Pilgrimages

Before I leave tomorrow, I had a few things I had to do - walk across Abbey Road and get a picture of Paddington Bear.

At Abbey Road, I made a deal with a couple of Japanese tourists: sure, I would take their picture walking across the famous crosswalk, if they would take mine. It's actually a pretty busy street, so I had to wait for a break in the traffic - sometimes nice motorists would stop to let me cross, not realizing that I wanted them to go on and get out of my picture!

Then I went back to Paddington Station to get a photo of the statue of Paddington Bear, complete with the "please look after this bear" tag. My little bear from my sixth birthday, with missing ear, arm and clothing, doesn't look quite like the statue anymore, but he's still a treasure!

I got a cheap ticket to the matinee this afternoon of "Wicked," and it was a spectacular show - different in many aspects from the book, but that was to be expected. Apparently, the mid-week matinees are the shows that all the school groups go to - half the theater was under the age of 16! I've heard stories about how Shakespeare's plays were performed in front of huge crowds of rowdy peasants, and this felt a little like that. The kids hooted and hollered each time they applauded after a song, and when the two lead actresses slapped each other, the kids went wild. At the curtain call, they even booed the villains!

This is the last post of my trip - in the morning, I begin the long journey home. I plan to take all my photos - and I've taken about 400 of them - and make a movie, which I plan to force all of you to watch! (evil laughter...)