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Our Trip to London from 11 to 14 April 2007 - without Sabine

Curious title, I know. But as we had planned to be a quartet this time, it was sad - and for Sabine expensive - that she couldn't come along to England. Really rotten luck, dear. *cuddles*

For the rest of us - us being Lies, Michaela and myself - the trip was just great. We flew over on Wednesday morning, rather excited at the prospect of seeing Dame Maggie Smith on stage that night. We had read various reviews of the play, rather mixed ones to be honest, and didn't really know what to expect. Yes, it was Mags, so it just had to be good. :-P

And let’s face it, we’re all still waiting for the review people to be right about something for once :P.

Michaela will probably kill me for posting that here but what the frig. ;-)

Michaela and I even managed to get to Victoria station, dragging our suitcases along... no fun. Finally there, we had to find our way to the hotel. Which wasn't as easy as one could have expected but as we were too ... uhm... economical to take a taxi, it was rather challenging. Thank goodness, the British are rather helpful. *g*

Except, might I add, to poor little Belgian girls with crap eyesight who cannot read half of the street name signs. But anyways, even I actually managed to get to the hotel in a reasonable amount of time. Congratulations and flowers can be sent to following address… ok, just kidding, but I am proud :P.

The hotel itself was... yeah, another surprise, not exactly on the nice side. I hadn't exactly expected the Hilton as we didn't pay that much but a double room with a size of about 9 square metres (including bathroom!) is... yeah. Probably only slightly larger than an average prison cell. I think. :-P

I do believe it was actually smaller than some of the cells we saw in Dachau. It was also smaller than my uni room… let’s now all die an astonished death. But at least we did uhmm… *tries to think of a positive side*… we did have two beds this time, so sufficient sleeping space. I am such an optimist ;).

Doubtful hygenic standards were another problem. But it was only for three nights, plus for the time being we had the more pressing problem of getting our play tickets and trying to either return Sabine's or re-sell it. So, off to the theatre.

Yeah, as you might have guessed from the title, the theatre didn't take her ticket back. Guess the above mentioned statement of the box office guy can be taken as a nice example of the British sense of humour. So we just thought we'd try to re-sell it before the performance.

Despite both Lies and Michaela insisting that Maggie would already be in the theatre for the matinee performance which started about 45 minutes later, I dragged them around to the stage door. And guess who was just arriving. :-P

Right, so you just had to mention this amazing feat of your paranormal abilities :P. But I admit it, it was very much a WELOVEYOU!!!-moment. I bow in defeat to your superior… superiority.

Can you see her? :D

Yes, there she is.

So we had our first round of swooning then. The afternoon was over quickly, basically for looking for a flower shop. Why on earth is it kind of impossible to find a florist anywhere in the London city centre? Goodness. :D

Not even Covent Garden was any help here, which destroyed yet another of my youthful dreams. Ah, tragic. Am I the only one needing a hankie here? Ok, don’t answer this one :P.

Thankfully we finally managed and got Maggie some really nice flowers (which we forgot to take a pic of *headdesk*) including the customary lollipop. :-P

I pointed out the candy shop in Aalst should pay me for all the publicity they’re indirectly getting. Seriously ;).

We also got a really nice card saying something like "Thank you for being not only what you are but who you are." Either that or the othe way around... sorry, getting old. :-P

Bwahahaha :P.

Then it was basically late enough to return the hotel in order to get ready for the evening.

Michaela and Lies all poshed up :-)

Taking a taxi to the theatre was probably a rather clever decision as it saved us the trouble of having to drag the flowers through the underground - again. Being back at the theatre, we handed in the flowers and the card at the stage door before we went off to re-sell Sabine's ticket.

Sabine's rotten luck didn't go away, and after we randomly attacked people who looked as if they were looking for a ticket, we had to give up. We did end up having a quite expensive coat rest. Ha, and imagine the looks of the other patrons. :-P Having a seat for your coats. *g*

We were, however, quite perseverant and didn’t give up easily… oh look, someone is reading one of the play poster thingies… *jumps* :D. But alas… even though the look on people’s faces was actually quite funny. We’re so posh. Yes. Also, I want the theatre ceiling. Seriously.

