Spamalot

Tuesday, July 17, 2007
London, United Kingdom
It was a beautiful sunny day while we were eating breakfast at York, at a beautiful, cheap-o place called Wetherspoons. A full English breakfast cost 2 pounds, 99 pence (roughly $6). That's the best bargain we've found. It beat the grand slam.
 
We started our walk toward the York train station to begin our journey to London . Within 50 yards of Wetherspoons, the sky opened up and we had to duck into a doorway to readjust ourselves. By the time of the readjustment, about 5 minutes, the rain stopped again. Once we were off, it started back, though. Arriving at the York station we had to readjust our reservations for Bath in order to return to London in time for a dinner with Frank and Karen. "It was so easy," Rich and Jake both said about changing the reservation.
 
From there it was all aboard and off to Londontown. The weather alternated between sun and mostly rain for the 2-1/2 hour journey. We didn't mind, we were on our friend GNER (Great North Eastern Railway - Home of the Flying Scotsman).
 
Arrival at London King's Cross station was on time and after leaving the train we very quickly realized we weren't in the rural parts of the UK anymore. The sounds, smells, and crowds of the city were all around us from the minute we stepped off the train.
 
The hotel was a short walk, pretty much visible from the train station. Once we entered, reception was covered in a fire curtain. Apparently construction in the area had set off the hotel's alarms (and lifts) and would prevent us from checking in for another hour. It was really only about 15 minutes until we were unpacking in our rooms.
 
After regrouping, we headed toward Leicester Square (which isn't really a square, more of a park), and bought upper balcony tickets for Spamalot at the Palace Theatre. A short walk away from the Leicester station was Covent Garden. It was much more "alive" than it had been during the winter months and we got to enjoy street vendors and performers, including a lunatic on a 10 foot tall unicycle, nearly naked, juggling knives and chainsaws. We still had a couple of hours to kill and stopped at the Bear and Staff, a pub we had visited on our last trip. Once again we ascended the curvy stairs to "Chaplin's" and enjoyed a nice meal (as well as an education on the different kinds of English sausage). As had always been the case, the food was "real good."
 
Finally, the pilgrims stepped back in time to 670AD at the Palace Theatre for the London production of Spamalot. It was kind of warm there at first, but we got used to it. The pre-show music was John Philip Sousa marches. (???). Then, the Spam started flying and classic Monty Python sketches from The Holy Grail were brought to life with music, dance, song, and theatrical magic. We laughed. A lot. Spam... a lot. Haha.
 
After our long day of travel, we headed back to the hotel for an early night. Since we had only showers in our rooms, we wanted to find a nice Bath the next day. 
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