Bus Tour

The day started sunny again so we decided to do the Big Bus London tour to get a better lay of the land.  We started at Madame Tussaud’s waxworks where the lines were horrendous.  So glad neither of us wished to go there.  We paid for 48 hours of bus rides and proceeded to take in the narrated sites.  Bruce was very happy to take the tour and we were guided to several places we wouldn’t have seen:  21 Downing St.,  Eaton Place where Upstairs/Downstairs was filmed and many famous people such as Sean Connery and Lawrence Olivier had resided.  We took this tour around the entire city drinking in all the famous sights:  Buckingham Palace, the Thames River, The London Eye, Westminister Abbey, Big Ben, Chesea, Soho, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, etc., etc.  

We left the bus at Baker Street, where we visited the eminent sleuth’s house.  This was so much fun.  They even had a pen, looking like a hypodermic needle, with the 7% solution in it.  Checked out several rock and roll gift shops, nearby.  

After this, we returned to our bus tour to get to Trafalgar Square.  When we arrived there, there was a preacher yelling out in the center and a very good street musician singing on the side.  Very busy and intriguing as well as beautiful.  Everything in the square was interactive:  people sitting, laying and lounging on the stone lions.

We walked from Trafalgar to the Buckingham Palace, which is blocked by tall  black wrought iron gates tipped in gold.  The Queen’s Coat of Arms was emblazoned everywhere.  Most amazing were the guards standing at attention right outside the palace, each one outside his little tin station, each one not moving a muscle.

We walked through the James Garden and into Green Park watching the people and ducks.  Near one of the gates to the park, a man was feeding the squirrels from his hands, one even climbed on his arms, but most of the time he made them behave and eat while perched on the fence.  All of the pigeons, ducks and geese were quite polite, looking at us hungrily as we walked by.  In the middle of one pond we saw white pelicans, so much larger than any of the other birds in the park.  Also notable were the black swans.

Nearing Piccadilly Street, we saw a band playing in the park under a striped awning.  People were lounging on rented chairs in the sunshine while listening to the music.

We left Piccadilly Street to go down a side street to find food.  We stopped at another Italian restaurant where we had a nice dinner.   Bruce was so hungry he ordered 2 main dishes:  a avocado salmon salad and a pizza.  He almost polished off both with dessert.  The dessert was chocolate profiteroles, one of his favorites.  

We were a little turned around on the walk home, but finally got to Oxford Street, the main shopping district.  It was getting dark and we had walked a lot today so we hailed a cab and got back to our hotel to rest for another busy day tomorrow.