Month: August 2024

I didn’t plan to write this post until after I got home, but since we are delayed for an hour and a half at Heathrow, I thought I would do it now.

Ann was coming to our hotel and we were going to spend the morning at the Victoria & Albert Museum, but I got funny tummy at 3:00 AM. I think the lobster was just too rich for me. We met Ann but I begged off the excursion. I had been there twice before on other trips, but Beatrice had never been, so they spent the morning there.

The big show was “The Songbook Trail of Taylor Swift,” with thirteen stops to show the costumes she wore. Many mothers and adoring daughters were there.

She also enjoyed watching the kids play in the pond outside the museum.

While they were gone, I slept in for an extra hour and checked in with British Airlines. There was a problem with her confirmation number, so I called the travel emergency hotine at Road Scholar to get it sorted out. I said good bye to Ann. We are considering a week in Nice the end of September.

We had to be dressed for the evening at 2:30, since we had two workshops and not much time in between activities. Our first speaker was Matt Wolf, the drama critic from the International New York Times. He is from New York and started writing for rhe Yale Daily News when he was an undergraduate, and just sort of slid into writing about plays for other publications as a freelancer. . He had been taken to plays since he was very young , since it was easier for his parents to pay for an extra ticket than it was to hire a babysitter. We discussed the pros and cons of the three plays we saw. My personal favorite at that point was “ People and Places and Things,” since the actress playing the main character was so powerful. Addiction and recovery are heady subjects for a play but there was even some black humor that added to the show. “Witness for the Prosecution “ was well done. It gets a heavy tourist crowd since it’s been ongoing for several years, like “ The Mousetrap,” and is performed in a courtroom. “The Grapes of Wrath” had a fine cast ( with Cherry Jones, for you fans of “ Succession”) but seemed long and too heavy.

After Matt’s presentation, we had a discussion about the tour with personal highlights covering Giles’ lectures, Kevin’s help as Tour Leader, the ship itself, and our time in London. We rated the tour five star.

We ate at a quiet lovely Italian restaurant in the neighborhood

We traveled to the Barbican to see our last play, “Kiss Me Kate.” When it was built, Londoners hated the architecture but I enjoyed the fact that it was easy to get around and that there were lots of bathrooms!

”Kiss Me Kate” was spectacular! It was fun and joyous, with a well- honed cast. The musical opened in June and rhe actors have grown into their roles. The lead was very strong and everyone else followed along. The choreography was fantastic.

A good time was had by all.

We can say the same thing about the tour.

It’s almost time to find our gate.

If you have any questions, please add them to the comments.

I thought that Monday would be low key, but it didn’t turn out that way! After breakfast we had an introduction to British politics led by one of the leading journalists of the day, in an interview format led by Giles. There were lots of questions and comparisons made with the political scene in the U.S. today, especially with topics like Brexit and immigration policies. We broke for lunch and had traditional pub fare with our new friend Penny, a nurse from Wisconsin.

After lunch, we met an expert in acting who explained how actors interact when they first meet to work together on a play and we did exercises to loosen us up and get to know each other. Many people were a bit wary of this workshop (including myself, with no theater training) but we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. By the end of the workshop, we had developed a character and were “ interviewed “ by the instructor to see if we could stay in character. They were amazing! The time flew by. I transformed myself into Suzette, who started speaking in French but was then told that I had to speak English, so I did it, with a very broad, bad French accent. I was 34, lived in Paris, wanted to play Marie Antoinette but before she visited the guillotine, and so on. Beatrice was Scarlet, the great great great granddaughter of the “ other” Scarlet, who spent her days on the plantation drinking mint julips. She bemoaned the fact that life just wasn’t the same as it used to be..she thanked everyone who was there for visiting her because she didn’t get much company nowadays.

We had a nice steak dinner at the hotel then set out to see “ People, Places & Things,” a revival of an award-winning play with the original cast. It shows a young actress in the throws of addiction, beginning with a botched up Hedda Gabler on stage and ending up in the funny farm, and at the end, at her parent’s house. It was a brutal though occasionally funny play and the subject matter was not for the faint of heart. I thought it was brilliant. Others hated it. They wanted to be entertained. We discussed our views on the way home on the bus. Giles asked us a lot of probing questions. He said he was to blame if people didn’t like the plays because he selected them and wanted to give us a variety of options. He said, “We can’t have ‘ Kiss Me Kate’ every night.” That will be our last play, which we will see Wednesday night. .

An extra added attraction ( if you want to call it that): two young girls were making out in front of us, but, thankfully, not during the performance. I am not used to PDA, I guess.

Today’s Royal opera house tour at Covent Garden was sensational; however, we were unable to take pictures inside the house. We met Ann at 1:00 at the National Portrait Gallery and had a lunch with a view. Unfortunately it was a cloudy day. Ann and I had fun at the gift shop, posing her as Queen Ann of the Crooked Crown. We managed to see some pictures before it was time to head back to get ready for our evening’s entertainment.

Tonight’s play was “Grapes of Wrath” at the National Theatre. I will discuss it later because I am completely out of steam. Tomorrow will be non-stop busy and I probably won’t be able to finish up this blog until after I get back, when I have time to do it justice. Wednesday – tomorrow – is our last full day. We leave the hotel Thursday early morning to fly back to San Francisco.

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back..

We said goodbye to the Queen Mary 2 by going up in the glass outside elevators for a spectacular view of Southampton. The size of the ship is mind boggling. It was a warm and sunny day and we were ready for part two of our program, visiting London for four days and seeing four carefully selected plays. .

We had a very easy disembarkation and we arrived in London ahead of schedule. The small hotel was not ready to check us in, so our bags were stored and we had a buffet lunch at the hotel. We’re in a very central location, on Tottenham Court Road, next to the Warren Street tube stop.

