The Original London Sightseeing Tour

Wednesday we ventured out, again via bus, to the Original London Sightseeing Tour.  The tour consisted of a double decker bus around London and a boat ride on the Thames to Greenwich and return.  My wife and son started the tour the day she broke her foot but was in too much pain to go on the boat ride.  Together my wife and I would finish what she started.

Source:GoogleMaps

We caught the 276 to Hackney Central then the 38.  We disembarked at Piccadilly Circus, in front of Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum.  There was only a short walk to one of the stops along the yellow route of the Original London Sightseeing Tour.  There were three tours, each with a different route and corresponding color.  The yellow tour hit all the mandatory sites.  We boarded the double decker and were told there was no live tour guide on the buses that day.  We settled for listening to a recorded tour in English.  We didn't expect to leave the bus except for the river tour, so we settled in, under cover, at the front of the top deck.


There was a constant change of sightseers on the bus from stop to stop.  I heard many languages spoken.  The few I could discern were French and German.  On all of our travels in London, many different languages were spoken all around us.  I would guess I heard Russian, Polish, Arabic, Indian languages, Italian and others I couldn't discern.  On this tourist ride I heard mostly German and French, more German and French than I heard all week.

From the top deck of our moving bus we passed most of the following, 

Piccadilly Circus	Buckingham Palace& the Changing of the Guard	10 Downing Street	Southwark Cathedral
Statue of Eros	St. James's Park	Horse Guards' Parade	London Dungeon
The National Gallery	Westminster Abbey	St. Martin-in-the-Fields	HMS Belfast
Nelson's Column	Big Ben & Parliament	Covent Garden	Tower Bridge
Trafalgar Square	Lambeth Palace	Fleet Street	Tower of London
St. James's Palace	The London Eye	St. Paul's Cathedral	Shakespeare's Globe
Ritz Hotel	London Aquarium	Bank of England Museum	Tate Modern
Hyde Park	Westminster Pier	Monument	Speakers' Corner
Wellington Museum	London Bridge

We disembarked the yellow route bus when we arrived at the dock from which we would board the boat tour.  We walked down the long ramp to the rear of the line of tourists waiting to board the boat.  There was no boat at the dock.  It was still out on its return trip from Greenwich.  We didn't wait long before the boat was docked and empty of tourists.

We boarded and did a quick spin around the enclosed lower deck and it's snack bar.  I helped my wife to the upper open deck where the view would be better.  She settled on the first bench at the top of the stairs which was the last bench at the rear of the boat.  The weather was a bit cooler than the day before.  My experience from working outdoors over 34 years, is that whenever you are near water, there always seems to be a breeze.  The breeze put a chill in the air.  I returned to the snack bar and bought some coffee, hot chocolate and a few snacks.  I then juggled the hot drinks back to the upper deck. 

Westminster Clock and Portcullis House

I caught this piper on the Westminster Bridge

London Eye

London Eye and County Hall

There seemed to be quite a bit of time before we launched into the river.   I quickly drank most of my coffee and left my Twixt on the bench under my wife's knee.  I unsheathed my camera and went into photographer mode.


Once we got under way the boat went right across the Thames to pick up more tourists.  That got me closer to the Eye.

With the new tourists aboard, we set off towards London Tower.

There were several bridges to glide under, Jubilee, Hungerford, an unnamed RR bridge being restored, Millenium and Waterloo, before we arrived at Tower Bridge.

 All along the way the tour guide provided a package of pseudo-historical banter, wrapped in an East Ender slang, tied with a dazzling witty ribbon.  I remember tourist bus drivers delivering the same kind of banter in Boston.  I wonder if there is a school of witty edutainment that teaches all the guides, worldwide?  I can see the school offering Cockney and South Side speech lessons and bawdy details lectures.  Of course most of the learning would happen in the evening, after formal classes, when the worldwide students get together at the bar or pajama parties.

However they are trained, we enjoyed it.  I even tipped them at the end of our tour when the guide held out a small galvanized bucket to receive the coins.  There must have a gutsy class, too.

The last leg of the outbound tour was to Greenwich a bit farther down river.  There were some great views along the way.  Many of the new apartments were quite pricey, we were told.

The boat was tied up at Greenwich for five or ten minutes.  By that time it was getting dark.  The darkness was partly due to the overcast and partly because of the latitude of London near 50º N, closer to the Arctic Circle and mostly the time of the year.  On the trip back to Tower Bridge the guide was silent and we spent sometime on the enclosed, warmer, lower deck.  I composed my map and British money image there.

The boat docked again at Tower Bridge to take on more tourists.  I captured a few more images of Tower Bridge.  I underexposed some of the images on purpose.  I wanted to darken the tower and catch the moon in the same frame.  The gull was an added surprise.  I think the gull adds some spookiness.


When we returned to the dock at Westminster Bridge we boarded a tour bus that took us to Green Park where we caught the mother ship, the 38, that took us back home.  We finished what my wife and son started the on their very first day in London.  The end of our visit was Friday.  We had only one more full day in London.  That happened to be my wife's birthday.




©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

London Bus Routes

Once back in London, my wife and I decided to travel by bus only, no Overground or Underground; too much jostling, lots of steps and the pace was too fast for a pink cast and crutches.  Besides, we weren't seeing much of London traveling underground.

