The Tower, Skygarden and Book of Mormon

Late start and tube to the Tower of London. Similar to Edinburgh Castle in a way. Lots of history - good displays and plenty to see.

Saw the crown jewels. Sparkly, but we're probably not distinguished enough to appreciate that all the gems are diamonds and rubies etc. (rather than fake gems which look just as sparkly to us).

Few school groups there but not too crowded. Cool displays and learnt some history. Battlements were nice. White tower in the middle was good - 3 levels of displays. Store for armaments so had lots of guns and swords and armour.

Learnt about two daring escapes. One ended in a drop from the tower and a heavy, fatal impact (beheading from the fall). One ended in him getting clean away thanks to his canny Scottish wife, her hand maidens and some cross dressing.

Ate our packed lunch at the Tower. Then headed onwards, pausing to enjoy the sun and view of the River Thames and Tower Bridge, then on to Sky Garden to see Em and TK (and Em's cousin).

Sky Garden was cool - free but you book online in advance and then line up for 10 or 20min or so. Very tall building (with a curve that used to melt cars - slight design flaw) with a garden (and cafes) on top. Really great views over London.

After that, tube to Leicester Square to get more show tickets - settled on Aladdin for the two of us on Wednesday.

Em and TK (and Debbie) had put their names in a lottery draw for cheaper Book of Mormon tickets for tonight (the show does a draw for every show). So we went along to watch the draw at 5.30PM. Arrived early so Debbie said we should put our names in. And a stroke of luck as we both got our names drawn out for two tickets each! Radi was very excited as she never wins anything.

Very lucky for us so all four of us got to go. Tickets were normally around £50 at least for single seats way up the back - good seats would've been £100 or more. We got ours through the lottery for £20 each. A steal.

Off to dinner at the popular Bao London (place that normally has a line outside going down the street). Another stroke of luck with the only table available when we arrived was for 5 people. Had delicious bao buns and a taro white Russian (prompting Radi to loudly exclaim "I don't usually like white Russians!").

Then some delicious small fancy desserts from Yauatcha Soho (and a frozen Snickers bar from a dairy - we introduced TK to them and he concurs that they are delicious).

Off to Book of Mormon and where are our seats? Front row in stalls - almost close enough to touch the actors. Fantastic. And the show itself fantastic. Very crass at times, but without crossing the line. Really well done and lots of laughs (and good songs, dancing and acting).

Overall a really great day!Read more