Day Fifteen, Last Day

Today is our final day in London. We started off the day at the Tate Modern Museum. It was nice to see that there are helpful orange lampposts that lead from the Underground station all the way to the museum. Ben said every attraction should have orange lampposts leading to it . . . which I guess would work until the entire city was blanketed with orange lampposts!

There were lots of interesting things to look at, including many works by artists such as Picasso, Matisse, Pollock and Warhol. Ben was especially a fan of the display of four new vacuum cleaners, which were shown to demonstrate "newness." I'm sure it wasn't what he was expecting when he headed out to an "art museum" this morning!

After that, we went back to Covent Garden to eat at Ben's favorite pizza restaurant. He was especially interested in watching the street performers. There were unicyclists, machete jugglers and some guy doing dice stacking that I never really understood. We had also intended to visit the Transport Museum, but I was shocked and horrified to see the £10 entrance fee. I had totally gotten used to London's "free" museums (they do ask for optional donations), and on our last day, I was in no mood to part with my dwindling pounds for something I had expected to be free. Oh well, plenty more to see . . .

Next, we headed toward Piccadilly Circus. On the way, we stopped in for a quick look in the Trocadero. I wasn't exactly sure what it would be, but it turned out to be an indoor shopping center with video games, sports bars, bowling alleys and other assorted entertainment options. We stopped for a quick look around the always busy Piccadilly Circus before heading back to the hotel to pack.

Naturally, when we got back to the hotel, we discovered that the scaffolding which had been obstructing our view since we'd been here had been removed . . . at least we have a clear view down the street for our last few hours!

Early tomorrow we have to lug our suitcases down the street to Victoria Coach Station (it seemed like a good idea at the time) to catch the bus to the airport. We will be leaving London with lots of great memories and a desire to come back as soon as possible!

Day Fourteen, Belfast and Witches

Today we headed out first thing to visit the HMS Belfast. The Belfast is a huge ship which was launched in 1938, shortly before World War II. It participated in the D-Day landings, and later saw action during the Korean War. The ship ceased to be used for naval activities in 1963, and it was destined to become scrap, but thankfully it was eventually preserved. It is on permanent display as a museum right in front of London City Hall.

The ship has many floors, and so there's a lot of climbing backwards up and down narrow stairwells. We toured the boiler room, the sailor's living quarters and areas were the guns were loaded. It was fascinating to see the "floating city," which contained things you would expect to find (mess halls, bunks, a laundry) and things you wouldn't (a surgery, a radio/broadcast area, a chapel and a "light industry" area). Since the ship was expected to be out at sea for months at a time, the sailors had to be prepared for every possible situation, and to take care of any problem which might arise.

While we were walking toward the ship, we heard a strange noise coming from Tower Bridge. Then we happened to notice that the drawbridge was going up and a tall ship was heading toward it:

After the Belfast and a quick lunch, we headed off to see Wicked. I had seen it a few years ago, and I thought Ben would also like it. I had read in a newspaper that Kerry Ellis, who played the "wicked" witch Elphaba, had just finished playing the role last week. The new Elphie, Alexia Khadime, is really excellent also. As Ben said, "The green girl can really sing!" It tells the story of what happened before the events in "The Wizard of Oz" and how the Wicked Witch of the West got to be that way. It was as colorful and impressive as I'd remembered.

Next, it was time to climb aboard a red double-decker bus to head out to Oxford Street. I wanted to see if the crowds in Primark were as violent and crazed as I had remembered. They were. Ben had a good seat at the front of the top level of the bus:

Tomorrow is our last day in London. We are planning a visit to the Tate Modern Gallery and a stroll around the Picadilly Circus area.

Day Thirteen, Ben Visits Bedlam

Today Ben visited a place that was once known as "bedlam" -- the former site of the Bethlem Royal Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in the 1800s which gave its name to the term "bedlam", meaning confusion. The former hospital is now used as the site of the Imperial War Museum. Ben was especially interested in the entrance hall, where there were tanks, planes, shells, jeeps, submarines, etc. Naturally, there were also 57,847 schoolchildren visiting the museum at the same time we were, so it was a bit crowded in places. Still, it was very interesting and fascinating. The Holocaust exhibit is really moving, and the Blitz Experience lets you feel what it was like to be in London during World War II when it was being bombed.


