European Vacation part 3

The next day we had a hop on hop off, open top, two tiered bus tour of London.  The desk clerk at the hotel had pointed us off in the wrong direction and we got to explore more of London before finding the bus stop.  We traded in our voucher at the bus and off we went.  

Our first stop was Buckingham Palace.  It was very fun to see but extremely crowded. I would not advice touring London on a Saturday.  Everywhere we went was packed and hard to get around.  I thought we should take a nice “little” walk around Buckingham Palace.  There is nothing to see around the palace except a fence and barbwire, so not the best use of our time. 

We hopped back on the bus and headed around some more.  We thought we would go into Westminister Abbey but there was quite a line and I had wasted too much time at Buckingham Palace.  I really wanted to tour London Tower.   So we hopped back on the bus. 

London Tower is the oldest standing palace in London.  It was built by William the Conqueror of France.  We purchased our tickets at the bus and that saved us a little time.  Inside we got to see the crown jewels, the torture room, the different kings armor, and walk around.  I recommend that if you would like to see the crown jewels you save it for the last stop at the tower because the line was 1 ½ hours when we were ther e but when we left there were very few people. 

Next we took a ride on the Thames.  Our bus tour included a boat ride down the Thames.  I really enjoyed the ride.

The next day was the cruise day.  So before the bus picked us up at the hotel, I went for a lovely morning walk past the Abby and to Big Ben, and got a little shopping in.  Then it was on to the boat.  The boat had had some illnesses on it’s last cruise so the were doing a deep cleaning.  It took quite a while before we could board but then we were off for Spain.

Here I am at Buckingham Palace

Looking at the London Eye on our hop on hop off bus tour

Tower of London

Can't take pictures inside

Torture Yikes

Cute little taxi in London