Day 66 - Wandering around London

Hanna and Courtney went on a day tour today, so Shaina and I decided to wander around London. We started off by going to Leicester Square to buy cheap tickets to THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA! Then we went to Trafalgar Square.

The Bastille of London (looks like it anyway) :)

Shaina with the Lion.

Me with the Lion. It was actually really hard to get up there. And it was scary to get down...

The National Gallery. We went in here next (it's free!). It was amazing (we couldn't take pictures or else I'd have a hundred or so to show you)! We saw Fragonard, Rembrandt, Géricault, Ingres, Rubens, Watteau, Turner! We saw the Marriage à la Mode series by Hogarth. We saw Mary and Saint Anne with the Christ Child and John the Baptist, an incredible sketch by Da Vinci. It was incredible, I wanted to cry. But I didn't because I can't cry in public :)

Then we found the Her Majestys Theatre where we would see Phantom that very evening.

A black telephone booth. Odd.

Do you know a muffin man?...

Then to Covent Garden. It was a really cute market place. We looked around there for a while and then headed to St. Paul's Cathedral.

Though it usually costs to get in, it was Communion time, so it was free! We looked around for a little while. Again, pictures were not allowed, but know that it is incredible. There is so much gold and color. I love it. Then we attended Communion. It was very interesting. They focus so much on Mary; it was very strange. But also a very good experience. They had one short sermon that was actually very similar to a talk that we would hear in our Church. Anyway, it was really cool!

Then to PHANTOM!

What the stage looked like at the beginning of the show. The stage was very dynamic and did not stay like this for long. That lump in the center of the stage is the chandelier! It was incredible. The opening scene is an auction set many years in the future of when Phantom is set (aka Raoul is an old man). The last item is the chandelier. The auctioner announced it very dramatically, then took the plugs to light it up and put them together. At the very moment when the chandelier was lit up, the coverings were taken off and the theme song started very powerfully on the organ. As the song continued the chandelier swooped up through the audience then up onto the ceiling. It was incredible! I got chills like crazy!

The musical was absolutely incredible. The music was fantastic. The voices were phenomenal. No joke, I really loved it! But I must tell a story which slightly tainted the experience for Shaina and I and many others who were sitting around us.

At the very beginning of the show, there were five people who were giggling very loudly and annoyingly. They would stop and then started again. Then they started talking (in Italian). They were quiet sometimes, but most of the time they were talking. And whenever a really dramatic part would happen, they would start giggling again. These weren't kids, they were full-grown adults. Luckily, the music was quite loud so I didn't hear them most of the time. During the intermission, they went away. I really hoped they wouldn't come back, but they did. When the show started after the intermission, they commenced their idiotic laughter. Some awesome British man turned back to them and said, "Would you like to be quiet?" in a very angry voice. One of them said "Sure" back to him in a sarcastic voice, but they were quiet for a good 15 minutes or so. Then they started again. One of their phones actually went off. I sent them some very dirty looks and I shooshed them three times! It worked a little bit. Ugh it was so annoying. Again, I am glad that the music was very loud!

Besides that, it was truly amazing! And thus concluded our day.