DOUBLE DECKER BUSSES! BUCKINGHAM PALACE
Trip Start
Oct 01, 2008
1
306
320
Trip End
Sep 02, 2009
London, England, United Kingdom
Friday, August 21, 2009
We go across the street and get on a 109 to Brixton. It is a double decker bus and of course we go upstairs and sit in the very front seats! We enjoy being able to look at all the houses, buildings and shops along the streets. Some look so old, some are run down while others are very stately and well looked after. There are several parks along the way. The streets are narrow and lots of traffic, we wouldn't want to be a bus driver here.
Our bus goes through the old town of Lambeth, so I sing the song to Len:
If you go down Lambeth way,
Anytime of night or day,
You'll see them all
Doing the Lambeth walk. Hey!
No, we didn't see anyone doing the Lambeth walk, but wait, maybe we did and just didn’t know it.
We get off at Brixton and catch a Marble Arches bus into London Centre. It is so nice, if you stand there looking and talking about where you want to go to see what someone will talk to you and tell you which bus you should get on. Easy.
We catch a glimpse of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament across the Thames River and get off the bus. What a beautiful sight, the Parliament Buildings and Big Ben they are just so stately! We head towards them, but then we see the ferris wheel and go over there for a look. It is actually the London Eye. So we cross the street and go to have a look at the ferris wheel. It is cool! We decided not to go on it, it is a 30 - 45 minute ride all around and figure once you get on and have a look it would be a ho-hum ride. There are no seats in the compartments either.
There is a Dali sculpture along the walkway! I get to see something from him! Wow, it is unique and I am sure one of a kind.
We walk across the river and get a close up look at Big Ben and the Parliament Buildings, across is a statue of Churchill in the park, then we head towards Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards at 11:30. By the time we get there the place is just packed. We pass a tour group who tells us it is regular soldiers today in the guard group. Some have been to Afghanistan. There are tourists all over the place! We stand and wait for the change over inside the palace fence and for the guards coming off duty to come out. It was worth the wait as it is the Buzzbees who come out. (Buzzbees are the ones with the big black hats of fur.)
When it is over and some of the crowds are gone we walk and look at the Queen Victoria statue in the centre of the street or round-a-bout, the flowers and Canada Gates. We walk through St. James park lined with big old trees and over towards Piccadilly Circus.
It is a long walk so we hope on another double decker bus. Up on top and at the front. Our sunny days had now clouded over and just when we reach Piccadilly it begins to rain. We take some pictures and then go in for a bite to eat out of the rain.
When we come out the sun is shining so we walk down to Trafalgar Square with Nelson's Column, the 4 huge lion statues and 2 fountains. In the background is the National Gallery. After enjoying our walk about we go into the Gallery. This is incredible, it has so many paitings from so many great artists inside and the entry is free, just a donation please! I don't know of any place in the world that you could do this!
There are Rembrandts, Van Gogh’s - one of his Sunflowers painting is here, da Vinci's, Michelangelo, Raphael, Rubens, Monet were amongst the names we specifically sought out to look at. I think one could spend 5 or 6 days in here to really have a good look at it all.
The out into the sunshine and stop in at St. Martin-in-the-field Church. It is quite simple compared to the ones that we have seen.
We are headed back to see Westminster Abby, on the way we go by #10 Downing Street where the PM lives. At first I couldn't figure out what all the gates and guards on the street were. Way back when I walked up to the front of the door and had my picture taken right there. Today you can't even see the door, let alone get close to it. How times have changed.
We find that Westminster Abby is closed. It is only open for tourists from 9 to 3:30. No tourists at all on Sundays. We look for a good fish and chip pub and find one on Stoughton Ground.
Full and tired we take our 2 or maybe 3 busses back to Croydon (not Crowley). We sit up top at the front of course. What a great day!
