London Day 2

Day two: got up relatively early, about 7am, did the usuals and went down to breakfast, surprisingly there was a really nice breakfast on offer for free. Lots of cereals, toast, fruit and bread rolls, and no kiwi butter :( oh well. Had a hearty breakfast and set off on a 20 min walk to find the hop on hop off bus tour place.

Actually went in the right direction today, must have been jet lag yesterday. Walked in Hyde Park, which was a nice change to the city life, heaps of people out jogging or walking, a few dogs around too. Caught the bus and listened to the commentator talk about London. Got our first glimpses of London from the bus. Wow the streets weren't too narrow, but all the buildings were three storey old brick place... Most of them also had stone work as well, it was quite a sight compared to what we were use too back home.

Went past Trafalgar Sq, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, London Eye (not that great) over the Thames a couple of times, even on the famous London Bridge. Don't really know why its famous its just a bridge and the bridge next to it is far more famous, the tower bridge. We got off at St Pauls Cathedral. Its amazing, to think that a cathedral has been on this site for over 500 years is just unbelievable, well not really, but you know what I mean. The stone work on the outside was incredible. We weren't allowed to take photos on the inside so we brought a guide book to remember. But we did go up to the whispering galleries to take photos and then up again (in total 434 steps) and got the most amazing view of London. It was very breath taking. We even found a memerial for those British Soldiers that fought and died in New Zealand during the Maori wars. It was interesting to see as we don't have anything like this at home. No one cares about the Brits that died.

After spending a couple of hours walking around the Cathedral, up to the top and down into the crypt we got back on the bus and went down to the Tower of London. This was actually a big medievil fortress, much bigger than we realised. It houses the Crown Jewels which we saw, an old amoury with lots of old guns, pikes and amour and also a room for spanish weapons captured during the Spanish Armada.

We stopped and had lunch here, but it was about 2pm by this time... We walked around the grounds for a while and then headed down to the prier to catch a boat down to Westminster to see the Abbey and Big Ben.

The cruise up the Thames was uneventful, but we did get a good view of the Tower bridge and the London bridge. We had to stop at the London Eye because the boat we caught didn't go as far as the Abbey. So we got out and walked. We walked around Big Ben, realising that we couldn't go in, so we had a look at the Houses of Parliament which are quite detailed, but decided we didn't want to go in there (had enough of politians at home). So we walked across the road to Westminster Abbey, but unfortantely it was 3.45 and the last admission had already gone in. So we thought we would walk to Buckingham Palace. Finally found our way there, didn't take very long, took some photos and then thought we'll walk home...

hmmm... now that wasn't the brightest move in the book. Took us until 6pm to get back to the hotel, we walked the length and breath of Hyde Park, which is probably about 2.5 km long and about 1 km in breath, but you have to take into account we went in the wrong direction a few times and detoured to check out places of interest.

In the end a long day well worth the time and blisters. Only bad thing, decided to go out for a English Pub meal... it was crap... crap beer, crap food, bit of a shame really, but we at least learnt where not to go to eat.

In bed asleep at 9.30pm tired, but really still couldn't believe we're finally here...

R & M