Found the Indian food restaurant we'd seen walking up to the Apartment. No waiting of course after lunch rush, was really good, wanted to eat more of the rice and the currey Tandori Meat (Lamb) was tender and a mild type. We had time to ask the advice of the waiter since we were the only ones left in the restaurant at that time. Kristi really like the cooked vegetables that was our side. We had some really thin flat bread, cheese and mine was garlic. Wanted to take the rest with us, but had to leave to navigate the subway system to find a stop for the Big Bus Tours Open Top, Double Decker buses. We thought we might miss it, but the bus stops at several attractions, it's not part of the regular red double-decker bus line, so it's a little confusing. Being kind of a Mauve color, the bus also has a "red route" and a "blue route" they have different attractions. Also, in our rush to get a seat on top, no one pointed out we'd need headphones to listen to the tour. I thought we'd read this was a live guided tour, but the recorded one seemed like it was easier to pick anywhere on. We got a chance a couple minutes in to grab two earplugs. In between sites, the song "Greensleeves" looped. You keep the earplugs in your fare, of course, but you take them with you if you get off, to plugin when you're ready for the next bus to pick you up. We got some really good photos of the major sites being high up and without a roof and accomplished our goal of getting an overview of the city. It was really cold, I'd say at least down to 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Kristi kept her hood on most of the time but came though it okay. The ticket receipt also entitles us to free cruise on the Thames tomorrow, it\'s going to rain but we're going to work that in of course too. Plan on maybe doing some shopping on Oxford Street or Piccadilly since they were identified as shopping centers on the Tour. We can actually use the bus for 24 Hours so it's good to get us around still until 4PM tomorrow. We walked back through Hyde park and saw where we might have some more good photo ops though the day. It was pretty late but to get us adjusted to the right schedule, we ate about 8:30 PM at Bella Italiana, I was really just wanting us to get some hot decaffeinated coffee to warm up, but decided to split some pasta, tomatoes & eggplant with red sauce with Kristi. We had our Italian Caffe Latte's and continuing back, we jumped into some shops when we could to warm up, and ended up getting some souvenirs, and Kristi got a London Hoodie jacket, but it got too cold to do much more, so we ended up getting back on the nearest subway train and just got back to the room. We are more familiar with the shopping in the area and had asked the clerk as well, there's a Tesco nearby but since it was already closed, a local shop called Sainsbury was open late and we got things for breakfast and to stock our fridge with. The ATM nearby worked to get cash from my bank account, the fees should be refunded, but we'll see. Several things like the subway passes have gone on a VISA and there's going to be some foreign use fees on that as well. All pictures from this day here.
From London 2012 - Day 1
From London 2012 - Day 1
From London 2012 - Day 1
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