London Continues

Jet lag over - Let the fun begin!

After a couple of lazy days and meeting up with friends in London - Tom and Bec, Ringo, Steve and Suz, it was time to hit the tourist trail in a big way.

Day 2.

First on the list the famous 221b Baker St - home and office of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. A bike ride through Regent's Park on hire bikes from the one of the hundreds of bikestations dotted around London and cruised around the park where we saw a squirel and a giraffe - oh I may have forgotten to mention that the London zoo is located within Regents Park and you could see straight through into the giraffe enclosure.

Day 3

A Big Bus tour around London which we then used for transport for the next couple of days provided a great commentary of the city and ensured we didnt miss a thing. We also purchased a London Pass - ebtry pass for the majority of interesting attractions and sites around London - BTW if you ever want to buy one of these just pick one up from the tourist offce when you arrive DO NOT prebuy on the internet or you will wait in line for a whole morning as poor Tom and Bec found out.

Trafalgar square with the monument to Nelson and massive fountains commemorating his victory (and consequent death) at the battle of Trafalgar.

10 Downing St - home of the primeminister of England and underneath this building and its surrounding streets the Cabinet War Rooms - underground war bunker of Winston Churchill during the London Blitz. Dave also found another Churchill - CLIVE. We dont actually know who "Clive" was but his statue was outside the Churchill museum so we decided it was Clive Churchill in the history according to Dave and Cass.

Tower Bridge - not to be confused with the London Bridge - Londoners are very concerned about this fact.

The Tower of London where we had an entertaining Yeoman (Beefeater) tour - yes Dad they included the Welcome Home Australians for us. The tour guide "Bob" explained the history of the towers and various uses including treasurey, armory, palace, prison, torture dungeon and execution ground for politial prisoners most notibly Anne Boelyn. We also saw the crown jewels and various other royal treasures. Wishing that Dave had the money to buy me a star of Africa what a ROCK! You can tell where my interests lie.

We cruised up the Thames back to Westminster - a lovely way to view the city.

We ended up meeting Ringo and his girlfriend Rachel again on the Southern Bank of the Thames and finished the evening with a ride on the London Eye. Amazingly our ride took place at 9pm and the sun was only beginning to set! We had a perfectly uninterrupted view of the city - ahhhhh London weather dont know what the Poms complain about really....