We didn't get to spend nearly as much time in the museum as we would have liked, because we had ticket to see The Mousetrap, the longest running play in the world. It is currently in its 57th year. We went to an afternoon performance, and the theatre was not very crowded. It was smaller than the other theatres we had visited recently. We were up high, but had a very good view of the stage and the action below. The story, written by Agatha Christie, concerns a couple who have just opened a small hotel. Their first guests arrive just as a blizzard cuts them off from the outside world. At the same time, news of a recent murder in nearby London reaches them. A policeman comes by to question everyone, as he believes the murderer is at the hotel -- and has more victims in mind. It was very good and quite interesting! We were sworn to secrecy at the end, so I can't tell you "whodunnit."

Our final event of the day concerned real, not fictional murders. We went on a Jack the Ripper Walk to visit the areas where the famous murders were committed. The guide, Philip Hutchinson, was knowledgeable as well as entertaining. Aside from having a lot of background information about the area and the times of the events, he also had laminated photos which showed how the area (and the victims!) looked at the time. Most of the sites are now completely unrecognizable from the contemporary sites shown in the photos, but our guide knew exactly where the events occurred. He also showed us a restaurant, whose doorway is the very site where Jack the Ripper dropped part of an apron he'd used to wipe his bloody hands and knife, below the famous "Juews" graffiti. The guide pointed out that the doorway was one of the few areas that it can be definitely stated that Jack the Ripper actually stood!

After that scary tour, we are off to the HMS Belfast and Wicked tomorrow.

Day Twelve, Dinos and Portraits and Keys, Oh My!

Today we started out at the Natural History Museum. Ben was excited to see the dinosaur exhibit.

We had planned several other activities for the day, but I was surprised to find that we ended up spending 5 hours in the Natural History Museum. After that, we planned to have lunch in the Cafe in the Crypt at St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church. Naturally, due to the long time spent in the museum, we happened to get there at a period when they weren't actually serving food. They did have some desserts on display, though, so we were able to refresh ourselves with lots of chocolate cake.

Next, since we were already in the area, we had a quick look through the Tudor Gallery area in the National Portrait Gallery. I wanted to find the portrait of the Duke of Monmouth that we had been told about on an earlier London Walk. He was executed in 1685, after attempting to overthrow the current king and claim the crown for himself. The story goes that after he was executed they realized no portrait existed of him, so his head was sewn back on his body and his portrait was painted, and this portrait hangs in the gallery today. Of course, looking for a specific painting in a huge building full of them was not an easy task. We never did see it. Could this have been what we were looking for?

Of course, no visit to London is complete without a visit to Harrods department store. Naturally, just about everything was out of my price range, but it was fun to look around, especially in the extensive food halls. There was counter after counter featuring all sorts of delicious looking chocolate. Luckily, after the chocolate cake overload at the Cafe in the Crypt, it was fairly easy to resist more sweets. We did have a late lunch at a pizza restaurant in the store, though, that was very good.

Our last activity of the evening was to attend the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London. This ceremony has taken place every evening for 759 years. Approximately 140 people still live inside the Tower of London, but every evening the outer gates of the tower must be locked. There is a group of soldiers that accompanies the Chief Yeoman Warder as he goes around locking various gates. I did take a video, but as it was dark by the time the ceremony took place, there's not much to see!

It's good we did the Tower Bridge Experience a few days ago, because today an elevator accident in the tower and injured 6 people. It will be closed until the elevators can be repaired and checked for further problems.

Tomorrow it's off to the Imperial War Museum, the Mousetrap, and a Jack the Ripper Walk!

Day Eleven, Kew Gardens

Today we went on a special London Walk to Kew Gardens, which is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year. Over the years, Kew Gardens has served many purposes, including growing plants for their beauty, for botanical study, for conservation and for preservation. Today, the gardens have seeds and plants from all native UK species, as well as many plants from all over the world. It serves an important purpose in conserving plants which are threatened in various parts of the world. The gardens cover a huge area and there are many buildings to explore, including one which recreates a tropical rain forest, one which houses a display of water lilies, and one which demonstrates the evolution of plant life throughout history. There was also a "Tree Top Walk" built to allow visitors to view an area of the gardens from the tops of some of the taller trees (warning for motion sickness in the shaky video!!):

