Covent Garden, Apple Store, & Lion King

Covent Garden is an area of London, and also a specific piazza that's full of special shops, street performers (musicians, magicians, etc.), and cafes. Above, a quintet performs for a patio and balcony audience.

These people raise money for charities, visit and entertain at rest homes. Covered with pearl buttons, they're called the Pearly Kings & Queens Society. 

The Apple Store at Covent Garden. Very impressive. Appeared to be the most popular place on the piazza.

Inside the Apple Store. Memo to Steve Jobs: This layout would work well on the Santa Fe Plaza.

Portal and front entrance area of the Apple Store.

From Covent Garden we took the short walk to the Lyceum Theatre to see The Lion King, which has been playing at the Lyceum since 1999. The theatre was rebuilt after a fire destroyed it and re-opened in 1834. It closed in 1986 and opened again in 1996.

Unfortunately they don't allow photos. Now I want to see the original Disney version.

On the way to the Covent Garden Station, around noon, I saw an amazing thing: empty Underground passageways. It looked like Sunday must be a slow day in the subway. 

Empty stairways and passageways.

However, by the time we left the theater the Tube was more crowded than I've seen it so far. People were stacked up so deep waiting for elevators at Convent Station that a Tube employee directed us to the stairs (clue: when a Tube station provides multiple, large elevators, the platform is deep underground). As we walked down the stairs we heard an announcement warning passengers that the stairs were equivalent to a 15-story building (you don't see frail elderly people on the subway, they prefer the bus system -- less walking and climbing). Thankfully, we were going down instead of up. When we got to our Tube platform, the trains were packed to the doors, but we found a less crowed car at the very end of the train. Transportation is a big part of the fun here.

iTubePeople #2

iTubePeople Research Paper #2: people who sat near me on the Tube.

For scientific reasons, I'll try to categorize the various species.

A Sleeper and a Reader.

Three Readers. Although they could also be Studiers. More research needed on these three.

Could be a Worrier or a Psycho. Glad I'm not sitting next to him.

Three Teenagers. Often seen in packs of three or more, as shown here. Their camouflage (called school uniforms) serves as a warning to other iTubePeople. Fortunately, this pack was harmless.

Saturday Summary

We cancelled plans to go to Highgate Cemetery and stayed in most of the day to work on our computers. We did take a mid-afternoon break to try a nice little Italian coffee shop just a block from here. Nice place, good coffee. Better coffee than Starbucks. Closer than Starbucks. Not as crowded as Starbucks.

We decided to have an early dinner at Southern Belle. This sports pub is just several blocks away and claims to have BBQ. I thought I'd give them a chance to test it on a Louisiana/Texas/California BBQ aficionado. But once we got there, the place was packed with local team football fans, watching the game on the big screen (in the background). We decided to just say hi to the dog and leave it for some other night.

On the way home we stopped in the Chancery, just a half-block from our B&B. It's also a sports pub, but wasn't crowded, nice atmosphere, really good chips (french fries) for a snack, and cider. 

This is where you order your cider. Gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling doesn't it?

The picture quality on their TV screens is better than the Southern Belle's giant screen. Both soccer and rugby games are being shown on the three screens. As game time got closer, more customers came in. When Robin comes back from her classes, if she takes a bus from the Tube station to the B&B, the bus lets her off right here. How conveeenient.

Next door to our B&B, a fine example of small back porches.

Tomorrows plan: The landmark Apple Store at Covent Garden, The Lion King at The Lyceum Theatre, and the London Transport Museum (all in the Covent Garden area).

Saturday Morning Fox Visit

These two showed up outside our window minutes after a cat wandered through the small backyard area. They stayed a few minutes and then left. 

Is it just me, or do they look like they're planning something mischievous?

The Trip Back to Hammersmith

The trip back to Hammersmith featured the two basic kinds of London train travel: Uncrowded, as shown above as we left Hampton Court, and Crowded, as shown below as we near Hammersmith. Apologies for the blurry photo, but I couldn't move so I just tapped the camera button and hoped something was there.

A Pint of Cider at The Prince of Wales Pub

When we left the Hampton Court Palace we found the Prince of Wales Pub a couple of blocks from the train station and relaxed with a pint of cider before taking the train back to Hammersmith. We met Harvey, the Foxhound-Greyhound mix. He's a regular here. Very nice dog. He and Robin hit it off right away. Should have gotten his pmail address. He's actually the third dog we saw come in during our short visit. I think I'd like this place.

A street in Hampton Court.

Hampton Court Palace

We got a too-late start for our Hampton Court trip, but took off anyway. Several Tube transfers, a train trip, mad dash from the Hampton Court train depot across the river bridge to the front gate and... missed the last entrance time by about ten minutes.

They let us in so we were able to wander around the grounds for about an hour, but we couldn't go inside. It's amazing how uncrowded this place is. When it's closed. And it's raining. And getting dark.   

The Hampton Court Palace entrance. The Gatehouse to the inner court is adorned with an astronomical clock that shows the time, phases of the moon, the month, the quarter of the year, the date, the sun and star sign, and high water at London Bridge measurements -- important information for visitors who came by barge on the Thames River. At low water London Bridge created dangerous rapids. The clock was kind of an early Tudor app.

I didn't get to see the kitchens, but they're famously huge and were capable of feeding King Henry VIII's court of 1000 people. Robin, above, enjoys the solitude.

A fountain in the center of the garden. The shaped trees are Yew trees.

The front of Hampton Court. I can picture Henry saying "Anne, honey, we're home. I mean Catherine... no, make that Jane. No no, Catherine that's right... not the Aragon or Howard Catherine, Parr for God's sake!"

I'll bet I can tell what she's thinking: "We could do this with those Pinon trees in our yard."