For our 3rd day in London, we decided to go and see the Tower of London, followed by a little visit to the National Science Museum. The Tower of London was really enjoyable, as it offered many amazing and varied exhibitions for adults and children; from the mysterious murder of the Twins in the Tower, to the graffiti of prisoners from as early as the 16th Century, and enabled everyone, no matter what age or nationality, to enjoy themselves (although some parts got extremely crowded and busy). The torture chamber itself was a shocking reminder of the former brutality that ran through our history and give brutal images of how prisoners were tortured in the Tower. We also happened to bump into a Beefeater who had some friends who had just bought a house in my home town! Small world.
The best part of the Tower of London was undoubtedly the Royal Crown Jewels exhibition, as we were able to see Royal Crowns and Jewels from King Henry VII's Reign to the Modern Day within an arm's distance. I myself was totally amazed by how close I was able to see the Royal Crown that the Queen herself had worn for her Coronation. When I first heard how close people were able to get to the Royal Jewels, I had some concern as to whether there was enough security in place to protect these valuable mementoes of British History. My concerns however were quickly removed when I myself entered the Chamber where the Jewels were kept, and was introduced to the huge metallic doors that led to the Chamber. It was clear to see that millions (if not billions) of pounds had been invested in the protection of the Jewels and that I therefore had no reason to worry.
Once we had finished at the Tower of London we then took the Tube to the National Science Museum, which was only around 15 minutes away by tube from the Tower. Once we reached the Museum and had eaten our lunch in the eating lounge provided by the Museum, we only had a short long around as we quite tired, although we had only looked around the Tower of London. We had a short look around the Ground floor, The showcase of old and new Household applications in the Basement and then had a look at the History of Medicine on the highest floor (which I personally believe couldn't have done with little bit more money being invested in it).Once we had rearranged ourselves for our third theatre show in London after going back to the hotel, we once again had our tea at The Stockpot, where I treated myself to a delicious apple crumble with custard :) Good Times. The third theatre show we went to see was Calendar Girls, as we are big fans of the film and were interested to see how it was done in a London theatre production.
The show itself did not quite meet our expectations, as, although the show was good none the less, it felt too much like a show that we could have seen in Darlington. The show had many funny one-liners throughout, (quite a few which were unfortunately from the film and therefore were not extremely funny for us), humourous interactions between the characters, and the infamous Calendar shooting scene was brillantly done. The play itself also had a good mix of humour as well as sadness, as the particular scene when letters from fans of the calendar, cancer sufferers and cancer survivors were dropped onto the stage was extremely moving. The line when one of the Calendar Girls read out the line "I don't have much to laugh about now, as I am now 16 and have been told that I will not reach 18" was extremely moving as I was reminded that many people of my age are affected by Leukaemia. Despite these nice touches however Calendar Girls would be our least favourite play that we would see in London.
After having another fairly restless sleep in the hotel, (London just wouldn't stop being noisy), our 4th and final full day of London beckoned. For our last day in London we had decided to visit an attraction which I had always wanted to see if we went down to London and had be longing to see ever since we arrived: The famous wax model attraction Madame Tussauds. We aimed to arrive for the opening of the shop at around 9.30 am, the time when Madame Tussauds opened. We arrived there after getting the bus at around 9.40 am and entered the attraction believeing the place to be very quiet, only to find that we had more a hour long queue to join before we could pay for our tickets and then go and see the wax models :( Bad Times.After queuing for ages and walking past fairly amusing attractions that were designed to stop you becoming bored whilst you were waiting, (my favourite one being the clay shape of David Beckham's foot in it's kicking pose), we finally entered the attraction at a quote decent / fair unquote price of £25 per adult, although we luckily got one ticket free due to a deal we got from getting train tickets down to London. The first part of the attraction included going up a lift to be met by what we were told was a paparazzi / red carpet entrance to the first set of wax models. It was however more like walking along a small corridor with a redish crapet, with drunk people shouting at you from across the street to gain your attention flashing white lights at you! This however would be luckily one of only a few bad parts of the attraction.
In the first part of the attraction we entered the film premiere / red carpet / party room, where we where met by film stars and actors, from the likes of David and Victoria Beckham to George Clooney. I must say that I was astounded by the style of the models, although a few odd ones like John Travolta and Leonardo DiCaprio looked a little bit off, and before you knew I was all over the place dying to get photos with the wax models of my choice. Within a few minutes both me and my mum discovered a new meaning to the word "Busy" and "Overcrowded" as you literally had to get yourself as close to the wax model as possible without ruining anyone's photos, and then throw yourself in front of the model before any else beat you to it, quickly smile for the camera and then get the hell out of there! It was so busy in Madame Tussauds that it was beyond ridiculous. It was so easy to miss a model due to the crowds of people covering them from your view by queuing up to see another model, and it was quite amusing to see people swarm around madly to get to one model, whilst some where left standing to one side with virtually no one next to them.