At 2:00 we were driven to the theatre for our first play , which is located in the Lambeth area, home to the London Eye. .

The name of the play is “ Witness for the Prosecution,” written by Agatha Christie and made into a classic film starring Charles Laughton, Elsa Lancaster and Marlene Dietrich ( which you should see if you haven’t). The “ theatre” is actually London County Hall, which, for many years had been the seat of local government. Since 2017, the old council chamber has been been the home to this site- specific production. Imagine a courtroom drama being held in an actual courtroom?! It was incredible.

The play was sensational and an appropriate way to start our playgoing.

Our driver took us around the iconic buildings of central London as we made our way back to the hotel.

We just had a short time to check out our rooms before it was time to go to dinner. We went to Hugs and Bites, a very small, very delicious Mediterranean restaurant owned by two Turkish guys. The food was fabulous! It was a short walk from our hotel.

We were sharing the dishes but when the halva dessert came, I thought it was all mine, but the two other ladies protested. It was sooo good. The other offering was baklava.

We checked out the neighborhood as we walked back to the hotel.

I would like to check out this pub. It looks like fun.

Street art at Warren Street underground station

We spent the rest of the evening unpacking and organizing ourselves for the next four days. We have three more plays and will be seeing our friend Ann Tuesday and Wednesday for two museum visits. It will be busy but fun.

Time for bed! We don’t need to be anywhere until 10:30 tomorrow, when we will learn about the political scene with a short lecture. There will also be a short workshop in the afternoon. It will be a low key day. We see “People, Places & Things” tomorrow night.

We started out today with our usual routine but we did explore a new venue: the casino. It was empty but we were told that it gets busy at night. No, we did not play but we enjoyed seeing the decor. It was more elegant English than vulgar Vegas.

Today’s highlight was the Masquerade Gala Evening and people were dressed to the hilt.

We had surf n turf for dinner, saw the tenors sing show tunes, watched the dancers trip the light fantastic in the Queen’s room at the Masquerade Ball, then finished off the evening at the Commodore’s Club, where we chatted to a charming couple. They are both professors at the University of Oklahoma and he surprised her with this trip to celebrate their 20th anniversary!

Here are some photos from this extraordinary event:

The ladies brought Roaring 20s attire but that worked too.

A masque as a headband worked for me, and it gave me the added advantage of being able to see the party- goers.

I started this post after we returned to our stateroom at close to midnight and gave up on it at 2:00 AM, since it took time for the photos to download. It is now after 7:00 am and I will be up at 8:45 to get ready for our last full day at sea. It’s Saturday and we will leave the ship early Sunday morning. Today will be packing day.

We will be in London Sunday afternoon, to begin our four days of seeing plays. We will also be having lectures. We will have some from free time; we will see our friend Ann Tuesday for lunch at the rooftop museum of the National Portrait Gallery and will visit the Victoria & Albert Museum with her Wednesday morning. . .

the masquerade bsll ended last night, but the adventure continues.

At the last post I mentioned that we were invited to a cocktail party hosted by our two instructors Giles Ramsay and Spencer Jones from the Churchill group . It was quite an affair. It was fun to mix and mingle and get some insights into each group.

I wore the same dress that I wore to the red and gold gala night and had an Apero Spritz, which matched my dress. I hope that I don’t look like a refugee from a ethnic folk dance group. The gold elephant purse was a gift from my nephew, who brought it back from a trip to Thailand. I still look sleep deprived. More on that later.

Kevin, our tour coordinator is a hoot. He keeps the group organized and laughing.

Our instructor Giles is to my right and behind us is Campbell Simpson, the nightly pianist at the Commodore Club

After dinner, we spent our time watching the dancing couples in the Queen’s Room and finished off the evening listening to Campbell at the Commodore Club. He is a very talented artist and seems to play effortlessly without music.

Wednesday we had class as usual and we had a light meal at the Carinthia Lounge while listening to piano music. It was also a nice place to read.
After lunch, we played music trivia, but, unfortunately, we didn’t know most of the music! We did identify “ Venus,” by Frankie Avalon and “ Rocket Man” by Elton John.

We checked out the indoor pool but it was crowded with too many people, so we sat a while and read but didn’t go in. We returned to our stateroom to get ready for dinner.

We really enjoyed the main show, Dana Monique. She was one of the semi finalists on the TV show The Voice and had a dynamic show. The house was packed and the audience went wild. Two of her songs I especially enjoyed were “At Last” and “ Proud Mary.”

Today we ate at the main dining room but didn’t allow ourselves enough time. We did make it to class on time but it was a rushed meal. . I had my hair done at the beauty salon right after class and we went to the traditional tea at 3:30 with the waiters making a grand entrance with their teapots. Unfortunately, I wasn’t quick enough to get a picture. We had a lovely conversation with a young couple from San Jose. They managed to snag a deal, getting a stateroom that made their trip cheaper than buying an airline ticket! They quit their jobs and will be traveling for one month with a backpack each!

We listened to a lecture after tea about L.S. Lowry, an artist whose work was being displayed at the gallery. After dinner the nightly show had the dancers doing the “ Rhythms of the Night,” with tango, salsa, cha cha and other latin dance moves. Fun!

We have lost an hour almost every night of our journey, which means we are in a constant struggle with jet lag. Sleeping doesn’t come easy at night but we try to stay up during the day so we can sleep at night. This plan doesn’t always work; we both fell asleep in the middle of the art lecture today

It’s almost 2:00 AM.
TIME FOR BED!!

More news tomorrow. It’s our Masquerade Ball night! Will someone come as the Phantom of the Opera?

Tune in to find out.