London continued - Lord's & the West End - Wednesday 12 September

Steve took the day off work to accompany us to Lord's Cricket Ground. We arrived for the 10am tour. Immediately it became clear that Aussie's were going to feature often in the guide's commentary - and in our tour group clearly Aussie's were dominant including ourselves. Starting with the actual Ashes Urn and the crystal Ashes trophy we were reminded that the Ashes are presently in England's possession.

Ray and Steve at Lord's

We visited the visiting players change rooms and the balcony (Shane Warne once made news from), the long room, bar and committee room. Then via the stands we visited the newer ultra modern architecture of the media  centre. At the end of the Tour Eryn was able to join us for lunch in the Lord's Tavern (as she works in the area).

Also in the area is Abbey Road and the famous pedestrian crossing. Of course we were not the only  tourists there with the same photographic composition in mind. (The traffic on Abbey Road must be driven crazy every day here!).

Back on the ever reliable train system and into Piccadilly. Here we purchased tickets for "Les Miserables" for this evening and "Matilda" for next Friday week. Then strolling the streets of London to Covent Garden Market where we spent time watching street performers, eating icecream and browsing the shops. Wandering on to Trafalgar Square then to Liberty Tudor style shop filled the rest of the afternoon.

The crowd at Covent Garden Market watching a street performer

It was almost showtime when Eryn joined us for the performance of "Les Mis" - no-one was disappointed - the production and music is fabulous and seeing it for a second time only  resulted in loving the musical more than ever - for the story and for the the music.

We happily chattered all the way home around 11pm on an amazingly busy rail network even at that hour of the day.