A double-decker coach ride is an adventure unto itself. Freeways are very modern, smooth and flat. But at highway speeds the road isn't as flat as you might think and the bus tends to rock precariously as it throws itself down the highway and during lane changes. The coach itself was a wonder, with executive class seats, a restroom, hot and cold drinks and a view of the countryside that was unprecedented. We came back to Bristol on the same coach and by that time the swaying of the bus was unnoticeable, except for a couple of gyrations and while trying to drink tea.
The coach driver was utterly amazing when confronted with the city of London itself. How that driver was able to maneuver that "big box" through the London streets was awesome. Not only was he able to get us to our destination; he was able to trim back all the overhanging trees.
What was our overall impression of London? - "Busy," lots of people everywhere. The tourist areas were jammed with people from all over the world with their maps in their hands (it was hard to hear anyone speaking English) and the local streets were just jammed with local people.
The bus dropped us at the "Marble Arch", the "Speaker's Corner" of Hyde Park. With our newly acquired walking skills we decided to walk along the park to Wellington Square and cross over to Buckingham Palace. As we came in though the back gate of the Palace the mounted guard was just finishing but the marching guard was still going through its drill - "the changing of the guard". The Changing of the Guard is sorta old hat to us having seen the Danish one during our 1988 trip. But, watching the people watching the guards is always interesting.
We crossed Park Lane and Piccadilly using underpasses without incident, but that left us on an island, Wellington's Arch Square. We finally found an old fashion stoplight crossing to the Buckingham's grounds. Crossing the square in front of the Palace took at least three different street-level crossings with Bobbies with whistles for anyone not within the lines - most crossings were out of the way.
St. James's Park is very nice little park with a lake and loads of exotic birds. We saw a swan standing on the bank panhandling the tourists for a handout - very unusual behavior for swans, but has be got closer we found the big white bird to be a pelican - not unusual
We still had time for lunch before "The Eye" - the bus company had suggested we be at the Eye an hour early. So, we started looking for lunch. Ever since we had left the Marble Arch I had been on the lookout for places to eat. We would need to get something to eat for the trip home, too. There was nothing - I wouldn't expect anything at Buckingham Palace. As we got to the Westminster Bridge, at Westminster Underground Station, we found a "Tesco". Tesco is a grocery chain very big and popular in England. The stores come in various sizes and this one was one of their smaller ones (about the size of a Seven-Eleven. This store was obviously set-up for lunches and picnics - just what we needed. We picked up a couple of deli salads, a cheese bread, something to drink and then we had a picnic on the bank of the River Thames.
After the Eye, we crossed the river for a pre-booked cruise of the River Thames. The above picture of the Eye shows two different cruise boats in the foreground. We took the one on the right. The London tour boat had to have been the sister ship to the Paris tour boat except it had fixed speakers instead of the goofy handheld jobs and everything was only in English. The most interesting part of the trip was the new "London Bridge" and the number of ultra modern buildings appearing in the London skyline
I didn't think of the River Thames as being an estuary, but there were signs of significant changes in the height of the river. There were several barges anchored out in the river off of some massive municipal buoys. The river was running at about four knots but it was the wrong way. The river was running upstream. The pilot on the river cruise said that the tidal extremes at London can be as much as 27 feet. This caused the cruise boat lots of problems as we tried to dock back at the pier. The pier had been set up for a downstream current and so an upstream current really raised problems. Took us several minutes to tie up and he had to run the engines in reverse to hold us in place while the passengers unloaded..
After the river trip we headed back to the bus, it was about four o'clock but we were starting to get tired. We had signed in for the 7:00 return bus, but had been told that we could jump to either the 5:00 or the 6:00. We decided to head back to the Marble Arch a different way. We walked the River to the Train Bridge and turned left to Trafalgar Square, cut over to Haymarket. Took Haymarket to Piccadilly Circus, switched to Regents Street to Oxford and then Oxford to the Marble Arch. From Trafalgar Square on this route were all the downtown retail businesses.
At the various intersections it became obvious that the majority of the people on the street were locals. When we came to intersections we would wait dutifully for the light to change. The locals would stream pass us without penalty. We did come to one crossing and all the locals moved across the bus lane and waited on an island for the light change. We waited and finally feeling a little foolish, went ahead. A cab came rushing out of nowhere and nearly ran over us - cabs can use the bus lane. It had become obvious that the local foot traffic was heavy and these people were not tourists.
Finally the street that never ends ?-ended. We were at the Marble Arch, but on the wrong side of Park Lane. We walked a couple of blocks down Park until we found an underpass and ended up at the Coach Stop. It was 5:10 - we had missed the 5:00.
We waked into Hyde Park and found a bench - happy to wait quietly for the 6:00 bus. We ate half of our dinner. The trip home was uneventful. The bus took a very circuitous route back to the freeway but it worked. The bus let us off close to where they had picked us up - so we walked home.
This was just the first of several trips planned for London. We were tired, but it had been a good day. We figured we walked about 10 miles. Our one ice cream shouldn't have any ill effects on our bodies.