On Saturday we boarded a train at the GWR Station Cardiff for our last leg of this journey–London. We discovered that lunch is not served all day long, as it is back home. They do actually cut you off at 2:30PM until the dinner hour, likely 5PM. I must say it’s an admirable attempt to set proper national standards for the consumption of fine food in proper dining establishments lest people just willy-nilly eat breakfast, lunch, and supper any old time they please. And we are worried about government regulation of industry in our country? But there’s always fast food. So instead of a nice relaxing lunch after a 2 hour train ride, we found a KFC around the block from the hotel.

We headed out to Saturday vigil mass at Our Lady of Victories in Kensington. The priest was quite elderly, and the assembly sparse. And after mass, we sat down to dinner at our best meal of the trip–Thai Taste, a little establishment on Cromwell Road we passed on the way to church. Of course I didn’t take any photos of the food. I was enjoying myself too much, it slipped my mind.

The next day, we rode the tube to Covent Garden. We came upon a theatre ticket agent and bought tickets to see a 2:30PM play at the Duchess Theatre called “The Play That Goes Wrong,” a twisted cross between “Noises Off,” “A Comedy of Errors,” and anything Agatha Christie. I did not doze off at all! I must say the English are extremely good at slapstick comedy, keeping a coherent murder mystery plot, and poking fun at themselves. I found this excerpt from the Royal Variety Performance in 2015.

Incidentally, I also found a video of the same play in Italian. That might have been the original.

Then we kept walking toward the National Gallery which was air-conditioned! Lots of performers all over, singing, playing musical instruments, just standing there … I first saw these performance artists in New Orleans, all dressed up in strange attire just standing still, hoping people would drop some change for their efforts. I have never understood the draw.

Then in Rome.

Then in London, lots of Yodas (short and green and dressed in brown robes) and this strange looking gold-plated man. Creepy.

But here are some photos outside the National Gallery. I just had to look at something else.

We then walked toward Trafalgar Square where we found a noodle shop for lunch, then to Leicester Square, and Piccadilly Circus. Eventually, we would circle back to Covent Garden and the Duchess Theatre. Again, the play was excellent. We stopped for dinner at an Italian Restaurant before catching the tube back to the hotel.

Tomorrow, we take an airport shuttle to London Heathrow International, and our flight departs for Detroit at about 2:30PM local time. Little did we know, it was the day Delta Airlines caught a cold. We arrived in Norfolk VA at 10:30PM after several delays. But we made it back in one piece. Fr. Kerry would still be traveling to Chicago in a couple of days. But it appears Delta had not yet shaken the cold. As of this writing (which is really 15 August), Fr. Kerry should be on a plane home to Sydney, after spending an extra day in Dallas TX.

Until next time.

Rolo B Castillo © 2016