London Day 2 - On the Buses

Queen's (Mother's) Gate Hyde Park

Belgravia - Margaret Thatcher's St

London Cabs Have Gone Technicolour

Houses of Parliament From Lambeth Bridge

Today has been a very full day. Started the day with a full English breakfast with coffee for £3.95 (great value and delicious) at a café down the road. Then headed off via bus to Piccadilly Circus to start our Hop On Hop Off Tour.

We went on the Yellow tour which has live commentary first. This tour lasted about 2 hours and was extremely interesting. Think it probably is the tour to do if you only have time for one. Our tour took us past Trafalgar Square (by the end of the day we had seen it many times as I think all the buses go there), St James’ Palace, Hyde Park, the side of Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Houses of Parliament, the London Eye, St Pauls and the Tower of London just to name a few. We then got on the Blue tour that took us to Kensington and Knightsbridge.

We got off at Harrods and braved the crowds to have a look around. Naturally Phil couldn’t wait to get out of the place. Still we persevered and I managed to make a purchase - a tin of tea leaves with Harrods on it. Can always fill it up with the Bushells Tea we normally have.

Had a tiny walk through Hyde Park then back to Piccadilly via the Red tour to make our way back to the hotel via the yellow tour once again. There is a stop just at the end of the road which is very convenient.

Have been out for dinner and a couple of not so cold pints at a typical English Pub (the Marquis of Granby) just down the road. The pub was full of civil servants there for after work drinks. Food was quite a reasonable price and the drinks similar to home.  At the end we ended up talking to some people from Vancouver.

Tomorrow we do a tour of the Tower of London and will try braving the crowds to shop in Oxford St.