Big Bus Tour of London

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London tried it's best, today, to keep the bad weather away - and it did a pretty good job. The sun was mostly shining and the rain held off. The wind was slight and overall we enjoyed a good day on our bus tour which meant we could spend most of time enjoying the view on the open top deck of the bus.

Damian's friend from his IBM days, John, and his two daughters travelled in from Richmond to meet and join on us the bus tour. John left Australia about over 2 years ago, so it was good for them to catch up. Emily also found a new friend in John's eldest daughter, Nina. They hit it off from the start of the day.

It was a typical London Bus tour. We took the Big Bus Company tour which had a stop just around the corner from our Hotel. We left at 10:00am and got back to the Hotel around 6pm. So it was another big day. The bus took us to all of the popular sights - Marble Arch, Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, St Paul's, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and many more. We also took a ferry ride down Thames from Tower bridge to the London Eye and then rode on the London Eye, which was an exciting way to end to our European Vacation.

Sue also managed to make a Bus stop to get some tickets to a performance of "Wicked the Musical" at West End.

As we write this, Sue and Emily are enjoying the show. Damian, Jake and Nick had dinner at a traditional English Pub (with traditional Italian barmaids), The Sawyer's Arms, and are settling back into the Hotel room for the night (before Damian heads back to the pub for one last Guiness...).

Tomorrow's weather is looking to be similar to today. Our plan is simple - get a good night's rest, have breakfast, do some final shopping and maybe visit the science museum (again) to finish seeing what we didn't see yesterday.

After that, we need to get a train to Heathrow and depart for home.

That's it. What a trip! Sue did a brilliant job organising it - every hotel and apartment was in the right spot, near transport and all the things we needed to see and do. The kids were great and took everything in their stride as they experienced big cities, crowds of people, new foods, sights and smells. Damian managed to keep himself together for over 4 weeks without much "me time." And the weather, overall, was very kind to us - sunny and warm in in the south of Italy, snow in the Alps, rain (not too much) in Paris and, apart from a wet greeting, agreeable weather in London. Only Luzern conspired to deny us a perfect day.

مساء الخير. Buonasera. Guten Abend. Bonsoir. Good evening.

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Photos

London Tower
This photo was taken after some Fish 'n Chips for lunch outside London Tower. The freshly painted Tower Bridge is in the background.

Inside the London Eye Capsule
Jake managed to conquer his "fear of heights" and board the London Eye. For most of the trip, however, he avoided the spectacular view.

Comments

[Robyn]

Hope you enjoyed Wicked. Have a safe trip home.

[Robyn]

Great to see a picture of you all. You have done a great job with the blog. It was great to see and hear all about your wonderful adventure. See you all soon.

[Suzy woozy]

What a great way to finish off.... Had a tear in my eye as soo happy you all had a brilliant time. Can't wait to see you and hear all about your adventures. Definitely inspired me and gave hope that an extended family holiday together can be remarkable!! See you soon xxxx