London from the deck of the bus

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London Eye

These photos are from the top of the tour bus. One benefit of the winter season is that there are fewer of us tourists. As you can see, we are the only ones on this particular bus! The tour bus has a winter off-season deal, you get 48 hours of hopping off and on with the purchase of your ticket, instead of 24 hours. So we used them to get an overview of the city as per the Plan, knowing that there was no way to see all of it in 2 and a half days. Actually afforded us some photo oportunities that we wouldn't have had. The "tours" are usually in the form of audio guides, they give you little ear phones that you keep with you as you hop on and off at any stop you want. We did get a real guide with one ride. He had some interesting commentary, for instance did you know where the saying "one for the road" comes from? If you were convicted of a crime and sentenced to hang, you were stopped off at every bar between the jail and the gallows and had "one for the road". By the time you got to the hang-man you couldn't stand!

Saturday was bright sunshine like we hadn't seen in weeks! I headed out in my sweater, but David our host called to me to put on a heavy coat because I would need it on the bus,"Listen to your Daddy". I froze up on the second deck! But the views were good up there, and I clicked away at every turn!

This day we took a peek in the department store to beat all stores Harrods, I new Keith was in touring mode when it was he that suggested Harrods! And thanks to the bus tour we stumbled upon Hard Rock Cafe. Once we found out that it was the original restaurant we stopped for a bite to eat, and to seek out the guitar that Eric Clapton started the whole thing with. And obviously here is where the Elvis sighting takes place. Although I'm hard pressed to call it a sighting, since we were in "The Hard Rock Cafe". It consisted of a display case with Elvis memorabilia. Actually our host at the hotel brought up the subject of Elvis and Graceland, when he was telling us his stories of visiting the States. Still this proves my theory that Elvis "lives" all over the world, not just Memphis!

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Photos

big ben in the middle
perfect timing thanks to the tour guide, not every bus we hopped on had a real live guide

Harrods
department store

Seafood decor
in Harrods food market

Guitar
Hard Rock beginnings

Elvis
in his dispaly case at Hard Rock

rowing a bike
runners, horses, strollers, dog walkers, and bike rowing