CHRISTMAS TRIP #4

London.

London England for any Americans reading this.

We arrived from Prague late in the afternoon on New Year's Eve. It was raining.

It was raining the last two times I visited London as well. What's that about?

We checked in to the hotel and went for a wander to find a wine bar before dinner.
We were staying in Covent Garden which is a pretty vibrant place - lots of pubs, bars, cafes, restaurants, theatres and shops. The trouble with it though is that while there are lots of bars and pubs very, very few serve up any decent wine, particularly by the glass. We're spoiled here in NZ with the offerings we get. Even RSA's and Cosi clubs offer better wine than most UK bars

We went shopping in the market and nearby fancy shops.

I bought a hat.

The Old Girl went a bit mad and reminded me of that Jaws scene when she said "We need a bigger bag"

WE NEED A BIGGER BOAT

We picked up our pre-booked opera tickets and tickets to A Christmas Carol with Jim Broadbent and saw that there were tickets available for Hangmen that evening.

Hangmen is a black comedy by Martin McDonagh (Cripple of Innishmaan) and had an outstanding cast including David Morrissey who nailed the part. This is well worth seeing if you get the chance. Dark, dark 'comedy'.
We went to the 8 pm performance and were back at our hotel before midnight.
We stayed at a cheap hotel (Travelodge Covent Garden) but as luck would have it we were on the 12th floor with a panoramic views over London which afforded us a great view of the New Years eve firework display at midnight.

This is an annual event that people pay to see and streets are closed for miles around. We got to see it free and unplanned for. Magic.

On New Years day we went to the matinee performance of the double opera Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci at the Royal Opera House.

We are opera lovers and built the New Years trip to London around this.
The Royal Opera House was pretty nice. It was smaller than other opera houses we've visited but beautifully appointed.

The performances were outstanding. We had good seats in the orchestra area with a good central view of the stage. The director chose to use the same Italian village setting for both operas (economical set staging) and created links between the two to make sense of this. The music was excellent including of course the gut-wrenching Canio/Pagliacci's Vesti La Giubba.
We were lucky enough to see Luciano Pavarotti sing this some years ago and love it.

VESTI LA GIUBBA

After the opera double we had time for a quick meal before going to the Noel Coward theater to see A Christmas Carol.

I'd read about this and the great reviews it has been getting so didn't expect to get tickets but again we lucked out. One of the great things about London is the theater and the quality of acting. Jim Broadbent and the brilliant cast were sublime. This really made our day on top of the opera.

Next day (still raining) was just lazing about until it was time for our train back to York. This was not cancelled, not delayed and so for once British rail (Virgin) did the right thing by us.