After getting through the first room of models we then came across a small room dedicated to Teen Idols, which only featured two wax models: Zac Efron and Miley Cyrus / Hannah Montana, and I jumped at the opportunity to get a picture with the so called heart throb Zac Efron, whom every other girl apart from me seems to druel over. After getting my pic snapped next to Zac Efron, along with a person with a massive camera taking my picture and heading me a piece of paper with a number on, we entered the movie / film characters / actors room, where I was surprised to see the likes of Spider-Man and The Incredible Hulk standing in the room. This room was packed with amazing models, Jim Carrey being my personal favourite in this room, although it was a bit disappointing that you couldn't really go up and get a picture with the Wax Model of Indiana Jones being chased by a boulder.After then walking past a special staircase that was solely dedicated to Alfred Hitchcook and his famous films, we entered the Sport room section, which lead on to British icons, music stars, and then onto famous world leaders and icons. The Sport section was perhaps my favourite section in Madame Tussauds as it contained a wide range of stunning and excellent models from all sorts of sports past and present, although why they had a was model of a gymnast in the ceiling which you could only see by accident was beyond me. In this room I was able to line up a shot with Tiger Woods, sit next to Pele, meet The Greatest, and battle with an all mighty All Blacks rugby player. Brillant :)
In the Royal / British Section I only stopped to get a picture with Princess Diana, as I was interested in visiting the royal family, Shakespeare (?) or Stephen Hawkings in wheelchair and everything. When we reached the music section we walked in to see some real people standing on the main stage showing some dance moves to youngsters, most noticeably the Moon Walk, and saw a massive crowd to our left. It was soon afterwards that we realised everyone was queuing to get a picture with the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, and that the dancers had been hired in order to cash in on the death of the pop star. After getting pictures with the likes of the Beatles, Robbie Williams, and a crap Gary Barlow, I decided to not queue for a picture with Michael Jackson and headed onto the next section.In the world leader section, world leaders (surprisingly) and world icons from the past and present were there in their wax model states, along with a random corner containing quote slighty nasty unqoute models with the likes of Hitler and Saddam Hussein :S. I was also surprised to see Boris Johnson there, along with randomly the Vice President of Australia. Hummm. After getting a picture with the one and only Barack Obama, and getting another piece of paper with a number on it, we then headed to the Scream section which was a section that contained a scary ride along with real live actors. I however not wanting to go on the ride skipped this part with my mum and headed onto the next section.
After skipping the ride we came to what I thought was the end of Madame Tussauds, where as it exactly turned out to be a British TV section, as we were greeted by Graham Norton who would randomly say things like "Are you trying to poke me?", and then went on to meet the likes of Ant and Dec, Lou and Andy and Barbara Windsor. We then walked out onto a Andy Warhol section, where the likes of Marylin Monroe standing in her famous pose over a wind vent could be seen, and then in final part of the walk came to the shop part, where I purchased my Zac Efron keychain and fridge magnet (my Barack Obama picture vanished into thin air :S). We therefore finished our adventure in Madame Tussauds by looking through the shop, which sold lots of crap, and took some pics with a few random other wax models whose residence was now in shop, Mr. T being the most noticeable one.Once we had seen the wonderful and some what wacky wax models in Madame Tussauds, we once again travelled to the National Science Museum in order to see a bit more of the items on show and to gain a better picture of the museum in general. Although we were once again quite tired by the time we had got to the Science Museum (even after eating our emergency supplies of chocolate flapjack), I was amazed by the museum items I would see that day in the Modern World Gallery. I was able to see an older model of mum's very first car, part of a spaceship that was actually used in the Apollo 11 Space mission, and saw the actual model that James D. Watson and Francis Crick had used in 1953 to illustrate the structure of DNA to the world. I was speechless. I was only disappointed by the fact that the very camera that taken the infamous picture of the young girl in Vietnam, Phan Thị Kim Phúc, running towards the photographer Nick Út after a naplam attack in Vietnam, had been removed to be seen in a Museum in America.
After seeing a few more parts of the Museum we then decided to catch the bus back to the hotel in order to see our final musical in London: The Lion King. One of, if not, my most favourite films from my childhood years, which I believe became one of the early signs and stepping stones for my love and future in music and drums. Me and mum had been wanting to see this musical ever since it had come out and could not wait to see what the play was like.
The start of the play was amazing as animals in the scene where Simba is shown to all the animals at Pride Rock appeared from everywhere, including two antelopes, an elephant and a rhino who, to the great shock of the audience, appeared in the Circle Stands and through the audience themselves. I myself was totally amazed by the costumes that were worn by the actors in the play, from Scar's stretchable neck, the puppetry of Zazu, the leopard, the wildebeest in the stampede scene, to Timon who, although he was controlled by a man in a green costume, was in my opinion the best costume / puppet in the entire show, as you soon didn't see the man in green costume and actually believed that he was there in the flesh.
As I was not sure whether the show was literally going to be just a musical or a musical with the original story of the film, I was pleasantly surprised when the play was a stage version of the film (with a few new songs and some even from the second film being thrown in), as I knew the play would be a lot harder to pull off in this format. The play however pulled it off brillantly as the scene changes, costumes and imagery in the play were outstanding, from the amazing reenactment of the stampede scene, the scene when Mufasa's face appears in the water, to the costumes of all the animals in the animal kingdom (with the leopard being one of my personal favourites). A few of the new songs included in the play may not have done the play any justice (although the song "He Lives in You" from the second film was used brillantly), but the original songs thankfully made up this. The part when Ballet was included was also a little bit confusing and in my opinion a wee bit too close to being nudity, but thankfully this part only happened briefly. The play may not have been the best we saw in London, due to the fact I have now unfortunately grown up and am no longer as fanatic about the Lion King as I originally was, it was definitely worth see and will be a musical that I will never forget.After having our fourth, and yet another restless, night in London, we simply just had our Breakfast and went for a short walk in London, before eventually catching our train back home from London's King Cross. We also before returning back home searched for the infamous Platform 9 and three quarters that had been placed in the station, only to find that it had been moved from it's original location and had unfortunately been left to one corner of the station and out of sight. Me and my Mum also thought that they could have made it look nicer and more presentable to the public, but I nonetheless enjoyed taking a photo next to it to make it look as if I was flying into the platform :). Good Times
Our London adventure had come to an end, but it would certainly be one that we would never forget or ever wish to erase from our minds :)
Stay Happy London
Cheeky Lamby
xxxx
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