Later, after our visit to the Hard Rock Cafe in Cardiff yesterday, Ben wanted to see what the London location had on offer (again with the overpriced food). He first of all got up close and personal with Mick Jagger. We then had a tour of the vault of rock and roll treasures. The guide assured us that the building used to be a bank, and that the vault did once serve as a bank vault. They helpfully allowed the visitors the opportunity to pose with various guitars to have photos made for the bargain basement price of only £10 (about $15). Of course, Ben couldn't resist the lure of the Gene Simmons ax guitar . . . There were TVs throughout the restaurant showing various music videos, but the sound was blaring so loud that anytime the waitress came to our table everyone had to shriek at the tops of our lungs to be heard.

Tomorrow we will visit the Natural History Museum and attend the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London.

Day Ten, Wales

We caught a bus early this morning for the nearly 4 hour trip to Wales. We stopped once along the way, but most of the trip was looking out at English countryside and farmland (canola seems to be popular).

Once we reached Wales, we picked up a local guide and took a bus tour throughout the main sites of the city of Cardiff. I was surprised to learn that Cardiff has only been a city since 1905 and the capital of Wales since 1955. It was also interesting to learn that 25% of the Welsh people speak Welsh as their first language. It is an old Celtic language, totally unrelated to English. All of the street signs are written in both English and Welsh. We didn't have much time to explore the city, but we saw the castle, the large city park and the huge rugby stadium.

We had an hour free in the city, so we took the time to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe. Ben was excited to see Eric Clapton's guitar, the drum head from Metallica's Lars Ulrich and Ozzy Osbourne's jacket. We had some good, if overpriced, food, but it took the entire hour so we didn't have any further time to sight see in the city.

Next, we headed out to Caerphilly Castle. This castle was built in 1270, and is mostly in ruins today. There are several areas that have been reconstructed, mainly the wooden areas which had rotted over the years. The Great Hall has also been restored, and events are held there today. Our tour guide gave us an overview of the "castle within a castle" layout:

We had some free time to explore the castle. Ben helped out by trying to hold up the leaning tower. According to the guide, the degree to which it leans is greater than that of the tower in Pisa. That part of the castle is just a ruin, with the outside part of the tower still standing (if crookedly), but the inside part of the tower missing.

We also climbed up several narrow, winding stone staircases in order to get some photos over the various parts of the castle, the surrounding water, and the courtyard.






Tomorrow we are headed to Kew Gardens, which is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year!

Day Nine, the Mega Truck

On the way to the Lion King, Ben was impressed by this "Mega" (it says so on the door!) truck. It looked like a toy, but I assume it was a real, operational vehicle!

Ben enjoyed the Lion King a lot. I asked for a review and he said, "It was good." Really, he said that he enjoyed it a lot. Auntie, on the other hand, regretted not going to see Wicked again . . . so we are going to see it on Wednesday.

On Friday morning, we started out the rainy day looking for the entrance to the Hunterian Museum. It was supposed to be "easy" to find, near the Soane Musuem, which we spotted right away. However, it was raining, and the numbers were not visible on all the buildings. Eventually, we found our way there, but not before getting thoroughly soaked.

The museum is large and covers two floors of the Royal College of Surgeons Building. John Hunter was an 18th century surgeon who devoted a great deal of time to studying anatomy. He was also interested in collecting specimens of plants, animals and humans for research and study. His collection was enlarged over the years, but much of it was unfortunately destroyed by bombing during World War II. However, a great deal of it remains, and it shows the amazing dedication of Hunter and his unbelievable curiosity about the natural world.

There were jars upon jars of specimens, and there seemed to be no explanation for how they were arranged. There would be a shelf of skulls showing dental problems, followed by a shelf of lizards, followed by a shelf of excised skin showing smallpox lesions. It was generally fascinating and not really gruesome. There were also skeletons from a giant and a tiny girl which were preserved next to more "normal" sized skeletons. Modern and older medical instruments were also displayed and explained. Unfortunately, we did not have time to study everything thoroughly. It was a very interesting morning, and best of all, FREE!

We next headed to the Globe Theatre to see Romeo and Juliet. I had purchased tickets to stand in front of the stage, so that we could experience what it would be like to be "groundlings." Ben said he would have enjoyed it more if he could have sat down. Obviously, he didn't really understand the "grounding" concept . . . It was interesting to be so close to the actors. Also, they would occasionally leave the stage and walk through the audience. The nurse was funny and the blood looked very real!

