London Day 1

I glanced at a local map to see where the train station was located the previous night. I had hoped to have enough time in the morning to get a better idea of how to get there from the campsite. I didn’t, so we ended up walking in the general direction. It did take us longer than planned. We anticipated a 30 minute walk, and it took nearly 45 minutes. This made us miss the train into London, which in turn would make us late for the free tour. The train was more expensive than any other we have used to date on our trip. £28.60 for the both of us, this included all forms of transport for the day including the train there and back. Luckily while we were on the train heading into London we learnt of a faster train we could switch to. We did the switch and managed to arrive just before the tour left its meeting point. We missed the intro, but managed to understand what the arch was for and the nearby mansion. This tour was focused on the Royal area and new parts of London. The tour we will take tomorrow focuses on Old London. Today’s tour started us off at the Wellington Arch and from there we made our way in front of Buckingham palace to watch the Changing of the Guards ceremony. During the off season they only do the ceremony on odd days, this is why we needed to meet this tour today. The crowds of people were impressive for being out of season and the guide said it was mainly due to the fabulous weather they were having (best he has had this time of year). We then cut across a park to walk down a famous street that has many Gentlemen’s clubs. We also passed by the old Royal residence which was mainly red brick and looked to blend into the buildings on either side. After seeing it you can understand why they switched to Buckingham palace (Buckingham palace was built for the duke of Buckingham but he was forced to sell it to the king who had grown quite fond of it). We then walked through another arch that led onto Mall street, which is the official gateway for the queen to enter Buckingham Palace. The street itself is painted red so it resembles a red carpet. The interesting thing about the arch is that the builder had a nose placed high enough for a man on horseback to touch as they rode by, strange, but nevertheless interesting. Then it was off to Trafalgar square, what is considered the center of London. In the square there were two large fountains with funny looking lions. We then walked over to the horse grounds across from St James Park. Here, we learnt that the pelicans in the park have been eating pigeons (video). We could also see a bunker from WWII which is still in use and not open to the public, as was the street where the government homes are located. The Horse Parade area is going to be used in the upcoming Olympics for beach volleyball. It was awful, but we took the guides advice (along with everyone else) to enter another set of gates to take photos of guards. These guards are of the horse division and stand guard of the entry through the gates. To see so many people snapping photos and posing with them was just awful. Out of the 4 guards, only one seemed to enjoy it. We pressed on from here to the very impressive Westminster Abbey and “Big Ben”. This is where the tour finished. Julie and I walked from here to see the famous London eye but not ride it. We decided to head back towards Piccadilly Circus, as there was a very large book store with over 7 floors (Whitestones) and the tourist office was also nearby. We stopped at a Pizza hut for their buffet, as it was only £5.99 all you can eat. We then walked back to Trafalgar square to check out the national portrait gallery before I threw in the towel again. My knee is even worse today after such a long walk and I couldn’t bear to continue any longer.