Albuquerque Hobbs: June 16-18 and July 1-4 2023: Back in London

June 16th-18th: Our Europe trip started with London and ended with London! Between them, we went to Hungary and to Germany. We basically hit as many shows as we could while we were in London both times. On our first few days in London, we saw "Tina Turner, the Musical" and "Frozen." Both were really good, but I especially loved "Frozen" with the beautiful voices of the younger girls who portrayed Anna and Elsa and the young women who played their parts. The set and costumes were amazing too, as well as all the special effects! We did a lot of walking and took the subway trains to get to and from our hotel.

A late Asian lunch/early dinner between shows

July1st-4th: The last few days of our trip was a nice way to end this Europe experience. The hotel was older and smaller, but we were close to a metro station. We didn't know that July would be Gay Pride month and that a big concert that headlined Edina Menzel and Adam Lambert would be taking place on our first night back! We'd never seen so many people in one place like this! The crowds were everywhere and streets were blocked off for the parade, so we had to go the long way around streets and people to get anywhere. It was exciting to see so many people involved in the gay rights movement and to see so many dressed outlandishly and flamboyantly! The whole day and night was loud, full of music and cheering and loud chatter from the crowds. Gay flags were flying everywhere, and so many people were waving little rainbow flags and/or were arrayed in the rainbow colors. After we left the second show, it was late at night and people were still out partying. We read later that there were about 30,000 people in the parade alone and about a million people in London for the big day!

We saw the play "2:22 A Ghost Story" and the musical "Jersey Boys" on day one. Mike couldn't stay awake for the play during both acts, and I kept nodding off during the second act. But we LOVED "Jersey Boys" so much and enjoyed every second of it!

We stayed on the quieter part of London

The Holiday Inn Express Hotel

Tiniest room ever!

We enjoyed fish and chips and a hearty green salad at this pub

The set of the play, "2:22 A Ghost Story" (not a favorite for us). The acting was good, but the story itself was rather lame--although it had a surprise ending that tied it all together nicely.

Gay Pride day in London made it extremely crowded

Cute Bobbys minding the streets

These bright gay flag colors were everywhere and on so many people

Edina Menzel performed in Trafalgar Square. These photos were taken of the large screen projected for the crowd. She was great!

Gay Pride Parade

Let your colors fly!

The set of "Jersey Boys"

These young men were over the top sensational! Our most FAVORITE performances ever!

The London Eye lit up with rainbow colors

St. James Park

The small breakfast area at our hotel

During the finale, when the whole cast comes out to sing and dance

Tuesday, July 4th: Our last full day in London was spontaneous and fun! We had breakfast at the hotel, walked around town, went to two new movies ("No Hard Feelings" and "Indiana Jones") back to back at two different theaters, ate dinner at a ramen shop, watched the comedy musical "Mrs. Doubtfire," and watched the latest episode of "Platonic" back in our hotel room. It was an awesome lazy way to spend our last day in London.

There were a lot of ethnic food trucks and stalls being set up in the morning for the lunch hour rush and other vendors selling clothes, etc, which looked fun if we'd had more time and money to spend. This week there was two days of rain, and today was the wettest and chilliest!