Day 9 - London day 1

The first task of the day was to find the nearest London underground or train station. Luckily one is 700 metres away and the travel time into the city centre is around 13 minutes. Oyster cards are the flavour around here for public transport. Maybe after the fact that the world is your oyster. We opted to go with a seven-day travel pass so we could hop on and off and get around for the week without having to be concerned with topping up the card.

All aboard!!!! As expected the train ride was quick into Liverpool Street then a tube ride to Tower Hill. We activated our hop on and hop off bus tour for the day, boarded and made our way to Buckingham Palace. After the obligatory coffee we made it in time to see the changing of the guard. Quite a spectacle. On board the bus tour and got off at Baker Street. By now we were tired of overland travel in London. The traffic just makes it a slow and unpleasant experience. Some of the commentary was good but most rather boring. At least the pass was for only one day.

Lunch at the Sherlock Holmes Bar in Baker Street . No Moriarty insight. Then it was time for underground travel. We arrived at Tower Hill and made our way to the Pier to get our free tickets for 24 hours of ferry travel. The trip to Westminster was a great ride with commentary by a young Londoner who was very entertaining and made the 40 minute trip pass quickly. A quick look over Westminster Abbey - from the outside as it was closed by now - and it was time to call it a day. Tube and train back home.

So the first day in London was an orientation day. Get the lay of the land and work out what we wanted to do and see and what we didn't. A more planned day tomorrow - hopefully.Read more