Always look on the bright side of life (cue whistling)

Outside the Palace, where Spamalot is playing

In the lounge waiting for the theater to open

In Leicester Square, pointing at the Odeon (where Mamma Mia is set to premiere)

Outside the British Museum

Giant Egyptian head

Sir John Soane's

Cary at Piccadilly Circus

Today was a really fun day! We started by getting on the tube to Leicester Square to buy tickets for a West End show at the tkts half-price ticket booth. The booth opens at 10:00, and when we got there at 9:45, there was already a huge line! It moved pretty quickly though, and by 10:30 we had tickets to Spamalot, which is a musical based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The show wasn't until the evening though, so we had lots of time to do some sight-seeing during the day.

We looked around Leicester Square a little bit first. This is where movies premiere when they premiere in London, so it was neat to see the Odeon (huuuuge movie theater) gearing up for the premiere of Mamma Mia next week. From Leicester Square we walked up Charing Cross/Tottenham Court Road to the British Museum. We forgot that today was Saturday, so we didn't anticipate the huge crowds. There were about a billion Japanese tourists and European school kids. One group of Italian high schoolers kept getting in front of us and stopping in doorways to talk to each other, which was pretty annoying, but we survived. The British Museum is funny - there is so much to see, you could be there for years, but on the other hand, there is so much to see, it can be really overwhelming. We looked around at the big exhibits - Egypt, Assyria, and Greece - together, but it was hard to stop and look at anything for very long because of the crowds. So we had lunch and then split up for about an hour - we figured it would be easier to enjoy ourselves if we weren't worried about losing each other in the crowd. We both just browsed around and stopped when something caught our interest, which I think is the way to do a huge museum. You just can't see everything, so don't wear yourself out trying to. Just look at what you like.

After total of two hours and a visit to the gift shop, we were ready to go. We walked from the British Museum to Sir John Soane's, the house of an 18th century architect. Soane was the foremost architect of his day, and designed his house to let in optimal light and used mirrors to make rooms look bigger. He also filled most of the rooms with random antiquities from all over the world, which made the house feel like the warehouse of the British Museum. The house was really bizarre - it was beautiful, but it just went on forever and every time you turned around, there was another corner, another window, another bookshelf, another anything. We really enjoyed seeing it, especially Cary, as he likes architecture. Free, and well worth a visit if you are ever in London.

It was about 3:00 when we finished with Sir John Soane, so we caught the tube to Covent Garden. Again, really crowded on a Saturday, but a good place to shop and see street performers. We saw two guys who juggled knives and rode an eight-foot unicycle (not at the same time, although that would have been impressive). After we felt like we had seen everything we wanted to see, we headed back to the hotel to get some rest before Spamalot.

We wanted to have dinner in Soho, and we didn't know how long it would take, so we headed out around 5:30 to eat (show at 8:00). We got to Soho around 6:00 and ate at a Rick Steves-recommended restaurant, Yo! Sushi. This was a fun dining experience. You sit at a counter and watch sushi dishes roll by on a conveyor belt. You take what you want - the dishes are color-coded by price, so at the end the waitress just adds up your empty dishes. It was good, but we could see how it could get expensive fast - every dish cost up to five pounds, and most of them are pretty small. We figured we'd never be able to eat sushi off a conveyor belt again though, so we were glad we went.

When we finished eating, it was 6:30 - an hour before we wanted to get to the theater. That's what happens when the middle man between you and your food is eliminated. So we took a walk through Soho. There was a gay pride parade in the neighborhood earlier in the day, so a lot of people were still out celebrating, and we got to see some pretty interesting ensembles. Soho is kind of famous (or infamous) for sex shops, and we passed quite a few. I was really glad we walked through - that kind of neighborhood is not something I would ever see in Gainesville. Mostly I just tried to keep the "golly gee whiz!" look off my face, and pretend I was totally used to seeing drag queens and shops "for the liberated and enslaved" (as one sign advertised).

We came out of Soho near Piccadilly Circus, London's answer to Times Square. Wow. This is where London started to feel like a huge cosmopolitan city to me - I mean, I know it's big, but everywhere else we've been has had wide streets and minimal traffic. This was crowded, noisy, and full of people from all corners of the earth. Definitely an "only in London" experience. I'm so glad we got to see it!

We got to the theater a few minutes before they opened the lobby and lounge, so after a few minutes we went in and waited in the lounge. At 7:45, we finally headed into the theater, and settled in for Spamalot.

Let me start by saying that I really don't like Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the movie. I know, those of you who love it can leave incredulous comments below. I just don't like it. But I loved Spamalot (Cary did too)! It took everything that I hated about the movie and fixed it (meandering, disjointed plot, stupid non-ending), left in everything I thought was funny (French soldiers, Arthurian commune workers), and added other things that were really funny (great songs, audience participation). At one point, the whole audience was singing and whistling along with "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life!" We had a great time, and since we have some money left over, we are planning to go see another show on Monday night, our last night before we come home. We figure, when will we be here again? Let's go while we have the chance!

So now we're back in the hotel. Cary is conked out, and I am on my way. We are not setting the alarm in the morning - just getting up in time to go to church at 11:30 at Holy Trinity Brompton - Nicky Gumbel's (creator of Alpha course) church. But for now, it's off to bed, hoping that I can get the whistling out of my head. What a great day!

-Emily