A Day trip to London

Hello Lovelies,

for the past year or so Eldest (who is one of our 16 year old twins) has been asking to go to London.  

Having only been a few times myself, and those always having been with somebody who knew more about the city than myself, I was a little hesitant.

Then there was the cost, for five of us to go anywhere involving public transport is scarily expensive. I could not see it happening anytime soon. 

This year Eldest has left school to take up a full time college course and has different term dates to his two brothers. I was going to get him to do some Derbyshire walks with me, but then I remembered his London requests.

Researching Train options I was rather dismayed by the prices...even if you were booking several months in advance.

Then I remembered there is another option...a Coach...and to my surprise and delight it was super cheap ( £5 each, each way...£21 total, including the £1 booking fee). I hastily booked for the two of us and then though Yikes, what have I done?

But eldest was thrilled and I knew I would have to be brave.

In the week before we went I did loads of planning. I felt I could easily cope with walking through London, but not the underground...and I was not sure about buses either.
 I used THIS site to plan out a route that took in many attractions on foot, without being too ambitious. And as the travel to the capital was so reasonable I felt happy to book a couple of treats for us too....in advance, online, to get a discount :0)

The day (last Thursday) started well when hubby dropped us off at the Coach station on his way to work. The Coach was on time and the driver was very friendly.

Oh look, the on-board magazine says Knitting is a good way to pass the journey ( but there's a picture of a crochet hook) .........

So as we passed a steam train ( on the back of a lorry) .....

I spent the journey happily sewing in ends on the squares I've been making for youngest's blanket.....

The traffic was light and we arrived a little earlier than planned, and hopped off the coach at Marble arch.... then it was straight down Oxford street.
 Thankfully the wide pavements felt quite quiet and we soon got to this impressive building...Selfridges......

I fancied buying a small souvenir so we whizzed up the escalators to the top floor...

saw some great London themed Christmas decorations, then saw the price and decided just to use the loo instead :0).

We found London is very tourist friendly. We were looking at one of the many lamp post maps when a kind chap in a bowler hat offered to give us directions. It was obviously his job to help anybody who looked a bit lost.

With his help we soon found Bond Street and wandered past increasingly expensive looking shops. I knew it would be posh because it's expensive to buy in Monopoly :0)

I'm sorry about the bad reflections in this photo but I had to share this great shop window ( I think it was a Hermes store) There's a fallen tree, a stream, mossy banks and a woodland backdrop, all made from yarn. It was really gorgeous.......

Loved the hill in another window too........

Here we were passing loads of expensive Jewellery shops, all with burly security guards standing in the doorway. Eldest asked "do you this they would let us in?"
 I was fairly sure they would not :0)

Then it was a shot stroll down Picadilly, past the Ritz Hotel and into Green Park.......

We were headed for the big house behind this beautiful gate........

Eldest told me this is the Canada Gate ( how did he know?)

Yay Buckingham Palace, we had missed the changing of the guard but I was happy to see a couple of guards in their wonderful uniforms......

It was quiet busy by the palace but certainly not packed. Eldest told me that  the flag was flying to show the queen was in residence ( how did he know? :0)  )......

In front of the palace stands The Victoria Memorial

It was the gilded "winged victory" on top which really caught my eye as it shone brightly in the sunshine.........

We didn't hang around too long as we had a boat to catch, so we started walking down the Mall, glancing back at the palace........

and at the beautiful Canada Gate. Won't this look a pretty picture when all the Wall flowers are in bloom next spring......

Then we were passing more Royal residences ( Clarence house I think)........

Here we came to some statues of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth ( the Queen's mother) ...

I realised this much loved royal of my own childhood was unknown to Eldest.

I particularly liked this panel showing how the Royal couple did not leave London in the war, but stayed to show their support for the people of London, regularly visiting survivors of the Blitz......

The sun was still shining as we passed the Duke of York's column ... I do like writing a blog post for making you look stuff up...I had no idea what this was :0)

Next we passed admiralty arch......

Where a workman was enjoying the view.........

Then we arrived at Trafalgar square........

Ooooh, afternoon tea on an old London bus. Sounds great fun.

The Lions at the base of Nelson's column were getting a shower.......

Don't they look smart.....

And the square it's self didn't feel too busy .......

We had a very quick visit to the National Gallery , where the gift shop had very similar ( if not the same) Christmas tree decorations as Selfridges, for less than half the price...yay.

I did like the fun they have had with the many pedestrian crossing signs here. This was just one of several variations........

Next our route took us down Whitehall and past Horse-guards Parade........

Further along we noticed the monument to the women of world war two.......

There's a much clearer photo of it HERE

Then the instantly recognisable Cenotaph.........

Rounding a corner and coming across this sight was very impressive, despite the gathering cloud

And then we were at the mighty Thames...looking a bit murky under the grey skies, but still great to see........

All sorts of vehicles were crossing Westminster bridge.......

But we were here to board a cruise boat at the Westminster pier.
I loved having this little map in my pocket to check where we should be heading throughout the day..........

