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It's October 1 already, wow. We changed our plans today and didn't go to Windsor Castle. The family thought we should go into London so we could see as much as we can on our time here. We probably would have got up earlier if we had known, but it was nice to sleep in a bit. I had yogurt, toast, and tea for breakfast (Carol Ann only has instant coffee so it will be tea for breakfast while we're here).
We took the tube from Ealing Broadway station, which is about a 15-20 minute walk, to Victoria Station, 35 or so minutes. Carol Ann drove us to the station this morning, so we knew where it was, and we walked back at the end of the day. We bought 5 day Oyster cards for the tube, which worked out really well.
We got on the big double decker open top hop on-hop off bus, and we rode it for the entire route. We drove through a wide area of London and saw tons of things. We crossed the Thames several times on different bridges (Waterloo, Westminster, Tower Bridge). We had intended getting off the bus here and there,
but we ended up staying on the whole time. We had good seats on the open top deck and the bus was very crowded, so we were afraid of having to sit downstairs if we got on a different bus after a stop.
We finally got off the bus back at Victoria station. It was about 4 pm by this time and we were both really hungry. We had a late lunch at "Bag O' Nails" pub, on Buckingham Palace Road. I had a nice lager and a really good cheese and pickle sandwich (on a baguette). Susan enjoyed a lager and mini meat pies. We then walked to Buckingham Palace and around St. James' Park for a bit, then back to the station and took the tube back to Ealing Broadway. We walked back to Carol Ann's, arriving about 6:30. We later enjoyed dinner with the family.
It was a beautiful sunny, hot day today. It was nice and breezy on the open top deck of the bus but it would have been quite warm if we were walking around the whole time. It was still pretty warm when we were walking around the Palace and St.
Ealing Broadway Station
15-20 min walk from Carol Ann's house James' Park about 5:30.
London has lots of amazing old buildings crammed everywhere. The streets are quite narrow and are not laid out in any kind of a grid pattern, as far as I could tell. We saw lots of beautiful buildings. Buckingham Palace didn't seen very big to me; I guess I thought it would be more imposing - we went around a corner and there it was. The monument in front iof the palace is under scaffolding. St. James' Park looked really lovely. I would have liked to have walked more there but Susan wanted to get back to Carol Ann's.
We have booked a London day tour for Monday. We will get picked up at a hotel near a tube stop at 7:10 am, and will see the Tower of London, St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Thames boat ride, London Eye, and the changing of the guard (or something different if the timing is not right to see the changing of the guard). It should be really good. We could see all those things on our own but when you are limited for time the day tours are good as you can fit in a
lot in a short time, and generally don't have to spend time standing in line ups. Tuesday we have our day tour out to Bath and Stonehenge. On Wednesday we will go to the British Museum and walk across the Millennium Bridge to the Tate Modern. We've decided to do just the one museum and the one art gallery during our time in London. I can't wait to see the British Museum - I've wanted to see the Rosetta Stone for years, so I'm very excited to finally see it.
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