The play itself was absolutely marvellous. Surely The Lady from Dubuque isn't a play that's easily accessible, and one certainly has to think about it but I see no reason at all why it's so ill-received. Critics have basically killed it though they mostly went after the play, not the actors. Maggie only appeared at the end of the first act which had been rather intense. The second act is funnier with Maggie having some of the best one-liners ever. :-P

Oh my God, yes… “This is Oscar. Oscar is black. “… and she also gave a whole new view on “Good old Marx”… ah, it was wonderful. Critics, as usual, don’t seem to know what they’re talking about. Ok, so that sounded mean and self-righteous, but really, this play would even have been good if it hadn’t had Maggie. Weird, but good. Sort of like, you know, us :P.

After two hours everything was over, and we went out to the stage door. For once we didn't have to shiver with cold which we were really grateful for. *g* Maggie was out rather quickly and signed basically everything one gave her.

Oh, more Maggie. *yay*

Oh, and really cute: One elderly gentleman asked her if he might kiss her hand. *aaww* Her face at that was rather cute. *g*

I think about then we had already made up our minds to go back to the box office the other morning and try to get tickets for that evening. *g* Some nice cocktails ended the evening before we took the tube back to our hotel.

I, too, had a nice cocktail, which I obtained WITHOUT being asked for ID (despite both my travel companions being rather evil old people about this particular issue, tskkk, what is so funny about it, I wonder :P°). Ok, sorry, just a personal highlight ;).

Thursday was a nice, warm and sunny day.

Lies and Michaela at Picadilly Circus. Ok, it's not that warm yet. :-P

After purchasing our tickets for the evening (and paying way less than we had the previous night), we went down to Westminster pier to take a river cruise up to the Tower. Up? Down? Well, anyways, so the Tower. :-P Was really nice especially as one of the crew kept explaining buildings we passed by, including some nice anecdotes. :-)

He was really good and funny. “There you see the Bloody Tower… behind the bloody trees.”

Houses of Parliament with Big Ben

the London Eye from right beneath it

oh, look, Tower Bridge :D

We walked quite a lot that day, Lies and I kind of finishing our "walk of doom" from 2005 (see report) where we had given up walking around St Paul's Cathedral. *g*

I’d say “We were such weaklings.” but we totally weren’t… I think I’ve never walked as much on one day as on that day. “London is not a city to be explored solely by foot” my lovely Mappy says… I can only reply: ha!

St Paul's Cathedral

But it was quite a long walk this time as well. After some (extensive :-P) shopping and a late lunch it was was already well into the afternoon, so we went back to our hotel to get ready for the evening.

Maggie was just as great as the evening before. We got some more stuff signed and took some pics. :-)

one of the posters outside the theatre

Maggie signing stuff

Maggie signing even more stuff :-P

Friday was supposed to be the "Maggie-less" day but things should turn out differently. ;-) We decided to take our breakfast in Hyde Park which was... yeah, a bit chilly. Though the first hickup turned out to be finding a park bench. *g* But we did in the end, had our breakfast and then went down Oxford Street. Of course we couldn't pass by a tea shop... which ended in me having to carry about one kilogram of tea around all day. :-P But one does suffer gladly for something as yummy as that. *g*

It is totally not an obsession and such :D.

In the early evening, we split up. Lies and I took our - kind of customary - stroll to Sarastro's on Drury Lane, then returned to Leicester Square to have some ice cream and coffee. In the end we decided that we could just as well go to the stage door again and see if we could take another one or two nice pics of Maggie. Turned out to be a rather clever decision. Not only did we get some rather nice pics but we also managed to shake Maggie's hand. *yay* :D Look how nicely our hands are smiling now. *ahem* :-P

don't ask... :-P

My dearest friend forgets to mention here that by sticking up her index finger too, she briefly turned into a Satanist :P. Then again, we had quite a few religious revelations anyway, so that was quite okay… people in the Bible tend to get the dropsy and all. It’s a crazy world *nods wisely*.

Saturday was already our last day, and we didn't do much anymore. Just the usual - bookshop, dvd shop... - and sitting on a bench at Leicester Square, trying to get a tan. ;-)

The time in London went by way too quickly, as it usually does. It was wonderful to finally see Maggie on stage. Hope there'll be another opportunity soon. :-)

Hoppedi hop hop… yep, I’m still in a very hoppy and weird state of mind, but it was just really fantastic to see Maggie in real life. Happy sigh.

Relevant links:

Theatre Royal Haymarket