There was a long queue to get on the boat, but plenty of room and soon we were travelling up the river and looking back on the palace of Westminster.....

A crew member gave an interesting and amusing commentary on the sights we passed.......

Cleopatra's Needle ( older than London it's self) 

The tide was coming in and I think you can get an impression of the speed of the water here.....

St Paul's Cathedral, Sir Christopher Wren's masterpiece. 365 feet tall, a foot for every day of the year.


The "Wibbly Wobbly" Millenium footbridge....thankfully it's been stabilised since it's fateful opening day when people were nearly falling off it........

On the left here is the Express newspaper headquarters ( or the school for window cleaners as our guide called it), next to the old Billingsgate fish market, with 20 Fenchurch street ( or "The Walkie Talkie" building) behind.

We were told that you can visit the top of this impressive building for free ( it costs £30 to go up the Shard)
I've since found a link HERE...I'd love to visit one day

It was warm and cosy in the boat and I could have sailed further but this was our destination....

The Tower of London

We got off at Tower Pier, and were treated to the sight of Tower Bridge opening to let a beautiful old paddle steamer through.........

Now that's an impressive bridge. I'd love to take a closer look at that one day too.

This little cottage in the city made me smile. There were lots of birds in it's neat garden......

Maybe you can see one on the gate if you enlarge the photo by clicking on it.

Entrance to the Tower of London is not cheap, but eldest got a concession as he is a full time student and a free guided tour is included in the price.

And what a great tour it was. The Yeoman warders (who are all ex servicemen with a long service award) lead the tours and do an excellent job of bringing history to life. We followed this chap around various locations in the tower grounds and were laughing one minute and sombre the next. It really was an impressive performance and a fun way to learn so much.......

After the tour we had a little time to explore by ourselves and headed straight for the Crown Jewels .

Just behind the door there was quiet a long queuing zone, which thankfully was empty on Thursday. We saw lots of ceremonial maces and jewelled swords. But the highlight for me  had to be the various crowns.

And the Most STUNNING crown had to be our own Queen Elizabeth's  crown.

No photography was allowed so I've borrowed this image with a link below to it's source......

source

The London skyline from the walls of the tower... left to right, the  Walkie Talkie, the Cheese Grater and the Gherkin :0)

 The Tower grounds and Tower Green in the distance, where a couple of Henry the eighth's wives lost their head......gulp

All too soon it was time to leave...bye bye White Tower.....



We  picked up a small gift for middle and youngest in the gift shop. Then  caught the last boat back to Westminster.....



This boat had an open upper deck which gave great views of the landmarks we passed.....you know this one :0)

The Shard and the Museum ship, HMS Belfast......

The lord Mayor of London's offices...which has various nicknames...the Onion or Darth Vader's helmet being a couple of them.....

I just loved being on the river. Seeing the sights from a distance and noticing what a busy working area the water is too.......

The only disappointment was the weather, but at least we had a little blue sky occasionally.....

And you could see how the Shard reflected the sky......

Some lights were coming on too.......

notice the tall ship in this photo, a working replica of Sir Francis Drakes ship, the Golden Hinde. It has been sailed around the world twice!

We passed under many bridges and, as it was a particularly high tide on Thursday, you felt like your could reach up and touch them, they were so close.......

There were interesting sights to see continually. Can you tell I loved it :0).
This is the replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre......

Which is right next to the (infamous maybe) Tate Modern art gallery....which is another free attraction........

Here you can see our guide doing his commentary...and just how close we were to those bridges.....

,

The OXO building which was once owned by the OXO company and when they were refused advertising they just built a tower with windows in the OXO shape :0).....

Another Bridge, maybe not the prettiest but Waterloo bridge was built during World War two and is also known as "Ladies Bridge", as it was largely built by women, when the men were away fighting.....

Ah, here we are back at the London Eye.........

Everybody stand up to get a good picture of Big Ben :0)

Well it certainly is photogenic as well as iconic......

By the time we got off the boat it was 6pm and the lovely twilight was getting better. I would have loved to hang around for a while soaking up the atmosphere but Eldest was cold and hungry ( we had only snacked throughout the day), so we said goodbye to the river......

and Westminster........

It seemed wise to walk straight to the coach station and get something to eat near there.  In the end it was quiet a long walk and we got a little lost so I was glad we had plenty of time.
A burger meal in the coach station was convenient, cheap and filling. Our transport home was pristine, punctual and less than half full. We nodded throughout the 3 and a half hour journey back home to the midlands.

In the end we had walked eight and a half miles but we both felt it seemed less. I asked Eldest what he thought to London and he said in was "interesting". A man of many words :0)
It was lovely to see how confident he was throughout the day and what a good team we made navigating our way around, with only the odd slip.
This one-to-one time and big city adventure made me realise how mature my 16 year old is. I knew this of course, but it still kind of took me by surprise if that makes sense.

I do hope you enjoyed our "postcards" from London lovelies.
Jacquie x