London Tour

---

Day 11: Touring London by Bus

Today I took an open-top tour bus tour around the city of London. As the British would say, it was brilliant. It was unbelievable. We went through so many different areas of the city. I saw so many old buildings, from the 17th century through to the 19th century. It's amazing how you can move from one section of the city into another one and you'll see buildings from different periods up to and including ones currently under constructions.

We went through Kensington, Paddington, Chelsey, Mayfair and Knightsbridge just to name a few. It was nice to see areas that I had only heard or read about in books. I even went over London bridge (and no it wasn't falling down). To think that someone thought about that back in the 1800s and it's still there, still working and doing the same job. Did you know that it takes less than 2 minutes to raise the bridge???? Cool fun fact.

Another cool fun fact: Wren who pretty much rebuilt the city of London following the fire, had been asked to design some buildings prior. He had wanted to start from scratch, which would have meant tearing down some existing structures and they wouldn't let him. Instead the fire took care of it and he got to start from scratch.

The city is in so many ways more than I expected it to be. It's hard to explain. I love the fact that I'm walking where people for at least the past three centuries have walked, going about their every day lives. I love the connections, but it's more than that. There is just something about history, I think sometimes you either love or you hate it (history that is) there is no in between.

Tomorrow is Greenwich and possible some stuff over by Tower Bridge. It will all depend on the time as most things close between 4 and 6pm.

What ever I do tomorrow or for the next 9 1/2 days, it'll be an adventure and a fun one at that.

---