Notes From My Notebooks: U.K. Trip of 2015 Part 2: London

Note: Click here for Part 1 of my U.K. trip of 2015.

Spending eight full days in London with no set schedule, other than having tickets to live productions, was a dream. Carrie and I had a tentative schedule of what where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see, but if we wanted to go somewhere else, we did. We took time to take pictures, and we didn't feel rushed as we toured historic landmarks.

We saw eight live productions: Wicked, Les Miserables, Woman in Black, Matilda, War Horse, The Lion King, Hamlet (with Benedick Cumberbatch), and Richard III. All of the shows were good. I have to say that I was a little reticent about seeing Les Miserables again. I've seen the musical multiple times, and I had grown quite tired of it. But the West End production was excellent and made me remember why I loved it so much the first time I saw it in Los Angeles.

Carrie's friend's wife was playing Glinda in Wicked, and she helped us get very good seats for the production, and she invited us to go back stage with her after the show and gave us a backstage tour. It was so exciting to stand on a West End stage. We got to see the bubble that Glinda flies in on. She showed us her costumes, and that blue dress she wears at the beginning and end is so beautiful up close. I was so geeking out that I forgot to ask if I could take pictures. Dang it!

One of the highlights of the trip was the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London. This ceremony, where they "lock up" the tower at the end of the day, has been performed every night in some form or other since the 14th century. That's what I call keeping up tradition. I was so excited to go. I heard about this ceremony many years ago, and I’ve always wanted to do it. The problem I came up against on my other trips was you have to get your tickets (which are free) many months in advance. But this time I knew more than a year in advance that I was going, so I got the tickets quite early.

I really wanted to see a ghost at the Tower. I don't think that seeing a ghost is something I would want if I were by myself, or when I’m in my own house, or in a place that I was staying overnight, but I just think it would be cool to see a ghost in a place as old as the Tower of London when I’m with a group of people. So, as we were leaving after the Ceremony of the Keys, a little after 10pm, I was looking up at the windows, and in one of the windows I thought I saw a shadow pass across the windows. Who knows what it was, but I am saying that it was the ghost of Anne Boleyn. It probably wasn’t anything at all, but that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it! Ghostly sighting, check!

I love London, and I want to go back soon. But until then, it's nice to have pictures to remind me how much I enjoy exploring this wonderful city.

Elizabeth Tower

Fun Fact: "Big Ben" is not the name of the clock or the tower, it is the name of the bell in the tower