Saturday 15th March: Part II: Big Bus Tour and Introduction to London

After the nice breakfast at the hotel, we set out down the street for the Big Bus tour (about 30 pounds each, and well worth it). It was a wonderful sunny day, warm even, so we were able to sit on the upper, open level.

The tour route took us past Paddington Station, not ten blocks away, and then to the "Marble Arch", a sort of mini version of Arc de Triumph in Paris (there's also one like it in New York City) and a key hub in this part of London.

Marble Arch from tour bus

Giant horse next to Marble Arch

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Big Bus tour at Madame Taussaud's at Baker St.

Then it continued down to Oxford Street (basically the continuation of Bayswater) to Bond and Regent Streets. Despitd being a hop-on, hop-off bus, it was completely packed with unbelievable throngs of people just like I've seen in Manhattan.

Oxford Circus intersection from top of bus

The audio narration was very informative and helpful. The view from upstairs was great and we passed many famous sites including  Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament and crossed over several bridges back and forth over the THAMES, including the London Bridge and then the Tower Bridge.

The Tower Bridge from the river boat.

We stopped and got off at the Tower of London; had Fish and Chips and beer at a center right next to it, where I clobbered my head on a low doorway! They built some of these places for very small people!

We then waited briefly in line for the river cruise, part of the package, and went downriver to Westminster and back, this time with humorous live narration by a Thames Waterman and we had great views of the main downtown area edging the river, including the Houses of Parliament, Cleopatra's Needle (actually constructed 1500 years before her time), the London Eye (the huge viewing wheel that we will go on later) to mention a few.

Evelyn with London Eye across the River Thames

The weather was great, sunny and warm, and apparently the first such day in more than 5 months around here. We later saw a program about it on TV where we learned that Britain had the worst winter in like 200 years! Lots of catastrophic flooding with multiple heavy storms, one right after the other,  the last one being only a week or so before we got here. We're very lucky to have missed it all.

"The Shard", England's tallest building, from the river

We got back on the bus for more sightseeing, past lots of famous spots, including Big Ben again, closer this time, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and more, before finally got back to the hotel after
5PM; we were pretty tired because we both didn't sleep that well.

Big Ben, from Big Bus

(end of part two)