Credit:David Heath

The bus stop was just 20 yards from the apartment complex driveway and once seated, except when we changed buses, we didn't need to move.  We caught the 276 to Hackney Central Station.  We then changed to the 38.  That combination seemed to get us wherever we wanted.

Before our visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum on Tuesday, we jumped off the 276 at the Homerton University Hospital.  They cut open my wife's cast from toe to knee on one side.  This was in preparation for the flight home on Friday.  They also attached velcro closures to allow for expansion during the flight.  We jumped back on the 276.  Noon had slipped by long before and there was still a long trip to the V&A.  We needed to change bus one more time to another bus that took us to the front door of the museum.


We didn't spend much time at the V&A, it was near closing time when we arrived.  We had only an hour or so to wander the museum.  A museum attendant kindly offered us a wheel chair, which we used even though one of the tires was a bit low on pressure, making an annoying squishy-squeaky sound on the polished marble floor.

Power of Making from Victoria and Albert Museum on Vimeo

We visited the exhibit "The Power of Making".  This ape fabricated using wire hangers was at the entrance to the exhibit.  I was impressed.  Then we wandered around the gift shop until the closing announcement, without a chance we could afford even a tiny trinket .


Upon leaving we walked to Brompton Rd.  The road on which Harrod's is located.  We were hungry and I checked out all the cafes and restaurants along that short strip of Brompton while my wife sat on a bus stop bench.

I chose Nero Cafe across Brompton and a bit towards the V&A from Harrod's.  I collected some cold items from a refrigerated case, took them to the counter and the employees warmed them.  I guess by the look on the employees' faces, I had too much food.  That amount of food must have had American written all over it.  Of course, the L.L.Bean logo on my fleece 1/4 zip must have helped with the Am ID.

Credit:Jtrulez15@wikipedia.org

When we finished eating, it was time to get home to put up the feet.  There was one problem, the 38 didn't run along Brompton.  I only knew the 38.  Again, my wife remained on a bus bench while I went off to figure out which bus would get us to the 38 route.  I went into the Underground and asked a ticket seller.  He didn't know.  I asked several people waiting for buses, they only knew their own route home.  I asked a bus driver of a loading bus, he didn't know.  I was beginning to panic.  Here we were in a country that spoke English and I couldn't find anyone with the knowledge we needed.  I also thought my wife was probably very uncomfortable on that bus stop bench after my extended time seeking knowledge.  I returned to the bus stop bench and my wife. She encouraged me to ask another bus driver for help.  I resisted thinking bus drivers just didn't care about my plight.  My mind began to think of the expense of a taxi for the long trip home.  I caved and waved down a bus.  That is what you need to do if you want a bus to stop.   You need to signal a bus, because there are several bus routes that service each bus stop.

© Lawrence Living

The bus stopped and I asked the driver if his bus would get us to the 38.  He waved us on.  He also let us know when to get off for interchange with the 38.  We were very thankful to that bus driver.  His small bit of kindness seemed like a miracle to us.

Once on the 38 we felt as if we were home.  We settled in for the ride to Hackney Central, the change to the 276 and on to our London digs where we would put up our feet and watch some British TV.  What more could we ask for?

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Streets of London

Monday afternoon, soon after my arrival, my wife, daughter and son decided to venture out on the streets of London; bad ankle and all.  We took the same route to Hackney Wick station my wife and son took the day of her fall.  We made a stop at the site of the accident.  They showed me where and described how the fall unfolded.  I am not sure if it was actually a street or part of a driveway, in either case, the raised bit of blacktop was no larger than my footprint and projected all of two inches above the surface.  It was easily overlooked.

My wife was already feeling discomfort and proceeded slowly to the station.  Our venture required westbound travel on the Overground.  We walked under the bridge and up a long ramp of two or three switchbacks to the platform.  We were headed to a Pizza Express for lunch. 

http://www.whoseview.co.uk/business/PizzaExpress-The-City-London-328223.html

My daughter has a Taste Card in which card holders pay half price or get two meals for the price of one at participating restaurants.  

My son could eat pizza everyday of the week and my daughter is a vegetarian.  All three of these facts were considerations in choosing Pizza Express.  The food and service were OK, once I got help decoding the menu.


After leaving Pizza Express we were back in the tube to visit Harrod's.  We only explored part of the first floor in Harrod's, mainly the food area.

Source:Flickriver

Reminded me of the Reading Terminal Farmer's Market except classier.

Source:Assembly of International Students

Several hours had elapsed since lunch and we decided it might be nice to say we had dessert at Harrod's.

The menu descriptions sounded divine.  Each of us had a drink and a dessert.  The cost was twice that of lunch; close to $80.00.  I am glad I at least have a photograph to remind me of the experience.    About the food, somethings are better left unsaid.


By the time we left Harrod's, my wife wanted to go back to the apartment to elevate her foot.  It took some time but after asking several pedestrians, we figured out how to take a bus back.  

Public Transportation is Amazing on the Streets of London

My daughter told us the name of the bus stop and off we were on the 38 to Hackney Central where we would change buses to the 276 toward Newham University Hospital.  The bus stopped right at the entrance to the courtyard of the apartment complex.  The foot was up and the TV on in less than ten minutes.  We were off the streets of London by 8pm.


©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved