Day 2: London: Settling in and Culture!

Our first morning in London was reasonable.  S and I slept in (ish) until 7.  The girls got up around 4.45, but only ended up waking B.   Thanks for taking one for the team, B!  C&D landed on time and got to the flat a bit before 10am.  We let them get settled in, then grabbed lunch at the Italian joint from yesterday before hopping a couple of cabs to the West End. We tried using Bolt, but after a few drivers cancelled, we found hailing a cab much more successful.

Our first bit of culture was The Lion King.  I had never seen it; neither had most of the family.  We all loved it, though S (who had seen it in NYC) noted that the production was much smaller than on B'way. Plus, I think that there were a bunch of swings performing today (including followspot and A1).  Still, great performances, and it's easy to see why it's still going strong 25 years later.

After The Lion King, S and I split off from the rest of the group and had a nice walk through town.

Then we took the tube across town to see the new Punchdrunk show, The Burnt City.  If you aren't familiar with Punchdrunk's work, I won't go into detail here except to say that it maintained their aesthetic (dark, sexy, moody).  We had a great time, though the ending was a little less climatic than Sleep No More.

After the show, we grabbed a quick bite at a local brewpub and then headed home.  On the advice of a local (by way of Oregon) we met at the restaurant, we headed for the river taxi for an evening cruise home but when we got to the dock, the last boat had already left.  Alas. We still got some nice photos:

And, in case you're thinking of taking your e-unicycle on the boat, sorry. You can't.