London's Playground: Covent Garden

Covent Garden, one of the places Londoners traditionally have played, was our destination today. Full of shops and restaurants and thronged with people, it is the perfect place for street theater. The girls were delighted watching first a juggler and then a man who put a three-foot long balloon down his throat after he inflated it. They also liked the "bird man" who wears an outfit of green feathers and communicates only using bird sounds. But they spent most of their time watching a man who calls himself "That Man At Covent Garden." Wearing a kilt and a jacket, he towered above the crowd, using a 10-foot ladder like a pair of stilts. He only occassionally made slight adjustments to stay aloft while engaging the streetgoers in repartee. Then he pulled out knives to juggle while atop the ladder. Next, he took his clothes off, at least down to his underwear, even though it was only about 32 degrees. The girls thought that was quite amazing, and they are begging to go back. The one thing that might deter us is the climb out of the tube stop. The line for the lifts was jammed as usual so we decided to walk the 193 steps to the top. Everybody thought this was a good idea at the bottom. By the top, that line wasn't looking so bad after all.