London - Another amazing day

Day 14 - October 14 - Evan Evans tour, Lucy and Dad adventures – Hop on hop off, Protesters, Monopoly (At least like the one I grew up with), the tube. Katie - high powered meetings and long lunches…

Weather – cloudy, fair bit of rain. 6-15c

We had a tour booked from Victoria Coach station with boarding at 8:30am, so the option for a sleep in and light day wasn’t on the cards. Katie also had a lunch meeting invite from Atlassian, so she was going to leaving us early in the tour – so another Lucy and Dad day of adventure on the cards. 










The Evan Evans tour that we had booked included the changing of the guard at Buckingham place, with a stop outside of Westminster Abby. To be honest, the tour wasn’t that great – the changing of the guard wasn’t that impressive and it was all a bit rushed. Katie left us before that changing of the guard and we had a boat cruise booked for after Lunch. However, as we were walking back from Buckingham palace, we walked past the hop-on-hop-off bus stop with a lady selling tickets. We decided to change plans and buy tickets for the bus - and it was the best thing we could have done! We left the tour and skipped lunch and jumped on the double decker, open top bus and had so much fun. 

The view from the top of the bus was great, and our host was hilarious and knowledgeable. Lucy and I decided we would just stay on the bus and do a lap of London and then get off at Piccadilly so we could get a better sense of the city layout. We did have one stop though as we had to get off at the eye. Apparently the Bus driver and the guide both had a scheduled 30min lunch break and we wanted to stay with them instead of jumping on the next bus as they were so much fun - we didn't want to risk a dud tour guide. This gave us a break for a quick exploration and a bite to eat - We wondered along the Thames, and got fish and chips for Lucy in the park under the London Eye – Lucy really wanted to have a shot on the carousel there, however we didn’t quite have enough time to fit that in. Back on the bus we continued our tour. It started to rain a bit, but Lucy didn't want to go under cover, so we got some poncho’s and kept going. I think it's more authentic if you get rained on in London anyway... the route for the bus is great - you get all the highlights - We crossed over the two bridges, saw the tower of London, drover past the shard - we also went along a bunch of Monopoly streets - Fleet street, past Mayfair – it felt like we were collecting the monopoly pieces (I’m not going in order here as it’s been a few days and I can’t find the map…)! Also - interesting fact, the building used for Gingott's Bank in harry potter is Australia house on the Strand - Lucy was quite excited to see that! The hop-on-hop-off tour is a must for first timers to the city - you really get a much better sense of the layout and could use that to plan where you wanted to go and see in more detail. We had a great time.

Our plan to get off at Piccadilly hit a bit of a roadblock in the form or protesters who were gluing themselves to the road – apparently it’s an extinction rebellion thing – so we had to detour from Whitehall and we got off short of Piccadilly – just outside of the Ritz hotel. We could have walked, but I decided we’d give the tube a shot – it was easy, you just tap your bank card – or phone - on the machine and it lets you in – no need for a ticket. 

We got off at Leicester square – and if was very busy – great fun walking around, checking out the area. There was a Harry Potter themed shop that we just had to go to. Here we picked up a copy of the next book Lucy is up to – Order of the Phoenix – and a chocolate frog. Oh the excitement!!! By this stage I was getting pretty hungry and Katie was back at the hotel, so we decided to jump back on the Tube and navigate our way to the Hotel. The tube really is a breeze to get around on, and the trains are frequent and the stops quite close, so there’s never a lot of walking involved. By the time we got off at our stop I was pretty hungry, so I nicked into Pret-a-Manger. You see them everywhere in Paris and London – not sure what all the fuss is about – it’s a glorified vending machine – the baguettes are in plastic bags on chilled shelves and you take what you want and go pay. I was hungry enough that I appreciated the ham and cheese baguette – but I wouldn’t bother going back.

Back at the hotel – we were all pretty tired, it has been a very full on two weeks. Katie’s Long lunch was apparently amazing and filled with very impressive people and equally impressive food. Kicking goals on all fronts apparently. We all enjoyed our day in London and I have to say, another place we need to come back to – these quick stops just whet the appetite, you really just get a sense of the place and obviously would need much more than 2 days to get a handle on a city like London. Oh well – off on another train trip tomorrow. This time to Oxford.

I promise Photos will come. Probably this afternoon.

Comments

  1. Lady Penelope16 October 2022 at 13:57

    Glad you discovered the hop on hop off bus. It's a London tradition and the first thing I did when I arrived in London 49 years ago. 😂😂😂 Discovering the Monopoly Board was real, was also such fun and probably the first taste of the relevance of history to my more geographically minded school days. London is an amazing city and even living there for 3 years, I barely touched the surface. Luckily my Nanny connections provided a quintessential English experience rubbing shoulders with Royalty. Feel very privileged as that lifestyle is much less common in the 21st century. Look forward to your video Lucy 😘😘😘

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    Replies
    1. Andrew17 October 2022 at 10:01

      Yeah, I really enjoyed London. I think Katie is a small town girl at heart, so the hustle and bustle was too full on for her. But Lucy and I had a blast. Hope you enjoy Jo's graduation and pass on our congratulations for her Master's. Too many smart girls in this family...

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