Our Tour of London - Day 1

Warning... this is a picture-filled post!

With only 3 full days left in the UK, Hubby and I left Aberdeen (and the wonderful hospitality of my cousin's family) and boarded our little British Airways flight to London.  As daunting as Heathrow and London can be, we chose to pay a little extra and take the Heathrow Express train straight to Paddington Station where we chose to stay as our home base.  Thanks to Hubby's Hilton Honor points, we had a very nice room in the Hilton Paddington Station and didn't have far to lug our big bags through London to our hotel room.

Hanging out with Paddington Bear in Paddington Station,
 our temporary "home"

We didn't spend a lot of time at the hotel unpacking.  Nope - we wanted to get out and see as much of London as we could in our limited time in this big beautiful city!  We got directions from the concierge at the hotel and then took off on foot on a somewhat long and interesting walk in search of Victoria Station and a night bus tour of the city.  Nothing like seeing a major city all lit up at night!  Here are just a couple highlights for your viewing pleasure:

British Parliament Building 

Tower Bridge

St. Paul's Cathedral

Bright and early Thursday morning we bought tickets for the 24 hour Hop on, Hop off tour which we were delighted to find out was actually good for 48 hours!  The bus stop to get on was across the street from our hotel which was super handy and the tour included a river cruise too.  Talk about great value!

Our tour officially started here, at the Marble Arch...

Didn't know I was that strong, did ya?

and we winded our way through the busy streets along Oxford and Regent streets into Piccadilly Circus...

Piccadilly Circus doesn't look much like a circus in daylight

and over towards Trafalgar Square...

Trafalgar Square

Looking down from Trafalgar Square to Parliament

Admiralty Arch looking down
The Mall towards Buckingham Palace

Did you know that only the Queen and Royal Family are allowed to go through that middle arch here and this is actually arches in an actual building?  I just read they are planning to make a luxury hotel in the building.  As you can see from the picture below... that sucker is locked tight!  It's only used for ceremonial processions.

If you look closely, you can see Buckingham Palace
and Queen Victoria's statue in front of the palace

We made our first stop off the bus at the Horse Guards Palace to take in the Changing of the Guards ceremony.  

Ceremonial Waiting

Here come the other Guards

Hey... you looking at me?

That horse looks like he's sizing up Hubby & Belle

Looking back up towards Trafalgar Square

Little did we know while we were at the Horse Guards Palace, but we were blocks from Downing Street where the British Prime Minister lives.  They block the street now so we couldn't have gotten close anyways.  We hopped back on the bus at this point, and got off again near the Parliament buildings.

Majestic Parliament

We made it to this area of London just in time to hear Big Ben (the bell inside the Queen's Tower) chime Noon.  Perfect timing that wasn't even planned.  At this point in our tour we decided to get off the buses and take our free River Thames cruise.  From this vantage point we got a great view of the London Eye ferris wheel and highlights along the riverfront on both side of the Thames.

The London Eye

Shakespeare Globe Theater

Tower Bridge and Naval Ships

Our ride up the river ended at the Tower of London so we disembarked and decided to take the tour of this ancient fortress.

Hanging out with the Guards

These Beef Eaters look thrilled to be taking a pic
with me, don't you think?

Tower Bridge from inside the Tower of London

The Crown Jewels are in here... and they are GORGEOUS!

At this site many beheadings took place - Gruesome I know!

On duty guarding the fortress

Off with his head!  (Not really thank goodness...  I rather like his head!)

Poor Snoopy... his younger siblings are taking revenge

After our tour of the Tower (and the exquisite Crown Jewels) we hopped back on our cruise to head back to our starting point.  Once back on terra firma we walked back across the bridge at Parliament to  take a spin on the London Eye.  (It was here, walking across the bridge, that Hubby saw a guy pickpocket an Asian tourist.  He tried to tell her but she seemed to blow him off.  Hope the guy in her purse didn't get much!)

So off we ventured to the exciting London Eye to get a bird's eye view of London from the safety of a beautiful glass globe:

The cart before us... filled with gobs of school kids

Parliament from the air

Looking up

Great views from up here, don't you think?

St. Paul's area from high above

Zooming in on Buckingham Palace from the London Eye

Is that Trafalgar Square way down there?

My Honey and I enjoying our ride in the sky

After our ride on the London Eye, we head back to the bus stop so we could grab the rest of our hop on , hop off tour but unfortunately the bus driver didn't understand what we were asking and we ended up missing the middle of our tour and were headed back towards our hotel.  Fortunately for us, this worked out as it started to rain and we were forced down below of our open-topped bus.  Unfortunately, we missed out on getting off the bus in Knightsbridge and this was the closest we got to the famous (and massive) department store, Harrods...

Harrods in Knightsbridge

So... that was our first day of touring London.  I'll stop here for this post but will be back to give you the highlights of our 2nd day on our hop on, hop off and our 3rd day of touring.  Cheerio for now!