Boxing Day

26 December, 2015

In the UK the day after Christmas is almost as significant a holiday as Christmas itself. Some stores are open for sales on the order of Black Friday in the U.S. while others are closed. We just knocked around a bit. Some of us went shopping, I ran a couple of errands and had lunch with my Mom. All in all a rather slow day, much as we had anticipated and intended from the beginning. My primary errand consisted of obtaining Oyster Cards for my sister and her family, who were due to arrive the next morning. Unfortunately the ticket agents must run each card as a separate transaction, so this took a bit of time. In addition to nine cards for her group I had to get three for my group and add seven-day travelcards to the three cards I already had. (My wife and I have had Oyster Cards since our first trip a few years after they were first implemented, a stroke of genius in hindsight.) If you're going to be in London for several days investigate the various TravelCard options. You can get a visitor's Oyster Card for a £5 deposit (refundable in cash) and either put a 7 day Travel Card on it or just add value to it and use the declining balance Pay-As-You-Go feature. If you use declining balance the Oyster card guarantees you the lowest per-journey fare and caps your total daily expenditure. The Travel Card feature provides unlimited travel on the buses and underground within the zones purchased (Zone 1 is all most visitors need) for the days your Travel Card is valid.

Saturday evening we had dinner at Shepherd's Tavern consisting of usual pub-grub (with beers and cider, depending upon personal taste) and then went to see Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theater. We saw it previously in 2011 and it was among the top three theater productions I've ever seen. While it was good this time it was not up to the expectations set previously. I suspect that, due to the holiday, we may have seen a few understudies in the cast. It is a great story and I recommend it, but suggest considering holidays and such when planning which show to attend.