London, Day 1

Tuesday, July 6
Finding Apple to no avail
Breakfast at the Ibis was served until 10 am on weekdays, a civilized hour that nonetheless got us up and out before the day was half gone. Simple but good food, and enough variety to keep it tolerable for the week. We spent the rest of the morning on wifi (£5/2 hrs) trying to get into UK apps store so we could download GPS for England onto this iPad. Jan went out and found a shop that sold time for the cell phone. We also booked the half day bus tour that is part of our package for Wednesday morning, July 7. I called and left a message for Jamie but of course couldn't remember our cell phone #! Hoped he would text back or that I would reach him later. Jamie is a close friend of Erin's and we are going to meet him on the 8th &/or 9th, and we will see the play Money on the 9th at the Shunt theatre where he works.
We finally set off on the tube to Leiscester Square where we got discount tix for 39 Steps for that night at Piccadilly Circus and for Oliver the next night at Covent Garden. Erin recommended the first, and I had to see a West End Musical. Oliver was the first musical I had produced for the arts school in Niagara in 1988, so I chose it. We walked around the square and stopped for lunch at the Moon Under Water pub, sitting at an outdoor table across from the green. I had a pint of cider and Melton Mowbray pie. Jan had a pint of ale with cheese and onion tart. Delish!

After lunch we walked up through Soho - shocking! (ha,ha) - and Carnaby Street and were surprised at how many London streets are malled off. We were in and out of stores a bit, but for the most part we were window shopping, people watching, and gaping at the beauty of the old architecture and streetscapes.




We did visit Liberty to look around, browse through the Hermes scarves in search of a non-existent bargain for my mom, and giggle at stumbling over the champagne and oyster bar in the basement level.

More photos of its amazing exterior.







At last we reached the Apple Store, where Igor was utterly delightful in his efforts to assist (note to self: contact the store and tell them how great he was). We discovered that I could not change location to buy UK apps because I had a balance of $5.32 with the Canadian itunes store. He tried to arrange a new account for me in the UK but I had to have a UK credit card and address other than one week in a hotel. Canadian address and card would not do. Steve Jobs, what is the deal here? We just wanted a UK GPS system. Ah! As Igor so kindly pointed out, the OS GB 250k map of Great Britain functioned with satellite GPS anyway and found us easily so I had the capability to navigate our entire trip. Whew!! Okay, let's get on with it!




Well, we wandered back down toward Piccadilly along Saville Row (oh, the clothes!) and past the Royal Academy of the Arts where we only had time to stick our heads in the door long enough to find out that the Haunch of Venison sign indicated the presence of a large gallery.

Title of photo below: Cath, A Broad :)



By that time we had just enough day left to grab a bite to eat in a convenient Pret A Manger (what a brilliant concept these ubiquitous self serve restaurants are) and get back to Piccidilly in time for 39 Steps. This hilarious play takes one of Hitchcock's early films and with four players on stage, 3 men & 1 woman, presents it as a farce that I think Hitch would have loved. Killed ourselves laughing, and the more you knew his films the funnier the play was as it referenced a lot of them throughout. Brilliant!!!


[Photo: the lift at the Earl's Court Tube Station]
When we got back to the hotel, we just had time to get into its pub, the George & Dragon I think it was, before last call. Now some friends had expressed concern about what I would find to drink over the pond, and I have already mentioned that I tried the cider, which I quite liked. But didn't I find the tube walls plastered with stories of Jack Daniels and how he made his Tennessee whiskey (please note that JD is not Bourbon which is Kentucky whiskey). So I was happy to find it available in every establishment that we visited. A little nightcap and off to sleep.