Day 27 (Monday) Final Day of Tours in London

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Today was our final day of touring on this vacation. This turned out to be a Bank Holiday, so lots of people were off work and visiting places, along with us. Since we fly home tomorrow, we did as much as we could on this final day anyway. Janet’s knee was stiff this morning, but with a little pain medication and a lot of determination, we did the day’s tours as planned. We had arranged for the tour to pick us up at the Holiday Inn hotel across the street from our quaint English hotel. There is obviously a huge difference but we enjoyed our exposure to more traditional English lodging. Anyway, the bus picked us up, and after a couple more hotel stops, we were delivered to the main Grayline Golden Tours center outside Victoria Station. We barely had time to buy a quick croissant breakfast before our tour was called and we boarded with the other folks. We explained to the guide (another Tony – also bald) about Janet’s injured knee, and he help accommodate us all day.

We started with a whistle stop tour of London’s famous monuments, and were told a lot about at the history of London’s modern masterpieces while we rode around on the bus. There was a marathon being run through the streets of London, so some of them were closed to traffic – that hurt the bus route a little, but may have made some of the walking routes easier.

The first stop was across the street from Westminster Abby. There are so many places to visit today, that the tour did not include going inside for a visit. One of the people really wanted to see it and dropped out of the tour at this first location. Then we walked to the Household Cavalry Museum and saw a fraction of the process involved in “changing of the horse guard”. We had a chance to try on their official uniform and be photographed as a trooper, but we declined. From there we walked about ½ mile down the Mall to Buckingham Palace. They did not hold the “changing of the guard” ceremony today because the streets were clogged with marathoners (running/walking right past the castle). It was a little challenge for is to get across the street to our bus, but we eventually got boarded again.

Then we drove over to the Embankment (side of the river) for lunch. We had signed up for the inclusive package, so our lunch was included. Other folks had to scramble around and find other arrangement, but they seem to have managed. We both had the chicken and chips lunch (cooked Mediterranean style), and it was very tasty.

After lunch we all met at the base of the London Eye and boarded a river cruise ship to go down river to the London Tower. Tony used his influence to get us to a place earlier in the line so we got on more quickly. Another one of our party must have forgotten to get off the cruise at the right place because we were one fewer again. Tony was pretty upset about his one -- he had joked that people would end up in Belgium if they did not get off in time, but we doubt that.

Next we toured the London Tower, which sits on the bank immediately adjacent to Tower Bridge (the prototypical bridge when you think of London). During the 1000 year history this impressive fortress has been a Royal Palace, prison, mint and even a zoo. There are a lot of difficult steps in the tower, so our guide arranged for us to Jump the line and get straight into the viewing of the crown jewels, and then we arranged to meet him afterwards. The Jewels are primarily used for coronations, so they haven’t been out of the vault in almost 60 years (not a lot of wear and tear on them). We did not get to see the jewels in Edinburgh, but these far exceed any others in the UK, so we were glad to have visited them – they were really impressive!

Afterwards, we were off to St Paul’s Cathedral. Towering high over the City of London, magnificent St Paul’s Cathedral is widely considered to be Sir Christopher Wren’s masterpiece. We got to see the beautiful mosaics and stained glass, but were not allowed to take any pictures. Our guide said that during WWII the Germans had avoided bombing St Paul’s because it made a good landmark for them to use to be able to find other targets. Who knows if that is true or not?

The final event was to go for a ride on the London Eye (the gigantic Ferris Wheel – only recently surpassed in size by one in Singapore). Unfortunately, this turned out to be basically the only time on our whole trip where we were really interrupted by rain, so it was fun but the views weren’t as good as they would have been otherwise. Not intentionally, but because of the rain we went to the first entry for the Eye but apparently this was for people who had bought “jump the line” tickets. But there was nobody waiting so the guard let us get on quickly (and out of the rain), kind of like Tony would have done. There were about 30 people in each large glass bubble and you go around one time then get back out (takes about 30 minutes). There was a 4 year old in here who seemed to think that Janet was his Grand-mum, so she was very homesick to get back and see her own families.

After the ride, we ate dinner at a local restaurant (the Slug and Lettuce) before taking a taxi back to our hotel. We hade a very busy and tiring day (especially since we are both still struggling with colds that drain our energy), but still had to pack everything for the flight tomorrow. Although we have had a great time, we are ready to get back home. Once again the internet would not connect, so we will have to post all the London adventures once we get back to St Louis. Sorry that some of these have been less detailed than we might have liked, but we are pretty tired at the end of the days, so this is the best we can do.

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Photos

View of London
Parliament & Big Ben

Janet & David
at Tower Bridge

Buckingham Palace
and Queen Vistoria's Statue

Royal Horse Guard
Changing of the Guard

Royal Guards
at Prince Phillip’s House in London

Lord Nelson's Column
London England