tower of London, commonly known as "Beefeaters." Yes, the ones on the gin bottle, but this one has a different uniform. This is their everyday uniform. The red one on the gin bottle is the formal one they wear when the Queen comes to visit. We enjoyed the live tour, because the commentary is fun and includes some interesting historic facts you don't always read in textbooks.

This is one of the ravens of the Tower of London. This bird is huge. They keep 6-10 at all times. Legend has it that if the ravens ever leave, the White Tower will crumble and the monarchy will disappear. They take this legend seriously--so much so that if one of the ravens gets sick, they are required by law to notify the queen. Just to be on the safe side, the Warder told us the ravens are fed really, really well so they won't leave. And just to be sure, their flight feathers are kept clipped.

This is the "White Tower," the largest of the buildings in the complex. This is the palace built by William the Conqueror in the 11th century and used as a royal palace for many years.

 

This house in the complex was built by Henry VIII for Anne Boleyn. She didn't spend much time there though, because construction wasn't really completed until 3 years after her beloved Henry had chopped off her head because she couldn't give him a son--and also so he could marry Jane Seymour. Anne was beheaded privately on the Tower grounds, as were several others. According to the Warder, if you were a "friend" of Henry, you could be privately put to the axe, but most of the executions of Tower prisoners were public spectacles held on a nearby hill and witnessed by thousands of Londoners--the forerunner of reality TV, I suppose.

After the Tower, and with only 24 hours more in London, we hopped on an open top bus tour to see as many sights as we could. Big Ben in this photo.

 

 Houses of Parliament seen from across the Thames. Don't know whose head is in the photo, though.

 Scotland Yard.

 Harrod's, the biggest department store in London. No we didn't go in.

Trademark London phone booths--nowadays mostly shelters for the homeless.

We enjoyed our brief trip to London and would go back for a longer visit sometime. It is nice to go out and public and be able to communicate effortlessly. But in London, we missed the smell of bread baking, which is an everyday aroma in Paris. Fewer Londoners than Parisians smoke, however, so that was nice. When we got off the train back in Paris and I looked down and saw thousands of cigarette butts under the trains, I told Tim that you could almost tell what city you are in by the number of cigarette butts. Zero cigarette butts: Monaco. Some: London. Thousands: must be Paris!