Friday adventures: Bus Tour



Big Ben



The London Eye - cloudy sky...

Friday's  adventure was the Golden Bus Line Panorama Tour:  a three hour trip around London on an open-top double decker bus, with a live guide commenting on the sights of London.  The firstpart of the  adventure was, of course, simply finding the place that the bus tour started.  It said "Victoria Station".  That is rather less specific than you might imagine (since there is the Victoria Tube Station, Victoria Train Station and Victoria Coach Station).  After walking what appeared to be an 8 block radius, we arrived (stocked up with beverages and treats), and staked out seats on the top deck. 

Under Tower Bridge





I loved the tour.  The boys tolerated it (which is about as good as a mother can expect).  Of course, I came prepared:  both boys had their DS games, and, when they got bored with the sights, played as we drove.  You can see them here in the front two corners (duncan with my coat covering his head so as to reduce the glare on his DS.  So.... everyone was happy.  I watched and took photos and notes, the boys got a break from me making them walk all over town.   :-)  Things I loved?  Just driving past the incredible array of buildings.  



Selfridge's Department Store



Henry Havelock (& Duncan)



New things I learned?  One was that Selfridge's, one of the oldest/largest department stores in London, was responsible for coining the phrase "The customer is always right".   Vocabulary builder moment?  Havelock.  One of the statues in Trafalgar Square is Henry Havelock. The word "Havellock" is the piece of fabric that hangs down the back of the french foreign legionnaire's hat!



 Other pieces of trivia? Only 7000 people live in the square mile that is the "City of London", but 300,000 commute in and out of it every day. yikes!  I guess that on Friday, we were 'three' of those!