After a picturesque drive through green forests, we arrive at a very special restaurant: The ‘Smith & Western’ is entirely dedicated to the Wild West theme. Here we meet Peter, Caroline and Jack for lunch. We are delighted to see our longest-standing English friends again. We chat about Doctor Who and other TV series and films, Jack’s progress in installing retro operating systems on all kinds of electronic devices, and much more. The food, of course, also fits in with the restaurant: Gabi and I share chilli cheese taquitos for starters and a cowboy feast of steak, chicken, ribs, corn on the cob and chips for the main course. And a slice of Biscoff cheesecake for dessert.

As the evening approaches, we say goodbye again and drive to London, to the Riverside Studios on the banks of the Thames. Here we attend a Star Wars show of a different kind: ‘The Empire Strips Back’ is a burlesque parody. The performance is extremely well done, very varied and not at all raunchy. The highlights include the female Luke Skywalker keeping warm in a tauntaun (maybe she shouldn’t have stripped down to her underwear if she was cold 😉 ), a sexy car wash of Luke’s landspeeder, Princess Leia dancing in front of R2-D2 and being showered in dollar bills by the robot, Han Solo and Chewbacca twerking, the Emperor swinging on a large mirror ball death star to the song ‘Wrecking Ball’ by Miley Cyrus (in spite of his repulsive wrinkled skin costume), and of course Princess Leia as a prisoner of Jabba the Hutt. All with lots of dance and ballet going on, great music and a humorous moderation by Lando Calrissian’s ‘nephew’.

Promotional photos:

Taking photos or videos was forbidden for obvious reasons, except during the last part. I used this opportunity, of course, but had to remove the sound (they had ‘Rapper’s Delight’ by The Sugarhill Gang playing) because otherwise YouTube would flag the video as a copyright infringement.

On the way back to the hotel, we stop at the first motorway service station we come across. Here we not only find a KFC that is still open, but also, quite surprisingly, a Tesla Supercharger. So while we eat, LucY can also charge its battery.