Sights aound London

A colder morning today. Headed out to London with a very cold

wind in our faces. We headed north from Victoria Station to Buckingham Palace where we saw the impressive guards standing proudly. After watching for a while we had a sit down on Queen Victoria's monument which is just a stones throw away.

After this we headed North East through St. James park enjoying the various feathered wildlife. Holly was most taken and amused with the pelican. 

I made sure we went via Downing Street which was a bit of a disappointment except for the armed officers with automatic rifles.

Eventually we came to Trafalgar Square and this time climbed all

over Lord Nelson's monument. The kids wanted to climb on the lions but I wouldn't let them. One word of advice is, do not visit central London on a public holiday. We have visited on Easter Saturday and I can't believe the crowds. But maybe this is normal.

We made great use of our travel day pass. Must have taken a combination of 10 rides in total. We caught a bus south to go over the Westminster bridge. Unfortunately the bus we were directed onto was the wrong one and we needed to take another to make the journey. All the central buses are double decker so no guessing where we sat. We walked back over the bridge with great views of Big Ben and parliament.

We were on a walking tour mostly and just glanced past Westminster Abbey before catching another bus back to Trafalgar Square. We were in search of a Macers for lunch. We found it, but as you can imagine so had most of the other people. We bought our food and walked down into the basement dining area. After waiting a little while a seat became available and we had Holly on one table and Julia on another. Soon other seats freed up and we were able to sit together. It reminded me of an English dinner hall at high school. All scrunched together.

The staff were good although English wasn't the favoured language. I often hear people complain about how foreigners are taking all the jobs. I suspect that people employ them because they are prepared to do the hardest and lowest jobs for minimum wage (if they're lucky). I also think they are probably very hard working and dependable. I suppose you have to be when your away from home surroundings.

We caught an underground next. We started off in the wrong

 direction but this was easily rectified. We arrived at St. Paul's Cathedral. We had decided this was one place that we would go into. Unfortunately, given it was Easter they closed early for a service. Frustrated but still keen we caught another bus heading for the Tower Bridge. I had passing thoughts of entering the Tower of London until we were told that there were queues of over an hour for the exhibits once inside.

We trudged up the impressive Tower to enjoy the views. Halfway along we noticed people departing from its tower and inquired about entry. This was a surprising bonus so we made our way to the entrance. It was a wonderfully informative exhibit, with data shows and many enlarged photos of it's construction. The kids were taken by the dozen other bridges displayed from around the world with various information.

It was getting late by the time we left and it wasn't until 7pm that we arrived back at Colin's place. We are all quite tired but feel we have seen most of the tourist sites that London has to offer. To do them right we would need a week. I think it would only be worth doing this outside the tourist season as the joy you get can be sucked out by the shear mass of people and the tedious and relentless queuing.