We arrived in London about 3:30 pm yesterday afternoon. Our flight from Dubai was really good and Terry was very happy to get seats that are right by the exit door meaning he had the extra leg room. These seats are also right beside the attendant station and I was amazed at how busy they are. At the end of the flight we had wait to land so we started chatting to two of the flight attendants that sat in fold down seats for take off and landing. They we both lovely and told us about their job and where they were from.
Driving into London from the airport you could almost think we were home in Australia. That was until we hit outer suburbs...then it started to look like a different country.
The hotel is very different to our one in Dubai, but it's clean comfortable, in a good location and right opposite Russells Square, which is a lovely park. We've noticed they do things a little in London. When we walked in the door of our room there were two single beds. Terry and I just looked at each other and laughed. Andie had told us this happens quite a bit and we thought she had booked a double for us so we were a bit surprised the room had single beds. Luckily It was no problem changing the room,
For our first day in London we decided to get a ticket for one of the on-off buses. This turned out to be great but we didn't get to see as much as we thought we would.
Our first stop was St Paul's Catheral. This is a spectular church with so much to see and learn. I thought we would spend about an hour there but ended up staying over two hours. The inside of the church is beautiful but I found myself feeling quite emotional when I was looking around. You could feel how special this place is and how it has provided comfort and guidance for millions of people. Today we walked in the footsteps of royalty...up the aisle to where Charles and Diana got married.
The other incredible thing about this church is that you can climb to the top of the dome up through the whispering gallery where apparently you can whisper on one side and it can be heard anywhere around the gallery. There is a total of 583 steps that spiral up to the top where you have an amazing view of whole city. The higher you got, the tighter the steps got. At one stage I thought I was starting to get dizzy. Not sure if it was the height, the constant spiralling or my lack of fitness. When you get to the top, you look through a small window in the floor and see the patterned tiled floor down at ground level. The height is eqivalent to a 26 story building. The view from the top was well worth the climb and coming down was much easier!
The next stop was the Tower of London. This is where the crown jewels are kept. Unfortunately you are not allowed to take photos in this building.
The other area that was interesting and quite amusing was where all the amoury is displayed. Henry VIII must been an interesting character. He obvious took producing an heir very seriously. Check out his armour...talk about protecting the "crown jewels", this taking it to a whole new level.
Our last thing for the day was to take a ferry ride down the Thames. From the ferry you could see lots of sites like the Tower Bridge, London Bridge, the Big Ben Tower and the London Eye. I have my ticket booked to go on the eye tomorrow morning. These sights were pointed out to us by a young guy who told us he wasn't employed as a guide, just a boat hand, but he had taken upon himself to make the journey a bit more interesting. He was very good and I have sneaking suspicion he is actually more than a boat hand.
At the end of the day we found a lovely chinese restaurant up the road from us and on the way back we walked through Russell Square where Terry found a new friend.
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