9 July London

This was our last day in London and wanted to fill it up with anything we missed out on in our last two days. We figured the best way to fill in the gaps was to take an open top double decker bus tour ( with running commentary) We chose London’s Original Bus tour of which all of the world’s city tours are copied from. You can stay on the bus or hop on or hop off at various attractions as you desire over the course of a day. We chose to stay on so saw the London central areas including Fleet Street, some of the famous Hotels and buildings which are unique to London plus we saw streets from crime novels we have both read over the years. Another highlight was Tower Bridge which was amazing as we saw an old tall ship go through as the bridges' middle opened up. Allan had never seen it in the 12 years he has lived in London and enjoyed it as much as we did. St Pauls Cathedral. Trafalgar Square, The Tower of London. Again we have a few photos to bring this to life. Both cameras got a work out today. The digital camera logged 110 photos.
Following the bus tour we went on a river cruise of the Thames (included in the package) which took us past some of the most expensive real estate in London, onto the Docklands, The original site of the old India docks. This is now being developed as the city of the future with high rises, its own airport and infrastructure. The project was started 20 years ago with another 12 years of building still to be completed. By the looks of it , it appears unaffected by the recession with cranes and new buildings sprouting everywhere. Our boat tour finished at Greenwich where we viewed parts of the Maritime museum and the famous Greenwich observatory where all time is referenced from. Also it is at zero meridian with a copper line where you can stand on both the western and eastern hemispheres at the same time. We have also immortalized this.Another surprise was The Painted Room, a frescoe that rivals the Sistine chapel in Rome. It took the artist in the 1700s 19 years to paint and we were told that Lord Nelson upon his death was laid here in state before they buried him. It is truly magnificent and the photo does not do it justice. After that it was a rush by tube for dinner with Russ at a Pub called the Shakespeares Head in central London. I had Bangers and Mash (now I can tick that one off) Poor old Allan is looking a wee bit tired from all the exertion. We depart for Yorkshire tomorrow and Allan, poor chap, to a wedding in Scotland to rest and recuperate.