London

Tuesday, 5 July

Sunny to begin with. We found our way to Golden Tours for the bus tour (I actually thought we’d booked the Evan Evans tour.) Mostly Americans on board, of course. First stop was Westminster Abbey and we had an hour there – not nearly long enough to wander around and appreciate it. I bought a gargoyle in the souvenir shop.

H near Westminster Abbey

Our guide then took us on a walking tour to get good positions for the changing of the guard at Buck House. She knew of course where they would be when and got us in position early enough for the best photo opportunities. We then walked over to the Albert pub for lunch, ending up sitting with an American family with whom we didn’t talk. They were not inclined and I didn’t care. The food was average.

It was then onto a river cruise. It had rained by now (of course) and there was a cold wind. Saw the Globe Theatre, the horrible dominating big wheel that is the London Eye(sore) and a view of some cigar-shaped building which was new also. We berthed near the Tower of London but the rain and the very short time we had there made it disappointing. There wasn’t enough time to view the crown jewels (crowded and slow to get through) as well as one of the towers. Not enough time to see the armour, for example. All very commercialised now. Far different from when I’d seen it in the 70s. That was it. The advertised visit to St Pauls was simply a brief stop to see it from the outside. Whoop de doo. Apparently we were too late to go inside. Huh.


We got dropped off at various points and we chose Convent Garden and looked at the market and ‘mall’. H was happy to see some ‘real’ punks. Bought some food at Marks and Spencer and caught the tube back to the hotel.

Welsh online friend, E, tried to call me during the tour. He said he couldn’t make it to London to meet me. Disappointing, but expected.