I took some video inside the theatre before the show started. Unfortunately, the sound is a bit noisy, because we were surrounded by school kids:

Some musicians came out before the play started and performed a few songs. Here is a short snippet:

After the Globe, we headed to the BBC to see the filming of a new series called, "We Are Klang." It was set in the fictional town of Klangbury, and concerned three incompetent councilmen who are desperately trying to bring in tourists to keep their town from being absorbed by a more successful local town. This performance required a lot of audience participation. There was a "warm up" comedian who continually walked around the audience between breaks in the filming. The entire process lasted nearly 3 hours. It will be interesting to see what the final product looks like!

Tomorrow we are off to Wales!

Day Eight, Time to Shop!

Today we took it a bit easier and headed out to the Westfield shopping center. It is the largest shopping mall in London. Naturally, both Ben and I were able to find lots of interesting things to buy. I have a lot of new DVDs to watch when I get home, and Ben found lots of CDs that he hasn't been able to find in the U.S.

This evening we will be going to dinner and then to see the play The Lion King. Tomorrow we will visit some museums, and then we are going to see "Romeo and Juliet" at the Globe Theatre. We are going to be "groundlings" (standing up in front of the stage).

Day Seven, The Bloody Tower

Today we started out at the Tower of London. We had a good introduction to the history of the tower from a guide, then we were able to walk around and explore the various buildings and exhibits. There is a special exhibit going on at the moment titled Henry VIII: Dressed to Kill. Ben enjoyed studying all of the suits of armor that were made for King Henry during his lifetime. They were on display, along with his measurements, so that it was obvious to see how he went from being an athletic young man to a greatly obese one in his old age. There were also displays of armor that was made for horses, as well as information about the jousts and the various instruments and weapons that were used during those competitions.

The guide pointed out this green area in the middle of the buildings. This was where the executions took place. Not many people were executed at the tower, but two of them were wives of King Henry VIII: Anne Boleyn (who changed her name from Bullen, apparently, to sound more French!) and Catherine Howard (who died a queen, but would rather have died the wife of Thomas Culpepper). Both of the former queens are buried at the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula directly behind the place of execution. Their graves aren't marked, but rather identified by plaques placed in the church.

Surprisingly, the tower wasn't very crowded during our visit, and we were able to take our time viewing the Crown Jewels. They are displayed in cases you view from a moving sidewalk. We were able to circle back around for another look. The Sceptre with the Cross contains the second largest diamond in the world, the 530 carat Great Star of Africa.

There was also a small military museum, the Royal Fusilier’s Museum. This is a regiment based in London, and it was all about their involvement in various military campaigns throughout the world. I was very interested to see their section on the American Revolution. It is interesting to see how "the other side" viewed the conflict. The display stated that the Americans objected to taxes that were imposed by the British king to pay for the defense of the colonies from hostile action by the French and Indian attacks. How ungrateful!

We next headed to the Tower Bridge for the Tower Bridge Experience. This includes many short films placed at intervals along the tour that discuss how the bridge was built and how the drawbridge works. We walked along both of the upper walkways and took photos of the views of the city from each side. It was interesting to learn that when the bridge was originally built in 1894, it was painted chocolate brown. Later, it was "battleship gray." It only gained its current recognizable red, white and blue paint scheme in 1977, in celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee.





There were small windows at the top of the small staircases that you could slide open to take unobstructed photos. When those were opened, however, it was extremely WINDY! I managed to hold on to the camera long enough to get some good photos:

At the end of the evening, we had a scary encounter with some local characters. "John Bishop" and "Sarah Farmer" were two of the guides from the London Paranormal Society who took us around Spooky Smithfields. There were plenty of gruesome stories, including the burning of Protestants, body snatching, unsolved murders, and the general sufferings that took place in Newgate Prison. The area covered was not very large, but there were plenty of blood-chilling events in just that small area!

Tomorrow we are going shopping, and then on to the Lion King.

