My Girlie London Day - A Sister Act

Yesterday, I traveled to London via coach with my friends, Nancy, Jane and Jane's sister, Maria, and Maria's kids, Dane and Brooke. It was a sort of early start, but well-worth it because we had a full day. Jane and her family went off to do a lot of sightseeing while Nancy and I went our way.

The first thing Nancy and I did was eat because it was close enough to elevenses for us. Then we headed over to the TKTS booth in Leicester Square to look and see if any good West End shows had cheap same-day matinee tickets for sale. Lo and behold, decently priced tickets were on sale for Sister Act so we decided to get them. I will talk later on that experience.
This is in Leicester Square and the area is dubbed "Swiss Court" to commemorate the lasting friendship between Switzerland and the UK. It is an antique Swiss sign post with the coats of arms of the 26 cantons of Switzerland.
I loved the bears and the hyper electric goat.

Next, we walked over to Covent Garden where we, as McCarters, always seem to wind up. Nancy had never been there, so we walked through and took in the sights.
Our main objective however, was pretty much right behind Covent Garden. We were looking for the Courtauld Gallery which houses Nancy's favorite painting A Bar at the Folies-Bergère by Manet. The gallery was amazing. It had so many of my favorite French Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and les Fauves artists under one roof: Seurat, van Gogh, Renoir, Matisse, Cezanne, Gaugin, Toulouse-Lautrec, a Degas and a Monet as well. A truly enjoyable experience. It is worth noting that the Courtauld family were French immigrants who set up a gold and silversmith shop in London. They then expanded into textiles, including the development and marketing of rayon so one can imagine the wealth. Samuel Courtauld, a descendent, was an avid art collecter and he had a fabulous eye for the good stuff. His legacy lives on and acquisitions continue.
Nancy and 'her' painting
Some examples of Fauvism follow.
We looked through the gift shop and then took the Tube to Oxford Circus where Sister Act was playing at the London Palladium theatre. We were so totally impressed with ourselves that not only did we pick a good show that was well-timed with our departure but the theatre was right near a Tube station which was only two stops away from our final destination, Victoria station, and on the same line meaning no transfers! Well done us!
Needless to say, Sister Act was thoroughly enjoyable. We laughed. We cried. I really miss our season tickets to the Hippodrome back home and I didn't realize how much I miss going to musicals. I just love them. The show ended and we exited, came to a standstill at the Tube station because the gate was closed! We were like, "WHAT?!?!" and had a moment. Then Nancy saw that the entrance across the way was open so we had to cross a couple of busy rush-hour absolutely bumper-to-bumper streets and join the maddening crowd slowly making its way down the steps. Talk about cattle... The train was packed, hot and humid. Ick.

We arrived at the coach terminal with 15 minutes to spare after grabbing a take away pasty for the ride. We reconnected with Jane and her family and boarded the coach. The coach driver agreed to let Nancy and I depart at a stop closer to home (and a shorter walk). We walked instead of having a husband pick us up because Craig was watching the Spain v. Germany football match (boo - Spain won) and our arrival coincided with the last minutes of the game and Nancy's husband had driven us to the bus station that morning. I am such a good wife.

So our sister act of a day came to a close - Jane and her sister had a great time; my London 'sister' for the day, Nancy, and I had a great time. And it didn't rain once.