Friday, 12 August. We had a big breakfast before leaving on the 9:00 bus tour of London. There were 90 persons on the GCT tour, so there were two buses. We’d been to London twice before (1961 & 1988), but it was still very interesting. Much had changed, but much was still the same.

The first stop on the bus tour was at the Prince Albert Memorial, with the Royal Albert Hall and the School of Organists close by. Then we drove by the Natural History Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. All of these were in the immediate vicinity of our hotel.

 

 

Heading into the city, we passed Herrod’s Department Store, and Hyde Park (with its Speakers’ Corner and Marble Arch). Proceeding through Mayfair, we saw the U.S. Embassy on Grosvenor Square, continued through Piccadilly, and stopped at Buckingham Palace. There we saw the routine changing of the guard (as opposed to the large ceremony held weekly).

 

Back on the bus, we went by Victoria Station, Westminster Cathedral (Roman Catholic), Scotland Yard, Westminster Abbey (1065), the Parliament Building (with Big Ben), Downing Street, and Whitehall. We had another stop across the Thames from the London Eye.

 

 

I took the opportunity to take the steps up to the Millennium Bridge (pedestrians only), the newest span over the Thames. Then we drove through the Theater District and entered The City. This was the site of the original City of London, most of which burned in the Great Fire of 1666, commemorated by a large monument. We continued past the Royal Courts of Justice and the Old Bailey before stopping at St. Paul’s Cathedral. Because of the lack of any open space at the front of the Cathedral, you can't see its huge dome from that side. Fortunately the bus took us around to a back corner where the dome was visible (over the construction). There also was a nice garden there.

 

 

The bus then took us by London Bridge (relatively new, but on the site of the oldest bridge across the Thames). We had another stop across the river from the Tower of London where we also had a great view of Tower Bridge (1894).

 

Then, after looping around the Tower of London, we headed back to our hotel, passing through Trafalgar Square on the way. It was 12:15 when we got back, so we had a quick lunch at the hotel. Then we walked through the Victoria and Albert Museum for a couple of hours before returning to the hotel to rest.

 

We had ordered tickets to the musical, Mama Mia, through the concierge, so we wanted to eat dinner early. We found an Italian restaurant nearby and finished in time to catch a taxi at 7:30 for the Prince of Wales Theater. The theater hadn’t even opened its doors when we arrived, so we took the opportunity to walk around the Theater District. This was a Friday night, and it was swarming with people.

Our seats in the theater were excellent, seventh row right in the center. The musical was lighthearted and the performers excellent. It was over at 11:00. We expected it to be hard to get a taxi but, following the advice of the cab driver who’d brought us, we walked two short blocks to Haymarket and caught one right away. We were at our hotel by 11:20.

Part I - Page   1   2   3   4   5   6   7                    Go to:  Part II   Part III   Part IV