London Theatre Break to see 'Oliver'
We travelled up to London from Hastings by train and went straight to the 3* Royal National Hotel in London to check-in. It is a fairly budget hotel that is generally used for theatre break offers so it was fairly basic but perfect for what we wanted. We had 4 twin rooms with private facilities that were a good size and the hotel was great as it had a large restaurant where we had our full English breakfast that was included in our break and a bar that stayed open until 2am which was really good for when you came back to the hotel late at night! On the last day there was a room that we could leave our luggage in whilst we spent our last day in London.
We had pre-booked to go ice skating at Somerset House on the Friday afternoon which was brilliant. It was a rink set up outside in the middle of the big old buildings and we had an hour on the ice (with very comfortable ice skates for a change!) and had such a good time. Some of us took to it with no problem at all …. And some didn’t!! The skating at Somerset House is only temporary and is usually there over Christmas so I would definitely recommend this as something to do if you are in London over December/January time.
On Saturday morning we had a ‘Duck Tour’, again that we had pre-booked. This was excellent and so funny. We were taken around London to see the sights in an amphibious DUKW which then slid down a slipway into the Thames where we continued our sightseeing tour by boat. It was a 70 minute trip and, again, I would so recommend this as it was a great way to see London by road and by water although we did get lots of funny stares from people around London!
On the Saturday night we went to see ‘Oliver’ at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane where we had some of the best seats in the dress circle. We all agreed that ‘Oliver’ is one of the best shows we have ever seen. Rowan Atkinson was just brilliant as ‘Fagin’, Jodie Prenger (from TV’s ‘I’d Do Anything’) was definitely the best choice for ‘Nancy’ and all of the children in the show made it that bit more magical. After the show, we wandered round to the stage door and met all the stars!
On Sunday morning, after another lovely full English breakfast, we caught the tube over to London Bridge to go into the ‘London Bridge Experience’. This was an attraction with the first half learning about some of the history of London and then the second half trying to get through an adult-type haunted house set up like the streets of London with people jumping out at us and heads hanging around. This was quite good fun but not that scary really so was my least favourite part of the weekend.
As well as the things I have mentioned above during our weekend away we ate in lots of nice restaurants (and visited a few pubs!), saw lots of sights around London and, overall, had a fantastic weekend …. Although very, very tiring!
If you are thinking of getting away for a couple of nights, I am able to book any show in London with a 1, 2 or 3 nights stay in the hotel of your choice for you. I would definitely recommend ‘Oliver’ but there are lots of other fabulous shows for you to choose from. I am also able to pre-book lots of London attractions for you including the duck tour, The London Eye, River Thames sightseeing cruises, Madame Tussauds and helicopter champagne flights over London.