~London & The Lion King Valentines Pre Trip & Trip Report~

[jackieleanne]

Jackie & Jonathan's London & The Lion King Trip

Cast

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Me - Jackie
Bf - Jonathan

Date:

13th February to 16th February

The Trip

Wigan North Western - London Euston 13th February 10:09am Virgin Pendolino Service arrive london 12pm (Jonathans really excited about this part of the trip)

London Euston - Wigan 16th February 8:30pm arrive Wigan 10pm

The Hotel

The Shaftesbury Hyde Park International its a new hotel in Bayswater right by Hyde Park it looks lovely and we got a great rate.

Other things booked so far:

The Lion King - Lyceum Theatre 14th February 7:30pm :) So excited about this one been waiting to see it since it first started. :cheer2:

[natalielongstaff]

Hope you have a fab time x

[gemmybear83]

Have a fab time - the show looks amazing, what a great birthday treat!:goodvibes

[tennisfan]

Have a great time:)

[jackieleanne]

Thanks guys. Just to edit lol we are watching The Lion King on the friday night not the Saturday as I'd put.

We are getting the London pass so plan to use that a lot and go to:
Kensington Palace
Tower of London
Imperial War Museum
St Pauls Cathedral
London Zoo
London Eye
The London War Expierience
Churchills Cabinet War Rooms

[gemmybear83]

We went to the Tower of London before Christmas and had a great time - it will take you a few hours to get just round there!

[mark&sue]

Hope you have a wonderful valentines weekend. looking forward to reading all about it.


susan

[mandymouse]

Have a fab time Jackie :thumbsup2

[jackieleanne]

Thanks guys. We are now looking for another restaurant to go to before the Lion King on the friday. Tgi fridays is all booked up :(

[jackieleanne]

Day1

The Journey

Our train left Wigan at 10am but I wanted to get to the station for about half past 8 as we was getting the bus there and I wanted to equate for any traffic and I like being on time. We woke at about 7 and had breakfast at home before we got the bus into Wigan. Once at the station we went into the cafe and grabbed two hot chocolates while we waited for our train.

Our train arrived about five minutes late but then we was finally on our way down to London I was so excited about seeing the Lion King I couldn't wait.

The journey went pretty quickly although I was starving. I couldn't wait to get to Euston and have Harry Ramsdens before we went to check in at the hotel.

London
Once we arrived at Euston I had sausage and chips and Jonathan had a chicken burger and chips then it was time to go down to the underground so that we could get to the hotel and get rid of the bags that were really annoying us. We got on the Victoria line down to Oxford Circus before we got onto a circle line to take us to Queensway station so that we could walk up to the hotel from there. It took us about 20mins from Euston to the hotel not bad really especially as most of that was the waiting time.

We got to our hotel and got given our room on the ground floor very handy especially when you have been out all day and just want to crash exhausted from the walking although the circle and district lines ran right underneath us the noise was minimum. The room was small but really nicely decorated and for the price we paid we couldn't complain, impressed with the bathroom and its heated floors and the power shower that they had was brilliant. We got changed for the Lion King then so that we could go the History museum before hand. The Bayswater station was right opposite the hotel so we was right on the district and circle line which to us worked out great as most of the tourist sites are on this line.

We arrived at South Kensington station and went up and we was really impressed with the History Museum building Jonathan said he would of visited just for the architecture. We really liked the exhibits although not sure if I would of paid for it. Jonathan loved it however but I just thought there wasn't much history other than evolution and dinosaurs.

We left the history museum at about half past four so that we could make our way to find something to eat before the Lion King ended. We hoped on the tube to Enbankment and changed to the Northern Line so that we could get up to Charing Cross. We had a look round Trafalger Square and Nelsons column and we saw Frank Skinner. :goodvibes

We ended up eating McDonalds however oh well it was cheaper than a meal out which worked out well when it came to getting a drink before the show started. It took us about an hour to find the Lyceum theater, when we did get there we still had about half an hour before doors opened so went to the pub on the corner. Jonathan wasn't happy at the £9 bill for an archers and lemonade and a corona :eek: we would stick to Wetherspoons for the rest of the trip when it came to a drink.

I absolutely loved the Lion Kings and our seats were really good I cried about three or four times. I thought that Rafiki, Mufasa and Scar were amazing and although most of the songs from the second half were not from the movie I think I preferred this half to the first.

When it finished we headed off back to Charing Cross and waited for the northern line train back down to Enbankment so that we could get the Circle line back to the hotel I was completely knackered it had been a really long day and I knew that we had an early start Saturday.

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[Dimplenose]

You sound like you had a very full day. I'm glad I'm not the only one who cried during the Lion King (the moment the music started atually!)

The reason you only had dinosaur history at the museum is because it's the "Natural History Museum" i.e. all about how animals have evolved and not a general history museum.

[Snowy-girls]

Great start Jackie-like the new hairdo's :thumbsup2 .
My girls love the Natural History Museum-but then they LOVE dinosaurs.
The Lion King has been running for many years now+i am still yet too see it.x.

[jackieleanne]

Sorry its been so long

London Day 2 Part 1

We woke up bright and early and popped along to the tube station to head off on the circle line down to Tower Hill to start our day at the Tower of London.

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We got there just before it opened and took a few pictures down by the River of Tower Bridge.

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Just before it opened we watched the guards and got in line ready to go in it was very quiet and only about 20 of us were in line. When through we headed straight off into the towers and made our way around the walls until we got to the Jewel House and popped in to see the Queens jewels.

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When we got outside the guards were patrolling so we took a few pictures of them before we headed off inside The White Tower and had a look around. When we got out it was really starting to get busy and we were hungry as it was about 10:30 and we hadn't eaten yet so we left the tower and went to find breakfast.

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After breakfast we headed down past the tower walls by the River and over to Tower Bridge we headed along the bridge and went up to do the Tower Bridge Exhibition using our badges, the view was OK but it was very foggy so my pictures aren't brilliant so Ive just included one or two pictures from Tower Bridge.

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We headed along the river to go and do the London Blitz Experience.

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More of Day 2 later on. :)

[Chilly]

Love the Lion King!

[gemmybear83]

I loved the tower of London when we went before xmas - cant wait to read the rest :goodvibes

[jackieleanne]

Day 2 - Part 2

So we arrived at the London Blitz experience and went on inside after exiting the lift we watched the movie about different experience's of people during the war. We then walked around and looked at the different items that had been saved. It was an experience but we don't think we wouldn't of paid the full admission price had we not been on the London Pass.
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When we got out we walked down to Waterloo station and got on the tube up to Oxford Street to have a look around the shops and grab some lunch. We didn't go in many stores, as my feet were tired just Hamley's and the Disney Store of course although we was expecting the Disney Store to be bigger. After we had looked around the shops we went back to the hotel and had a rest, shower and change before we went out for the night.

Being Valentines night we knew it would be very busy and hard to get a seat in a restaurant so we went to a lovely fish and chip cafe in Bayswater near our hotel. After enjoying our meal we got on the tube at Bayswater and headed to Leicester Square to have a wander around and headed towards Westminster were we got some lovely pictures of Big Ben and the London Eye at night.

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It started to rain again so we headed back into the station at Westminster and got on the tube back to Bayswater to go back to the hotel and have an earlyish night knowing we would be up again early the next day for more sight seeing.