Day 04 - London

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Day 04 - London

Another early start with everyone awake before 7:00am, and down to breakfast before rush hour.  We are all loving the breakfast buffet and eating up, but its not stopping us from being hungry throughout the day and wanting to eat as we travel around the city.  I feel like I have put on a kilo already.

All still a little tired from jet lag and the walking yesterday, today we decided on recruiting a hop-on hop-off sightseeing bus to show us the sights of London.  There's a bunch of different companies, that by their own admission do all the same places, so we opted for “The Original Tour Bus” company because we spoke to them first, they were a little cheaper and offered a Thames River cruise.

Our first onboard guide on the bus was Brazilian and while lovely was difficult to understand.  Half way round, we got a very prim and proper english gentleman with a wicked sense of humour which made the trip all the more interesting.  We passed by most of London's main tourist attractions, choosing to stay on the bus, as the kids enjoyed sitting down for a change.  Crossing the Thames at Waterloo, we travelled Fleet Street through the banking sector of the world.  Apparently there are more American banks on Fleet Street than in NYC and more Japanese Banks than in Tokyo.  We Passed St Paul's Cathedral - designed by Christopher Wren, who apparently was commissioned to design many of London's monuments and churches in the day, and then we did a loop across London Bridge and Tower Bridge before heading back past the Tower of London.

The trip then headed back into (what we call) central London - Westminster where the traffic was ridiculous.  We passed Leicester Sq and Piccadilly Circus, before headed west along Pall Mall and learning about all the "Gentleman's Clubs".  And as our funny english guy said, "not the type that allow any women into" - although this is slowly changing, with a female Prime Minister. 

We then passed Hyde Park corner on the way to Marble Arch and along Park Lane - passing all London's exclusive hotels.  Apparently GBP26,000 for a night in a penthouse in one.  This is where we changed buses and headed further west toward Kensington Gardens and our objective of getting to the Natural History Museum.


WOW - what a building.  We prioritised the Natural History Museum as everyone had said that it is one of the best - especially for the kids.  We were disappointed that the T-Rex (skeleton) was "out of town", we assume on loan to another museum, as this was a big draw card.  There was plenty to see and do and the kids really enjoyed the human biology section, but it really gets quite overwhelming as to what to see and do.  Given we only had a couple of hours, after spending time taking in the grandeur of the building and seeing the rest of the dinosaurs on exhibit we were happy to call it a day on our sightseeing.




We passed the famous Harrods and some typically english residential streets with rows of white terrace housing on the way back to the Hotel.  Everyone still really tired it was dinner back in the room and an early night for all.
Location: 3-1 Belvedere Rd, South Bank, London SE1 7GN, UK

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