We were lucky enough to secure tickets to the first night of Hamlet tonight, so today's first order of business, thanks to the Tube strike, was plotting our walking route from our hotel to the Barbican. Got turned round a few times, what with construction and a street changing names every block, but once we figured it out, it didn't take that long (bit over a mile). Here's us before heading back home.
Once we felt comfortable with that, we went all the way out to the Doctor Who shop, which is in a part of town we'd not been to yet. So that was fun. And they had a few Sherlock items as well, so somebody else was happy.
Then, again due to the strike, they were encouraging everyone to be where they needed to be by 4:30 or so, so we freshened up a bit and headed out to meet up with some friends at a nearby restaurant. I daresay we were manhandled a fair bit (you know who you are) but it was terribly fun, even if Sherlock did grouse a bit.
His mood improved after a bit of food...
...and it improved even more after his very strong lemonade at the next place we went.
Before we knew it, we were queueing to get in! We had brilliant seats. In fact, the main actor's family (that Cumberbatch fellow that I find oddly familiar somehow) was sat only five rows in front of us!
The show itself...staging, set, pacing, costuming, music, acting, all of it, was completely outstanding start to finish. I'll write a more thorough review another day (we see it again tomorrow night) but trust me when I tell you, it had 100% of my attention from the first word to the final curtain call.
Then we had to walk the mile+ back to the hotel and were so wired up, we had to do some reading to unwind. So I'm checking out the souvenir program...
...and Sherlock is brushing up on new ways to insult Anderson.
Must sleep, quite tired now. Lovely to meet so many of you today!
-JW