Today started early. And I mean early. We had a knock on the door of our hotel at 2:00 AM telling us that our taxi to the airport was already here. We knew it was going to be an early start to the day, but after going to bed so late this was really painfully early.
We finished packing and loaded our luggage and our bikes into the van. We had the same friendly driver who had taken us from Malta to Gozo three days before. He drove quickly through the now deserted streets of Victoria and Mgarr to the ferry terminal. We had to wait about 45 minutes for the boat. John slept most of the time. Our driver allowed us to stay in the van during the short passage, and John slept some more.
Once at the airport, we had a couple hours before the flight and the airport is no place to try to sleep. Like so many smaller countries, the Malta airport has the feel of a shopping mall with transportation options available to qualified customers. It is hard to get from one part to another without yet another duty-free shop.
The flight to London went smoothly. We were surprised and pleased to find that Mary Abraham, the American woman we had met at the cathedral on Sunday, was seated next to us as was her daughter Eva. We had all chosen to pay a little more for the exit rows, and were glad that we did. Once the flight took off, we all fell asleep for most of the three and a half hours.
We cleared immigration and customs quite quickly. I had bought tickets on the Heathrow Express into London and John was shocked that we were at Paddington station in only 15 minutes. It takes well over an hour on the Piccadilly line of the tube. We had a little trouble with Uber, our first driver being unable to find us, but we finally made it to our small bed and breakfast in Fitzrovia. We are on Colville Place, a small alley off Charlotte Street.
We were met by a young Israeli guy who works for Andrew and Richard, the owners of the bed and breakfast here. It is a small place with just three rooms. Ours is on the second floor, or as they would say here, the first floor. We came in, unpacked our things, and promptly fell asleep for a couple hours.
Our first stop, after we woke us, was a laundry on Soho. After the past week in Malta, all our stuff is filthy. This place, right next to the site of the house where William Blake had been born, only does wash and fold so our stuff should be ready tomorrow morning. After that, we wandered down towards the TKTS office in Leicester Square. On the way, John decided to get his hair cut. Gino, his barber, turned out to be an Italian whose family comes from Agrigento in Sicily. So that gave us all a good deal to talk about while a good deal of John’s hair ended up on the floor!
It was a warm day for London and the streets were packed with people. We walked passed lots of shops and John posed by this one for his friend Jerry Jaeger.
Jerry is a costumer who has always generously helped us out on our school plays, and he certainly defines Third Street style!
Leicester Square was so packed with people it was hard to see is blade of grass on the ground. While John pondered what play he wanted to see tonight, I was reminded that the grand old British tradition of binge drinking is dead.
We bought tickets in the end to a revival of The Importance of Being Earnest. David Suchet, the English actor who had a career of playing a French detective, was starring and Lady Bracknell and the reviews in all the London newspapers had been quite positive. We did not have enough time to go back to the bed and breakfast, so we went to a restaurant on Greek Street that was listed as one of London’s “Top 100” and was also supposed to be reasonably priced. It was a bit of a disappointment. For £40, we had a few small plates of vaguely Mediterranean food. We could have had far better in Italy for half the price.
The play, however, was not a disappointment at all. Not only was Suchet great, but the actors playing Algernon and Cicely were also outstanding. On the way out, we snapped picture of the picture of the marquee. Some old English guy walking by us made some snide comment about tourists taking pictures of signs, but frankly we just wanted the memories more than approval.
