Day 12 - Tavistock Hotel, O2 and Les Miserable

Cheryl met us at the Tavistock Hotel at 10:30. I paid the 5 quid upgrade for the English breakfast which was available as part of our room rate. It was lovely. Canned tomatoes (traditionally grilled or fried), baked beans, sausages and REAL bacon. None if that crappy American streaky bacon burned to a crisp by the Americans. And of course tea and toast to complete the ensemble. In Ireland we had black and white pudding (that's two separate puddings. If you ask what is in it you will not eat it!)

We took the tube to a East Greenwich and climbed the O2. O2 is a stadium, mall, restaurant gallery and movie theatre. It's is a canvas covered structure with twelve supporting posts, is 52 meters high and 352 meters in circumference. No accident. It is located just a few meters from the absolute zero latitude. All world time zones are relative to this point, GMT, Greenwich Mean Time. Cool eh?
It was a steep climb but we were rewarded with some great views of the docklands. Thanks Chezza for arranging that for us. We had lunch at Nandos inside O2 and then off to Oxford Circus for Cheryl's turn to take Jemma shopping. Three new tops and two pairs of jeans, sore feet and a sore back later we headed back to our hotel for a rest before getting ready for the big show Les Miserables!

The show was everything I remembered it to be. I've read Victor Hugo's original book, seen both movie versions and now seen the play twice. It was longer than I remembered it. My bottom was getting a bit sore near the end. Half way through the second half there was a technical hitch as the barricade didn't move into please correctly. There was some unscripted mechanical whining and clicking and then the curtain came down - just as the French soldiers were starting their attack! The curtain came down, the house lights came on and the iPods and iPhones came out. In no time, the news had circulated that Germany had just humiliated Brazil and knocked them out of the World Cup. It became clear that there were mostly Germans in the audience as the whispers became excited conversation around the theatre.
After the show we crossed the road and went into an Italian restaurant for dinner. It was 10:30pm and too late to start shopping around.