London Hotels
|
  | |  |
YEAH for Big Bus Company!!
Entry 12 of 50 | show all | print this entry |
This morning we woke up at 7 to be out the door by 8:30. We got ready and headed down for breakfast, same deal as yesterday with the sandwiches!! hah!! Then we signed up for a day trip to go on tomorrow and we were out the door!!
We had to be up so early because we had to walk to our tour location for the Changing of the Guards. We had to hike it there the whole way; Julie and I were sweating while trying to catch up to long legged Justine and Jackie! It took us about an hour to get there and on the way we passed the National History Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, the Mall which is the road leading up to Buckingham, and back to Trafalgar Square were the art gallery was from yesterday to catch the tour. On the tour we walked to a couple statues of old kings and learned a lot of stories and history behind them. Basically how they all had 4-5 mistresses at a time, and one of them was on his death bed when his wife invited 4 of his mistresses to his bedside before he died!! Kinda crazy!! The guide also told us how the 26.2 miles came about for the marathon!! When the Olympics were held in London a long time ago, Queen Alexandria wanted to change the course of where the runner's would pass so that they would run by here castle, Windsor Castle, where she was sitting to eat breakfast and through her courtyard so her grandchildren could see them as well. The original distance was only 25 miles and now with this detour it turned into 26.2 miles and has stayed that way ever since! I thought that was really cool and it really interested me!! Then the guide was standing on this stone in the middle of this square where one of the kings would step off of his horse. Then we walked to Whitehall and learned how in the courtyard their used to be jousting tournaments and in the 2012 Olympics in London the sand volleyball tournament will be held there!! Then we continued down the Mall and went to St. James' Palace to see the old regimen army come out for the changing of the guard. There were soldiers, both none instrument playing and instrument playing. We walked along side them, up the Mall, walking in step to the music. We then passed over through St. James Park to see the new regimen army get ready for the change. Then we headed up to the front of the palace to see the actual changing!! The Palace is beautiful and very big!! There were so many people in front of us that it was hard to see, but what we were able to see was very cool!!
Then we walked through Hyde Park to go back to the hotel to change into warmer clothes. London is definitely cold and always windy!! Then we headed back to the tours location to go on the Beatles walk!! Talk about burning the calories today, haha!! We learned about how the Beatles started, who met who, where, what and all kinds of history about them!! It was awesome!! We got to see the building they first played in both for the public and for the Royal Family, where the last rooftop show was held at the Apple office, Paul McCartney's current office location, the last place Jimi Hendrix played, Mozart's house, the street while like $1 million suits are sold, and all of these buildings are located in Soho. This area is where the night life is; bars, clubs, sex shops, theatres, Chinatown, and it is very similar to Time Square in New York!! Both of our tours today were included in our Big Bus Tour, so it was definitely worth the money!!
We were all very tired by the end of the day, so we came back to the hotel and did the same as last night!!
London Tidbits:
-Britain is not run by Monarch but by Parliment
-Beatles last song played was "Get Back"
-Signs everywhere "Offices to Let" means Office to rent
-It isnt the bathroom, but it is the toilet
-Walk and dont walk signs on the street corners include horse and bikers walk and dont walk signs
-Ambulances are yellow
-The citadel is where army quarters are and what you see of it is only 3 floors but in the ground it goes on forever
-They dont have changing of the guard when it rains of snows because the hats of the soldiers are made of Canadian fur and if they get wet it takes days for them to dry and could ruin them
-Kings must ask Parliment and the Prime Minister for permission of marriage
-Hasnt snowed in London for 10 years
- The "look left" and "look right" signs on the road because of the different direction the cars are coming from
-the guard, similar to the police, walk the streets and even in the airport we huge guns and there hands on the trigger at all times
-in taxi's there are 2 rows of seating but both facing each other
-Phonebooths are really red and what you imagine them to be
-stores similar to US
-London similar to NYC
-Swarski crystal stores everywhere
-Pizza places and starbucks everywhere; even more close to each other than in the US
-Tons of bike riders everywhere
-CHEERS!! means goodbye!!
Lots more to come!!
|
|
If you like this entry, search for other entries from United Kingdom or try a new search. |
| |
Back to Entry - Back to Home
|
