London - Days one, two and three

London

Day 1

After a 4 hour drive and our first experience on the London Tube network and a ride in a London cab we arrived at our hotel in Earls Court called My Place Hotel.

Well this was the start of a not very pleasant experience. We were booked in for 8 nights but in two different rooms- one for 3 nights and one for 5 so that meant packing and unpacking leaving our things in a downstairs, unlocked room for the day or wasting a day hanging around the hotel. The rooms were not the cleanest and everything felt really grubby. We were offered a room with no natural air and a small window that did not open and no aircon for the 8 nights or do the change over. Not at all impressed but we had no real choice as we had prepaid and there was nothing else in our price range or a little higher available- London is a very busy city. There was one plus to the first room and that was it had a small balcony but everything in this place looked like it was going to fall down at any time.

That was day one.

View from the above balcony

Day two and three

Not knowing much about London we decided to get a ticket for the hop on hop off bus tour of the city. This had to be used in 24 hrs and included a trip down the river Thames (main river slicing through London) and a walking tour. This bus proved to be of good value as it gave us a very good overview of the city. We hopped off the bus at the Tower of London Bridge and caught the boat up to Greenwich and saw the Greenwich Tower where time is governed. 

If you look closely in the background you will see The Meridian Building, which since 1884 has been the starting point of global measurement for space and time. The red Time Ball rises every day at 13.00 hours

Upon returning we saw the bridge open, an event that hardly ever happens, as a flotilla of ships and boats had a run through for next years celebration of the Queens jubilee.

                                          

The opened Tower of London Bridge

A closeup of one of the towers

A view from the boat tour

Next day we hopped back on the bus to do another section of London.

On the way to the tour we passed Trafalgar Square and of course had to take the usual pics.

About 10am every day 2 eagles are let loose in the square to fly around and scare off the pigeons. It really works as the 4 massive bronze lions that are the corners of the statue of Napoleon are beautifully clean and of course we all know what pigeons can do to a place. Then they are called back in by their keeper until tomorrow.

One of the beautiful massive lions

This cup of coffee was only a medium. We ordered them without knowing but we do now.

 These buses have a number of different routes you can take so you can start one route hop off and join another- good way of getting around as well. Saw the changing of the Horse Guards, very different to the famous changing of the guards. 

This monument to The Women of World War was in the middle of the road next to the Changing of the Horse Guard. It was a very impressive monument.

Changing of the Horse Guards

Also went to the London Dungeon, don’t know how I got convinced to do this, as I am a woose and don’t even watch scary movies. Not as bad as first imagined and did survive to spend the day roaming London’s south bank as we just happened to be there for the River Thames Festival. A very carnival atmosphere with lots of performances, stalls of all variety, food outlets and of course drinks at the many pubs along the bank.

The London dungeon

 Stumbled back into our ‘gorgeous room’ 12 hours after leaving.