No Chance of Reform
AROUND THE WORLD, Chapter 7:
IN WHICH WE DROP THE WRONG NAME
Day 7: London, UK
After a solid ten hours of sleep, we awoke to the challenge of visiting London's Reform Club, the real place where the fictional character Phileas Fogg made the wager that began his trip around the world in 80 days. When we appeared at the club door at 104 Pall Mall, the doorman was no more impressed with our claim to circumnavigate than Fogg's comrades were with his boast. In our case, there was no entry to this very exclusive bastion of London's privileged, though Ken made a valiant effort to secure an invitation. ("But sir, we're friends of Phileas Fogg!")
It was clear that no amount of pleading or begging would get us in the door, so we moved on to our other critical task of the day: dumping some of our excess clothing. Around the corner from the RC, we located a post office, whose personnel were a bit more accommodating that the club. We mailed two packages of clothing back home, high fiving and fist bumping our way back to the streets of London, knowing we had just dropped a total of about six pounds from our backpack weights. What were we thinking?
"Yes, we understand the contents are worth less than the postage." |
Near St. James, we stumbled upon the daily 11 a.m. changing of the guard ceremony at the Horse Guards Parade. Catching the end of the ceremony, we chanced into the perfect spot to see troops head out from the parade ground toward Buckingham Palace.
space
Never a smile is seen on duty. |
Hole in the wall deli with great food |
Later we scouted the neighborhood a bit more—for a place to plant a letterbox (still a bust) and for a place to buy some supplies for breakfast. Heading back toward a large supermarket we had noticed on Regent Street earlier today, we glanced up a side street and saw a Whole Foods Market. A Whole Foods Market! After convincing ourselves we were not hallucinating, we visited this palace of healthy foods, just 0.3 miles from our hotel. The store looked very familiar, including many products Whole Foods sells in the U.S., and was extremely busy. The friendly cashier informed us that WF entered the London market in 2007 and has expanded to seven stores. Not only were our breakfast issues solved, we filled plates from their food bars for dinner as well.
Tom Conti (L), and Robert Vaughn in Twelve Angry Men space |
As wonderful as our post office experience was this morning, we had to agree the highlight of the day was this evening's outstanding theatre performance of Twelve Angry Men at the Garrick Theatre, just a short walk from our hotel. In 1950s New York, closing arguments and jury instructions have just been delivered in the case of a young black man accused of killing his abusive father. In a straw poll taken when the jury retires to deliberate, all jurors except one vote guilty. This lone dissenter, portrayed brilliantly by renowned Scottish actor Tom Conti, plants seeds of reasonable doubt, causing other jurors to reconsider their convictions and examine their own prejudices. The remainder of the cast was excellent as well, including Robert Vaughn, the intrepid TV spy of the sixties, now typecast as an octogenarian. The tension among jurors was palpable, and the audience was easily consumed with the drama until the electrifying end.
Seeing a British production of a play set in the U.S. afforded us a new and interesting perspective. We found ourselves complimenting the actors' authentic American accents. In fact, the locals sitting behind us were convinced that Tom Conti had to be American. Vaughn was joined by only one other American actor in this production.
Tomorrow, we'll fly to Lisbon for a few days before continuing south to Morocco.
Seeing a British production of a play set in the U.S. afforded us a new and interesting perspective. We found ourselves complimenting the actors' authentic American accents. In fact, the locals sitting behind us were convinced that Tom Conti had to be American. Vaughn was joined by only one other American actor in this production.
Tomorrow, we'll fly to Lisbon for a few days before continuing south to Morocco.