We are back in London! Andddd… we were off pretty early in the morning. Thanks once again to Cheena’s generous cousin, we had two vouchers for The Original Bus Tour of London. As far as we could see, London has two main operators who run these open-top sightseeing buses – The Original Tour and The Big Bus. Both of them are pretty frequent and the city is full of these buses (this is probably a “the grass is greener on the other side” reaction, but I thought I saw more of the Big Buses than the Original ones). You have 24/48/72 hour hop-on hop-off bus tickets and these tickets also come with free river cruises, walking tours etc.
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| Trafalgar Square - you can see The National Gallery in the bg |
Our first stop was the Charing Cross station. We got off the station, stopped by at Trafalgar Square and swore at the statue of the British guy(Sir Henry Havelock) who crushed the Sepoy Mutiny and stared at Master Yoda and a few other fools sitting mid-air in the square. We didn't lurk for too long and went straight to The Original London Visitor Centre, a few yards away from the square. We exchanged the vouchers for the 24-hour tickets and took the T1 route bus at its first stop.
The live guides in these open top buses are amazing. I wouldn't be exaggerating if I said they are the highlight of the tour – they are funny, intuitive and informative. They give you little details which probably won’t be available in any of the guide books that you will read, hidden spots that you are most likely to miss unless you knew it was there, snippets of history that only a Londoner would know.
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| TWININGS! Yes, the makers of the tea that you love! They are in this building from 1706 and it might interest my advertising compatriates to know that this logo was created in 18787 and is the oldest continuous logo still in use |
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| Bad picture, but see that golden seal on the wall? That means that this shop supplies to Royalty! |
I would recommend that you do one entire round in the bus before you hop-off at a stop. But we had an agenda, and we got off at the Buckingham Palace. We were lucky enough that we visited in September – the State Rooms of the palace are open only in the months of August and September when the Queen is in her other residence. The State Rooms are the public rooms of the palace, where the monarchs receive their guests. On entry, we bought the tickets, audio guides and a souvenir book. No pictures allowed.
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| View of the palace from the Buckingham Palace Gardens |
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The audio guide was brilliant and had precise and concise information on each of the attractions of every State Room. We couldn't stop gaping at the grandeur of the rooms and couldn't help thinking half of the grandeur probably came from the wealth of India. The tour of the State Rooms ended in the gardens of the palace. The sprawling garden occupies 42 acres and is home to a lot of birds. Apparently, the Queen holds her garden parties here. We sat down in one of the benches and clicked a few pictures. We spotted some birds while we were walking towards the exit. There is also an ice-cream parlour close to the exit. The Garden Shop has homeware, china, clothing and jewellery, children’s toys, books and postcards, all inspired by the Royal Collection, so the prices are also as royal. Of course, all the income from your purchase goes straight towards the care of the Royal Collection. Ahem ahem. There was no Change of Guard today at the palace, so we are planning to come back for it another day.
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| All the yummy food! |
Our next stop was a restaurant near Piccadilly Circus. Generous Cousin had booked us a table for traditional English afternoon tea. It was delectable. Finger-sized sandwiches, followed by scones with butter, jam and/or cream, an assortment of cakes and, of course, tea. Our menu also came with a glass of champagne. I hope our burps of gratitude reached the cousin :)
A free Thames River Cruise came with our ticket, so we decided to take that next. We hopped onto a bus again and enjoyed the guide’s commentary – every guide had something new to say about every place that we passed by. We missed the last cruise by a WHISKER. The ferry was supposed to leave at 6 pm and we despite running breathless from the bus stop, we reached the pier at 6:01 pm. AARRRGGHH. We cursed our luck, cursed the punctuality of the British and the fact that that was the last cruise. We sat down to catch our breath and then decided that since we were there, we might as well take some pictures outside the Tower of London :P 2014 is the centenary of the end of the First World War. To commemorate that, the Tower’s famous moat was completely filled with ceramic poppies. The project, titled Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, will be on display till 11 November this year, after which they would be sold. Each poppy represented a British military fatality during the war.
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| Cheena with the poppies |
After the photo session, we took the last bus of the day to London Eye (the last buses of the day leave at 6 pm from the first stop). We had bought the tickets earlier as a combination with Madame Tussauds and the guide told us it would be open until 8 pm, so we decided to get that done today. We saw a helicopter going overhead and the guide exclaimed that was probably Prince Harry who was going to party with his friends. It’s his birthday today. Happy Birthday, Prince Harry!
London Eye is overhyped. It is just a giant wheel with a capsule. But we got lucky as we got into the capsule just around sunset. We could see both the day view and the night view from the capsule. The capsule had a guide marking various landmarks that can be viewed from the London Eye. We couldn’t clearly see half of them, so we just stood in the capsule taking pictures of the Big Ben. London Eye also had a 4D show, but in comparison to the one in Madame Tussauds, this was pretty juvenile.
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| Big Ben and London Eye |
We recharged our Oyster card at the station and took the tube back to Ickenham. London’s superior public transport system is so convenient. I am so envious. India has a long way to go, but we should take solace that we are at least on the right path, if Delhi Metro is anything to go by. A thanks to the British rule is also in order for the railway infrastructure.
Expenses:
- Buckingham Palace tickets to view the State Rooms, audio guides and souvenir book - £45
- Oyster card top-up - £10
- Original Bus Tour 24 hours - Around £25, you can get group discounts. Also look out for special deals on the website
- Afternoon Tea(that was our lunch. lol) - gifted :)
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