Well, this is our last day in London and there is so much to see and we got off to an early start.
The first thing we had to do was get some washing done and luckily there was a laundromat just down the road from our hotel. While we were waiting it to finish we went for a walk and found beautiful little park. That's one of the things I've noticed about London, they have lots of pretty parks. This one was next to the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital.
We wandered around the Queen Square Garden that is lined with park benches which all had a dedication plaque on them. These dedictions were to hospital staff and people who spent most of the life in the area. Like all dedications, some were sweet, some were sad, and some were just tragic.
With the washing done, we took our first London taxi to our next hotel in Marble Arch. London streets are filled with these and you have to travel in one at least once. I was surprised at how roomy they are inside.
Arriving at the Thistle Marble Arch Hotel we were pleasantly surprised...we're back to being spoilt. The hotel is beautiful! It's about two minutes walk to Hyde Park. Hyde Park is massive and where the memorial to Princess Diana is, but we ran out of time to explore it. We did get to see the Marble Arch though. This was originally the entrance to Buckingham Palace but Queen Victoria decided she didn't like it, so it was relocated to Hyde Park. Theses royals are a fickle bunch, imagine relocating this!
Got to see Trafalgar Square from the bus...probably should have got off to look but the view from the top of the bus was pretty good. If you got off at every stop it would take days to see it all.
I did get my ride on the London Eye though. This is one thing I didn't even try to persude Terry to do. The view from the top are so amazing that I'm not even going to try to describe it.
The pay off for Terry was that he wanted to try English fish and chips. There happened to be a shop right next to the Eye so that's where we had lunch. Not bad!
Our next stop was Buckingham Place. When we got off the bus there was a massive queue of ladies dressed up and waiting to get in the palace. I asked some ladies what the occasion was and it was the Queen's garden party and it's invitation only. They were so excited and almost giggling like little school girls. Imagine what they would be like if the actually met the queen! My invite must have got lost in the mail! The queue was quite a spectacular sight with ladies of all ages dressed in there finest garden party dresses and hats.
As we headed for our next stop we were passing Harrods and both thought we need to stop here just to say that we'd been there. Now, theres a place you could waste a few days in. You walk through the door and you don't know where to look, but we decided just to check out the food hall. Pretty amazing!
The next photo is a bit dodgy...must has changed the camera setting and not realised but they all turned out like from inside Harrods. Isn't the ceiling so over the top!
Part of the loop was Notting Hill. We are both fans of the movie so we thought we would check it out. Couldn't find where the shot the movie but it's an interesting area. All the shops we really cheap and it's definitely where the more alternative types hang out. This is also just near Kensington Palace and thought we'd pop in and congratulate William and Kate on the arrival of Charlotte, but they weren't in. Kate was probably at the garden party...she obviously got her invitation.
Final trip on the Big Bus.
We got back to the hotel about 5:30 to meet the tour guide and he suggested a little pub down the road for dinner. It was great! Typical english pub atmosphere, great food and really cheap. Have to thank Nigel for that one.
Another day down and we've have a great time in London. Again too much to see and not enough time. We got to see most of the sites even if was just from the top of a bus.
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