Another busy day ahead. Went to the train station early again which made it an expensive ticket as it wasn’t off-peak so instead of ten pound it cost us 19 pound. We certainly use it though, getting on and off all the time at different locations. We went to the London Eye first off but found it was too expensive and took too long so we decided to pass on that one. We went down to the bus stop to catch the hop on/hop off that we’d bought a ticket for the previous day. Whilst standing there we turned around and there was Big Ben (the bell), with the parliament buildings, very impressive. So we then jumped on the bus with the intention of getting to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard but we obviously got the wrong one that took us everywhere else first and by the time we got to Buckingham Palace the event had already started. We were a bit disappointed because they are only every second day at the moment and by the time we got there people were everywhere as you can imagine but we did manage to get a good spot directly in front for when they all came out. It is all a lot of pomp and ceremony but a great spectacle all the same.
We left there and headed for Westminster Abbey. We spent a good couple of hours in there, so much to see with the help of an audio guide to explain everything. We asked a gentleman who I think was a volunteer helper a question and stood and chatted with him for a bit near the end, he was very interesting, an ex commando.
By this stage it was 2:00pm and we were starving as we hadn’t had anything so we found a café and had some delicious home made soup. Then we headed to the dock as the hop on/hop off bus included a boat trip down the Thames. We got on that and it, although they say they are not guides, included a bit of commentary. Actually he didn’t stop from the moment we got on but he was very informative and quite funny at times, it was also good to get another perspective of the city.
After the boat trip we jumped back on the Underground and went to Piccadilly Circus. Having been there before I was quite disappointed as it just didn’t seem to be as it was before. In fact we have noticed a lot of work going on all over London with scaffolding and construction which is obviously in preparation for the Olympics but has put a bit of a dampener on some of the sights. Anyway it was getting late into the afternoon so we didn’t hang around long before getting the train back to Potter’s Bar. By the time we got there it was about 6:00pm so we went straight to the local pub for dinner. We walked in and ordered a drink and a guy standing at the bar starting talking to us obviously recognising our accents. We chatted to him for a bit, he had just come back from a 3 year stint in Perth and his girlfriend who is from Perth was coming over here to live for 2 years. We left him to have our dinner which we both enjoyed immensely. We had another couple of drinks and then made our way back to the house, exhausted once again. We chatted with Anne and Alan for a while and then headed to bed. I think it is all starting to catch up with us and unconsciously knowing it is nearly time to come home we are starting to feel the toll it is taking!! We have had a great time on our trip and although at times we want to continue and not come home we are looking forward to catching up with everyone but also have the hassle of how we are going to get home from the airport.
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