London, Baby!

On July 13, Dad and I took a train into London, and a hop on/hop off tour of London, which also included a few walking tours (not possible to do all in one day, though). For you Harry Potter fans, there is indeed a "Platform 9 3/4" at King's Cross Station! A cute little brick wall with a luggage trolley stuck halfway through. And yes, I did do the touristy thing and had my picture taken with it, but I digress. We just barely arrived at the Visitor Center in time to begin the tour that goes to Buckingham Palace and sees the Changing of the Guard. Unfortunately our tour guide was a bit of a speed-demon. He walked at such a rapid pace I couldn't have kept up with him if I wanted to! And, of course, when we arrived at the castle, everyone and their brother was there, and we ended up losing the walking tour entirely. So we said screw them, and went off in search of the bus. We then travelled toe Westminster Abbey and saw Big Ben (which I always thought was the name of the tower, but turns out it is the name of the 13 ton bell inside!). After some lunch with a psychotic waitress (she was running around like a womqn on fire), we got back on the bus. It was one of the open-air buses, so we sat on the top. The tour was actually very nice, and we even got to see Fleet St. (for all you Sweeney Todd fans). We thought about taking the Jack the Ripper walking tour; but it was a bit long and we would have missed our boat cruise, which was very nice. It was similar to the one we did for Flo's Hen Do, but this one went to Greenwich. After the cruise we had dinner at the Sherlock Holmes Pub, where we both had traditional "Bangers & Mash" which was actually quite tasty; I could have done without the gravy on my Yorkshire pudding, though.