Well after a very long plane flight, we arrived at 7:30am, then after dropping our luggage off in our room in Paddington, we departed to tour London.
Had a wonderful day, London is truly amazing, quite a buz, – beautiful buildings, loaded with history, tree lined streets. we set off after booking into our hotel, on a big Bus tour, sitting on the top floor of the bus, breeze in our faces, it wa quite warm today – about 24 degrees, came with audio commentary.
Hopped off bus and explored Covent Gardens and Leicester Square, where we had lunch, checked out the surreptitious Manzi’s Hotel – still not sure whether it is open for business!!
Went to the national art gallery – saw some spectacular paintings including those of Da Vinci, Michael Angelo, Van Gough, Cezanne, Monet, Rembrandt – stuff that we have only seen as posters and here were the originals!! quite exciting. Even John enjoyed it and we saw one of the paintings that was mentioned in the movie Da Vinci Code we saw on the plane.
We hopped back on the Big bus and made our way to St Pauls Cathedral – I walked around with m my mouth open the whole time – the architecture, the paintings on the ceiling of the dome, the murals, the history, all amazing stuff. we managed with a little effort!! walkked up the 500 odd stair to the whispering Gallery – half way in the dome – but such a long way off the ground!! – Exhausting but definitely worth it. Had coffee in nice coffee shop over looking St Pauls.
Then a river cruise up the Thames – not quite Sydeny Harbour – but we had a guide come comedian who made it all very interesr-ting. Then back on the bus for a long drive back to Paddington through peak hour traffic – but iit was very pleasant. All in all – a great day!!
