Florida Coalcracker Chronicles: We Are In London - Spending 4 Days and Seeing Billy Elliot

Wednesday, March 02, 2016

We Are In London - Spending 4 Days and Seeing Billy Elliot

Across from Victoria Station is Victoria Theatre -
Home of the Billy Elliot Play

Lulu in front of 12 Bedford Place - the apartment we had for
many summers including the Olympics

I showed the box office guy my hearing aids -
he gave me two great tickets in row 4 - center -
for 30 pounds each for TONIGHT

We left our Berlin pad at 10 AM - got on the S9 Train to Schonefeld Airport. A little after noon - and we were winging our way across Holland and the North Sea to London on Norwegian Air. This is the first time we have flown with them. Lulu found tickets for $37 each way. Can you believe - they had free wifi on the budget plane. My kind of airline.

After a 1 hour and 40 minute flight - we landed at Gatwick Airport. We took the Gatwick Express into downtown London for $15 each. It had us at Victoria Station in under 30 minutes - no stops. As we departed the plane - we could see Victoria Theatre through the arches. After getting some pounds from a changer - and buying subway admissions - we scurried across the street to the Billy Elliot box office. Germany paid Lulu in euros - and we had to get rid of some.

Billy Elliot is the Everhart family trademark play. It is about a boy during the 1985 miners' strike who wanted to be a ballerina - much to the chagrin of his Dad and Brother Tony. The kid wanted to escape the coal regions of England. We have seen the play over 20 times - and cry at it every time.

We tried to get seats in the front row - but we settled for the 4th row - center. We were able to get discount tickets for 30 pounds each - for tonight! So we are on for tonight at 7:30 PM. Our main reason to come was to see the play one more time before it closed in April.

After we got the tickets - we took our Oyster cards - hopped on the subway to the neighborhood around the FSU campus. We stopped by our old apartment at 12 Bedford Place - the one we had for the Olympics. Then we got the key for our 1 Byng Place apartment - we stayed here before twice. It is the cheapest place we could find in London that was near the action. 109 pounds per night. We have it for 3 nights.

Right now we are taking a rest in the apartment for a big night out tonight.

When a women gets a cold - it is just a cold. When a man gets one - it is a damn Stage 7 Flu - Virus - Eboli crisis. I have a cold - really a sore throat with fullness in my ears. I could not wait until I got off the plane to buy British Codeine Tablets. You get 32 tablets for under 2 pounds. Heck in America - I could sell them for a few dollars a tablet. :-) I took 2 right away - and the sore throat is gone. It says right on the box - CAN CAUSE ADDICTION - 3 DAYS ONLY. Are they calendar days or 24 hour days? I also got Glycerin Throat Pastilles at the Boot Pharmacy. That should hold me over.

Byng Place is about 300 years old. But it has been gutted about 5 years ago - and everything inside is new. Most of the people staying here - stay for a semester.

Lots of fun coming in London.