London on Thursday Oct 19

Today we were up earlier, and enjoyed breakfast in our Hotel before heading out for the day.
We had planned to do our touring today by using the hop on-hop off bus.  We did have to walk for quite some way first before we found a stop tho!

 The city buildings- rooftop view from the Hotel hallway window

 Italian gardens. You can see it turned grey and rainy on us!

 Peter Pan Statue-

 As we were walking we came by this darling house tucked in-between the park and the street.

 Somone was busy putting in new plants/flowers all along both sides of the walkway here.

When we returned that evening, everything was completed, but it was too dark to get a picture then.

 And right in the middle of town we came upon a riding school

 During our time in London we saw several of these motor escorts. A parade of bikes, lights, sirens and cars. Some important dignitary or Royalty!

 A view from the top of our hop on- hop off city bus.

 Big Ben!  Every single view we saw of London had some type of construction going on. There was Scaffolding everywhere and Big Ben was no exception!

 A definite highlight of our London tour was the London Eye. When Ruth first told me about it, I was very hesitant as I really dislike Ferris wheels.  This only resembles one in looks (from a distance)

 We enjoyed the bagpipe music on our walk across the bridge

Can you see the courtyard down in the middle of the apartment buildings?

We're ready to get on.... (The few pictures before were taken from my phone, so kind of out of order.)

The following photos are taken from inside our capsule. Even tho it was grey and damp, at least it wasn't raining hard enough to ruin our day!

 Another view of Big Ben!

Isn't it amazing?!

 That really was a fun ride and beautiful views. The Rotation takes about 40 minutes or so, it's very slow and hardly feels like you're moving.

In all the forgian places I've been, I'm always fascinated by the architect.  London is a city of many styles and different years of buildings.  We were told that London has been re-built and repaired over and over.  If you think of history, that is very understandable. We were shown some buildings that still bear the scars of the bombing in the London Blitz.

 Krispy Kreme anyone?!

 Fleet Street!

 And one for my husband......

 The Church ahead is the famous St. Paul's Cathedral. Royal Weddings & other events are held here.

 Interrupted by a shot of London's famous red phone booths!

 A far view of the Millennium Bridge. Nicknamed "The Wobbly Bridge" It has an interesting story if you Google it!

 All those interesting street and store names!

 The streets and traffic didn't cease to be confusing to me.  Good thing I didn't have to drive!

Another highlight was our riverboat tour on the Thames. Even tho it was rainy & grey, it was quite interesting & I'm so glad we got to go.  It's so interesting to see/hear about the buildings & activities that line the banks and the History of these places.

We finished up our river tour and view of the Tower bridge by indulging in one the many food shops selling Fish & Chips. (I skipped the mushy peas side dish.... ) LOL!

 Sorry this is blurry--it was such a cute house tucked in beside all these big old buildings!

We took the hop on hop off bus back to our Hotel.  We did have a scare- Ruth had lost her bus ticket somewhere when she had pulled out other papers from her bag. The first bus turned her down even tho she did have her original paper receipt. Thankfully the next bus driver believed her, and we were quite relieved to have a ride and not have to purchase a new ticket! 

Tomorrow is a very early day, we will be leaving the Hotel by 4:30 a.m.  

Next post, Friday- Leaving London.