Day out in London

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It’s 7 years since we’ve been to London. For several years before that we’d visited regularly as daughter Jenny was living there but she moved out of London to Gloucestershire and we haven’t had reason to visit the City since.



We had decided to have a tourist day out. Bob had prearranged Oyster and London Pass cards so we were well prepared. The no. 3 bus leaves from just across the road from the campsite and takes an hour to get to Westminster. All very easy.



We visited Westminster Abbey as somewhere we’ve missed in the past and it was wonderful, well worth the visit. We then walked up to Buckingham Palace where we only just missed the Changing of the Guards but did see, and hear, them as they rode away from the palace resplendent in their wonderful red uniforms. Down through Green Park and back down to Westminster city we stopped to visit the Mansion House before having a really rather lovely lunch in a café just down from Trafalgar Square. We were very pleasantly surprised by super service, super food and incredibly reasonable prices especially as we were right in the middle of the tourist area.



Next stop on our itinerary was the Tower so we returned to the river at Westminster Bridge and caught the river boat down to Tower Bridge. I was interested to be there as I had worked in St Catherine Dockhouse, just the other side of the bridge when I first moved to London after leaving university.

Everything is so different now and I suspect one of the most major changes is the cleanliness of everything. All the buildings, which were dark and grimy when I was there, have been blasted clean and bright.



The Tower was fantastic. Odd to think I have never visited it before despite working right next door to it for well over a year. We visit so many tourist attractions when we are abroad but rarely those in Britain and we very, very pleasantly surprised. The presentation, in all respects, was absolutely excellent and we enjoyed our visit immensely. The Crown Jewels were wonderful and we didn’t have any queue as we seemed to time everything really well all day.



Ice-creams were a must before leaving to catch the boat back to Westminster then the bus to Crystal Palace. A lovely day indeed.


We have been so impressed by London and what has been done to it since we were here last. So clean, so bright and everything so very well arranged and organised. Overflowing with tourists but never a problem.
We’ve visited nearly all the major cities of Europe and some further afield and now, having seen London as tourists ourselves and been incredibly impressed, we understand why visitors flock to London from all over the world.

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Photos

Westminster Abbey from the Cloisters.
Tricky to get a decent photo from the outside as so much traffic, no photos inside the abbey itself only in these cloisters.