It rained most of the day but we did do some shopping this morning, then took a boat cruise down the river Thames (which was free because it came with our Big Bus Open Top tour we took yesterday) we took the Underground to the Marble Arch at the corner of Hyde Park, which has become our navigation landmark and used the same ticket to get a ride down to Big Ben on another tour bus with the same company, near where the boat cruise was docked. Seeing the sights from the water was a different perspective, but the rain made it a little harder to see out the windows. The point of the boat ride is really to view it from above deck, but there are windows all around below deck, so you can still see most everything this way. We went right by The Eye, under several Bridges, the HMS Wellington, moored near the reconstructed Globe opera house, and a reconstructed privateer ship then turned around in full view of the Tower Bridge and Tower of London complex, also going by the HMS Belfast moored along the other side. After we got off, Kristi ate a kidney & steak pie and I had Fish and Chips at a small cafe by the river where we got off, the tour didn't return to exactly the same dock, so we walked across the London Bridge which has a wide pedestrian lane stopping to take some good shots of Big Ben from the West, and got on the giant observation wheel called the London Eye. The London Eye moves so slowly you don't even realize how high up you've traveled. We walked from there around the House of Parliament, to see Westminster Abbey and St. Margaret's Church which happened to be open at the time so it was a good thing we took a look, because they closed the gate soon after we left. Westminster Abbey itself was closed to tours for church services since it was Sunday. We got some good pictures and browsed the gift shop at Westminster which had some higher quality souvenirs. We got back on the tour bus and decided to get off the next time we saw something interesting. We got off around Aldwych which had a lot of opera houses and shows, with quite a few fine restaurants that advertised specials before 7PM intended to get you in and out for dinner right before your show. We didn't plan to see a show but got to take advantage of the special and ate at a very good bistro called Cote for dinner and after we left learned how to use the London bus service (really confusing!) while we waited under the overhang of the Waldorf Hotel out of the rain, since it looked like the tour buses had stopped operating by that time. While in and out of the rain, we went around a couple blocks walking by the Lyceum which was playing The Lion King Musical and the Drury Lane Theatre Royale which was playing Shrek the Musical. We also found a couple large areas where vendors set up called Covent Garden Market, some were still open and we bought a few things. Tomorrow we plan on going to St. Paul's Cathederal, and doing some shopping in the more commercial areas like Oxford and Picidilly, take The Tube to Knightsbridge for Harrods, but also might try to get back to the Covent Garden Market near Aldwych through the day.
From London 2012 - Day 2
From London 2012 - Day 2
From London 2012 - Day 2