Day 20

Day 20 (yeah, I know it's out of sequence):
Chuck posting - so we made it in last night from Paris via the Chunnel train.  Here we are in London. The city and 2 days of the trip that I am responsible for.  Whoo boy, big mistake to put me in charge! So, my original plan was to take a bike tour.  But because we were worried about rainy weather (I know, why worry about that in London?) we did not book and pay for a tour in advance.  Weather as of last night was predicted to be cool and sunny today, turning overcast in the afternoon and possibly rain.  But it would have potentially started after the bike tour finished.

As we sat at breakfast this am, it started to rain.  Sadly, I did not have a real backup plan should it rain.  It wasn't a heavy rain, but there was quite a bit of wind, and it wasn't going to be very warm (mid 50's to 60 for a high).  As we sat there and I quietly lamented the weather, I noticed 2 people in front of the hotel restaurant and they appeared to be giving out pamphlets or selling tickets, and then I saw it was for 2 different city bus tours.  My problems were solved!  After breakfast I would go out and check on the possibilities.  But Karen noticed pamphlets in the hotel lobby, and after we talked to the concierge, we arranged a bus tour on a double decker system with an open air top.  We also arranged tickets to the London Tower and our shuttle for tomorrow's trip to the airport.

The bus tour started cold (rain had stopped) but it was quite enjoyable.  It was slow going (it seemed half of Europe was visiting London, and they were all on buses or on the road on bikes or in cars.)  The audio tour was pretty good.  We got around to quite a few sights.  While we talked about one of the walking tours (Harry Potter film areas in london - free as part of the bus tour) and London Tower, as well as a boat ride, it became apparent we wouldn't be able to do everything.  The bus was too slow, and traffic was huge.  We stopped for the London Tower tour.

London Tower was awesome.  Lots of history.  Most of it from the medieval period,  Built and rebuilt over the time period of 1060 or so to 1250 it was a true fortress.  In those and future times, the kings and queens rarely lived in one place for a long period of time.  They traveled back and forth quite a bit.  It appeared that this trend seemed to end in the 1700's or 1800's.  We had a guide for a short bit of time (it rained again, ending that) so we switched to an audio tour.  We saw their Fusilier's museum, the infamous White Tower, their execution and chapel for interment, the torture rooms, and the CROWN jewels.  Yeah, they keep some impressive Crown Jewels there.  In fact, the big diamond on the end of the Queen's sceptre is about 500 carats.  Cut from a raw diamond that weighed in over 3,000 carats (yeah, thats three thousand). What was funny was, at the end of the Crown Jewels building tour, there was a small offering container at the exit tour accepting donations to maintain the Crown Jewels tower and the rest of the London Tower.  For some reason, I shouldn't think the royal family and the government of England would need the donations...  haha.

It was a great tour.  Definitely worth it.  We left the tour and took the short boat cruise that was part of the bus tour and went back to Westminster Abbey.  This time, we had a live guide, and he was humorous and fascinating.  Then we strolled some of the more interesting areas.  We had already been on the bus through the Oxford district, which is a huge shopping district.  (Includes the Selfridge department store - the one that is currently depicted on the PBS/BBS show).  What huge throngs of people.  Anyway, we got dinner in Chinatown, walked around Leicester square and Trafalgar Square, and watched a group performing with a large street crowd.  I took some video of that, pretty funny.  Grabbed a large piece of double chocolate cake to eat.  Yum.  Some more downtown entertainment, and then an easy tube (subway) ride back to within a block or 2 of our hotel and finally, we can take a break.

Not looking forward to leaving tomorrow.  We will probably visit Buckingham Palace, but cannot go in.  We did watch the changing of the guard at the London Tower.  It was not a faked change, but a real changing of the guard.

Well, till tomorrow.