Day Six, On the Road

Today we started out with a tour of Windsor Castle. It took around an hour on a bus for us to reach it. The entire complex is very large and would take a long time to explore. Unfortunately, we only had about an hour to visit. We started in the state apartments. Although tourists are admitted when there are no events taking place, the state apartments are still used for meetings and to house dignitaries on their visits. Ben enjoyed the displays of knives, swords, guns and suits of armor. We weren't allowed to take photos on the inside, but we could take as many as we wanted on the outside. Like this one:


Also, since the flag was flying, that means that Queen Elizabeth was inside the castle today. We didn't see her, though.


We were able to walk through St. George's Chapel, where many kings and queens are buried. We saw the tombs of King Henry VIII, Jane Seymour, Charles I as well as that of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, the current queen's parents. Some of the tombs were just commemorative slabs on the floor, and others were more elaborate, with effigies of the deceased on top. These were even personalized with animals, such as a favorite dog or a heroic monkey.

Next it was on to Bath, the city where the Romans took advantage of the natural hot springs to build a large complex of thermal baths.

There was a very interesting exhibit of how the baths were built and operated. We especially liked the display of gemstones that were taken from the drains. The speculation is that the hot water caused the settings around the stones to loosen, so that when the bathers got out of the water, they discovered the stones had been lost in the water. There was also an interesting display of curses that were written on small metal tablets and directed toward people who had stolen things to get boils or lose their mind as a suitable punishment.

There was a restaurant where "Bath water" was available for drinking, but we didn't have a chance to give it a try. This was probably a good thing, since I've heard the water isn't that great tasting!

Finally, we made it to Stonehenge. It was interesting to see the image of how Stonehenge looked when it was completed:


Over the centuries, various bits of stone were removed, either for other building projects or even as souvenirs by visitors. Now, the part that is left is protected and you can walk around the entire thing along a path.
It was very windy and cold walking around the stones, so you can hear the wind whipping around as I took the video.

Tomorrow we are touring the Tower of London and going on a Ghost Walk!

Day Five, Ben Gets Tortured

We started out the morning at the London Dungeon. There was a long line waiting out front, but we already had our tickets, so we didn't have such a long wait. Inside, it was dark and very hard to see where we were going. We saw displays about the Great Fire of London, Jack the Ripper, primitive surgery, and the plague, among other things.

Ben was chosen to be the victim in a demonstration of torture devices by a beautiful ghoulish woman. First, she showed how pincers would be heated and then applied to the tongue. After giving the tongue a few good twists, it would be yanked out. So that the victim wouldn't drown in his own blood, the tongue was then fed back to him (although how he could eat it without a tongue wasn't explained). Then, a large hook was waved around. It could be used in many places, including both the head and the backside. Finally, she brought out a device that would have been used to cut off Ben's "dangly bits." Before she did that, though, she had to get a smaller version of the instrument.

At the end of the displays, we were guided into the "drop", which gave us the experience of being hanged. We dropped suddenly, as if the trap door had been sprung, but we thankfully weren't stopped by a rope around our necks!

Next, we headed over to My Old Dutch Pancake House for lunch. Ben had a "Hot Dutch" pancake with pepperoni, chorizo, cheese, red chillies & tomato sauce. We will definitely have to go back and try the sweet pancakes next time.

After that, we headed off for a London Walks tour of the British Museum. Since there is so much to see there, we wanted to get a quick overview of the highlights. The museum was very crowded and it was hard to see some of the exhibits. We were able to see the mummies of the Egyptian display and the Elgin Marbles in the Greek display. There was also a fascinating area displaying archaeological finds from Britain. The most interesting was the complete ship that was found buried with many artifacts enclosed.

Then, we had to hurry off to White City to the BBC Studios where we had tickets to be in the audience of a new game show being filmed. The show was called "As Seen On TV" and this was the first episode. There were 300 people in the audience. The show consisted of a host and two teams of three celebrities who answered questions about television shows. I only recognized two of the celebrities: Michelle Collins ("Cindy Beale" from "Eastenders") and Debra Stephenson ("Shell" from "Bad Girls"). Most of the questions were about British TV programs, so we didn't know a lot of the references. It was still fun to see how the show was filmed and to see the numerous "re-takes" and "do-overs" that were necessary. We have tickets for a sit-com filming later in the week, too.

Tomorrow we are off to Windsor Castle, Bath and Stonehenge.

