Day 3 in London

Well, we did better today! We got up around 8:30 and were out the door at 10AM....which was about 30 minutes later than we planned, but much better than 1 or 1:30PM! The grocery store was closed when we returned home last night and so we didn't have anything in the flat for breakfast. There is a little bagel shop next to the underground and we stopped there for breakfast and then hopped on the Tube to go to the half-price ticket booth in Leicester Square for Spamalot tickets. We got seats in the 8th row, center for tonight. This is the one thing Eleanor absolutely wanted to do this trip, so we are making sure it happens early!

We then spent an hour or so in the National Portrait Gallery. It started with the Tudors and moved forward. We didn't go through the whole gallery, just the 3rd floor which took us up through the Regency period (just before Queen Victoria in the 19th century) and then through the BP Art Award paintings for 2008 on the ground floor. We started walking afterward and decided to pop into TGI Friday's for lunch....more sticker shock....but I won't belabor the issue. :-)

I had heard that Top Shop was a good and reasonably priced store for teens. It had really cute stuff, but it was not reasonably priced. Eleanor is very practical and said it was all too over-priced. Amelia would have grabbed it and run! LOL

We then found the Freed's of London store (which is a ballet and pointe shoe maker) and tried on pointe shoes. Eleanor's foot is very narrow and these shoes were very wide, so I got lucky and didn't spend money on pointe shoes in London!

We then walked to Covent Garden and bought tickets to see Swan Lake tomorrow night performed by the Chinese National Ballet. They are nosebleed seats, but that is all we were willing to try and afford!

It's 6PM here now and we are about to eat some dinner and then head to the theatre to see Spamalot.

Good night!

P.S. Olivia--look what store was in Covent Garden!!! The other picture is of a street performer in Covent Garden.

Another postscript....Spamalot was absolutely terrific. We laughed so hard. Eleanor showed great restraint in not wanting a t-shirt that said "I'm not dead yet".....Mr. Head would appreciate it. Sorry, David, we would have gotten one for you, but the dollar to pound exchange rate is too horrific to contemplate the souvenir for you! :-) We had great seats--K8 and K9 in the stalls (that's on the floor about 10 rows up for you yanks!). Sorry, I didn't zoom in on Eleanor, but we wanted the whole Spamalot sign up above. She's the one with the ponytail in the black leggings underneath!