7/19/09
Today we rode the hop on/hop off Big Bus tour. It was only £25 each and you can visit any of the sites from the bus and catch another one when you are ready to go on to the next stop, or you can just keep riding. If you can get an upper deck seat, you can see the sights much better–but beware of the sudden downpours! The nice thing is that the bus provides you with a plastic rain jacket if you happen to forget your umbrella!
Remember your jumper!
We rode all around several areas of London. We got off at Parliament Square, saw Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and the London Eye. We walked around and got ideas and ticket pricing for the Eye. We also stopped at Buckingham Palace. Everything about the palace looks amazingbut I wanted to view the Queen’s Apartments, and they aren’t available until after we leave. Bummer. The guards at the palace were not the traditional guards at the time we were there, but ones with big guns!! If you want to see the changing of the guard, it occurs at 1130 daily. It was past that time for us, so we plan to return another day.
London Eye
The Bus tour is worth the money to view all the sites. They also narrate along the way about all the little places along the route not everyone would notice otherwise. There is just so much to see and so little time! This does, however, allow you to plan what you do want to spend more time visiting during your vacation.
Self portrait in front of Parliament and Big Ben
Big Ben
After the bus tour, we travelled to Picadilly Circus area and ate dinner at a traditional Pub. We ate traditional pub fare–fish and chips of course– and each had a beer-Jess is legal here. Roger did get a Guiness and Jess and I got a hard cider type drink. All I can say is I am really glad I didn’t get a Guiness myself! Not being a beer person, you will just have to see the picture of me tasting the beer. That is why I drink wine!
Guiness and Jess
Guiness and Lisa
*Tip for traveling on the Underground: buy a 7 day Oyster Pass to get around. It was £28.80 including a £3 deposit on the card which will be returned when we return the card. You can purchase them from any ticket office. That cost will cover you for the ‘Zone 1′ areas–which include all the major stops around town.
Another interesting factoid we learned on the trip was that London is actually the Business area located in the downtown area. The City of London has it’s own Lord Mayor. The rest of the immediate area the rest of us Yanks know as London is actually the city of Westminster, including all the royal sections of the city. What we consider suburbs are called bouroughs in England. For example, we stayed in the Royal Bourough of Kensington and Chelsea.