Day Four in Greenwich

We planned to go to Greenwich today with the London Walks tour. I had also planned to meet my pen-pal Doris from Germany in Greenwich. We arrived at the start of the tour early, so Ben and I decided to walk across the Tower Bridge:

Not only was the bridge interesting, but there were lots of good views of notable sites as well:

Sadly, it was incredibly windy up on the bridge, so my "bad hair day" got considerably worse before we even made it to the tour.

We met up with the tour and boarded the boat to Greenwich. We were able to get a seat by the window, so we had good views as a member of the boat's crew informed us of the sites that we were passing along the river. I was happy that it was very clear and easy to hear the commentary.

Soon after we got to Greenwich, it was time to meet my pen-pal Doris from Germany. She was visiting London for a few days with her friend Gabi. They come to London every few years to shop and go to musicals. Sounds like a good idea to me! We had lunch in a pub and posed for photos (note the aforementioned bad hair situation).

Ben ordered some weird kind of chicken (it involved bones) and I finally got to try roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. I was a bit worried that the roast beef might be somewhat red, but it was fully cooked.


It was very good! Next, we walked to the top of the hill to visit the Royal Observatory and to be able to stand on the Prime Meridian, with one foot in the Western Hemisphere and one foot in the Eastern Hemisphere. Unfortunately, the entire population of both hemispheres was there also trying to get photos made, so we had to just take a photo at the end of the line.

We were able to take some photos of the beautiful panoramic views from the top of the hill over the city of London below us.

After walking down the hill, we made our way to the Greenwich Foot Tunnel in order to walk under the river. There are identical domed buildings on each side of the river connecting the two tunnels:

It only takes about 10 minutes to walk from one end to the other. Unfortunately, the elevators were not working, so there were a lot of steps to climb at the end to get back up to street level.

Once we got back into central London, it was time to use our tickets to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. Ben was able to pose with lots of celebrities:

With Miley

Moseying Along with My Little Pilgrim

Advising Sir Isaac Newton about Gravity

Giving Einstein Hair Care Tips

Frisking Amy Winehouse for Drugs

That's all the excitement we could stand for one day. More tomorrow!

Day three, a day late

Due to seeing the musical Oliver last night, it was too late to update our activities. So I hope I will remember today what we did yesterday!

We started out with the intention of going on the Notting Hill and Portobello Road Market London Walk, but naturally, we arrived at the meeting place early. Luckily, there was a Patisserie Valerie nearby, so that we could fortify ourselves.

Once the tour commenced, we saw the beautiful Victorian neighborhood of Holland Park. The houses were build so as to appear to be made of stone, even though this was not the case. In the places where there is space between the buildings, the brickwork can be seen. Apparently, it was too expensive to build with stone, so they had to do the best they could.

We also saw many of the buildings which were used in numerous films. The one film most people seemed interested in was the romantic comedy "Notting Hill," starring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. Even though many of the buildings featured in the film are actually in Notting Hill, locations had been changed and the fronts of some buildings and interiors of others were switched around. The guide was able to point out all the relevant locations and explain how things had been changed, but it had been so long since I'd seen the film that I didn't really know a lot of the scenes that were discussed.

After that, we reached the madhouse that is the Portobello Road Market on a warm sunny day. There were throngs of people everywhere, and booths lining both sides of the street. It was difficult to know where to look. I tried to take some videos, but I mostly only succeeded in capturing all the people who kept wandering in front of me:

Although we looked at a lot of things, the search for food was a bigger concern as the afternoon wore on. There were many restaurants along the route, but most of them were really, really full. We finally found a free table at a restaurant called "Uncle's." It was also very crowded, and the service was very, very slow. It took forever to get orders taken, drinks delivered, food, etc. We had to ask for the bill three times. Oh well, at least we didn't starve to death.

The next order of business was to find the theatre where Oliver was being performed. It turned out to be near Covent Garden. While we were waiting for the performance, we walked around and saw some of the street performers. Ben especially enjoyed "Lucky Jim":

After that, we found our seats for the performance of Oliver. We were expecting to be somewhat disappointed, because I had just read that Rowan Atkinson would be out until May 4. However, when the character of Fagin made his appearance, we were able to see that he had come back early. He was definitely the stand-out performer of the show (although everyone was very good). I could have done without the violence to "Teddy," but I guess you can't have everything!