Sister Act

We enjoyed our morning routine of gathering in the lobby for coffee and pastries and our New York Times games.  We left at 9:30 to visit the oldest church in London, All Hallows by the Tower, founded in AD 675.  I have a long family tradition of visiting churches and cemeteries when I travel.  You learn quite a bit about a place’s culture that way.  

The website said that they opened at 10 am on Saturdays.  We were there and waiting but alas no one ever came to open up.  A member of the wait staff in the adjacent restaurant told us that they don’t have enough staff to open up on Saturdays.  I wonder if the Church of England is experiencing the same leadership crisis as the churches in America.  We peeked through the door to get a bit of a look inside.  We were all taken by the 4 or 5 ship models hanging from the ceiling.We walked down to the Tower of London and headed east.  It is a lovely walk along the Thames.  

We were headed to St. Katherine’s Dock, London’s only marina, a recommendation Shelly and Sara received from a waiter.  As we got ready to walk over a passenger bridge we noticed people standing around to watch eight sailboats crowded into a small area.  We wondered if there was about to be a race or what would make people line up to watch. It was a while before we realized they were all in a lock waiting for the water to go down enough to allow them to exit into the Thames.  In two days we will be on a narrow boat in Wales learning to navigate locks.  We stayed and watched the process.  It was very obvious which boats had experienced crews and which didn’t.  I am guessing that will be obvious when we take our boat through the first lock.

We walked the circumference of the marina picking out what boat each of us would purchase next.  Given that I am the only one in the London 4 that doesn’t already own a boat, I guess it will have to be my first boat, not my next boat.

We headed back to the restaurant attached to the oldest church in London to get a snack and with a secret hope that the church would finally be open.  We were successful at getting food but not at getting inside the church.  We went back to the hotel to regroup before we headed out to the Dominion Theater.  We arrived a little early and joined an immersive experience called Nature’s “Confetti”.  It was a combination of shots that transitioned from city vistas to close ups of blossoms bursting into life.  It was pretty cool.

We took a short walk over to the British Museum.  I couldn’t believe how long the line was just to enter.  I guess Saturday is not the best day to visit the British Museum.  So we headed back to Dominion theater to find our seats for the musical Sister Act.  

I was eagerly anticipating this musical.  The movie version with Whoopi Goldberg was Brett’s favorite movie in early elementary.  When it was his bedtime he would put the CD in his boom box and loop the song “I Will Follow Him”.  Bryan or I would head in every night to turn it off after he fell asleep.  I knew I would feel nostalgic with memories.  We had great seats and you could get take a glass of champagne or a bottle (large or small) to your seat.  

We weren’t very far into the musical when I realized that none of the music in the musical was the same music in the movie….none.  Linda read that they couldn’t get the copyright to use the music and so all new music was written.  It may have been one of the campiest musicals I have ever seen.

The London 4 are part of the group I see musicals with at the Pantages.  We often rate the musicals we see from best to worst.  I’ll just say that those of us who saw it rated it just above Cats and Love Never Dies, two of our least favorite musicals.  It ended with streamers shooting from the ceiling.  One package of streamers didn’t open and the whole package hit Shelly in the eye.  It wasn’t our best experience.  We headed to Norma, the Italian restaurant nearby where we had a reservation.  It was authentic Italian food to the point that we had to google much of the menu to know what we could order.  By the end of the meal one member of our group felt quite ill and we took the tube back to get her to her hotel room.

Tom and Kara landed at Heathrow tonight to join us for the train ride to Wales tomorrow.  Once they arrived and checked in, Linda and I went with them to catch up while they shared a pizza.  Then we took a short walk to see the Tower Bridge lit up at night.

We all headed for bed.  Tomorrow the six of us will get up early and then move in a herd to catch the train to Chirk.  The next chapter of this adventure takes place in Wales.