England Day 2 - Big Bus Tour of London
Having finally been able to drift to sleep at 2am (thank you very much, Alana) we slept till the ripe old time of 11:30. After putzing about with the internet, emails, and breakfast, we finally staggered our way out of the hotel at 2. Half a day, just gone! I think we needed it to catch up, though. I had a berry muffin from the hotel café, and it was disgustingly good *__*. It tasted like pound cake, with three raspberries on top. Absolutely lovely.
We marched down Praed Street and turned onto London, where the temporary Big Bus stop was. Had a bit of a scare when it wasn’t in front of the pub they said it would be in front of on the Internet (it was actually a little further down), but was quite glad that I’d bought the tickets in advance, as we managed to time it perfectly, with just enough time for the Big Bus employee (there’s at least one at every stop, ready to sell you tickets) to schmooze mom with the old “is that your sister?” routine. Ye-ah. A note: if you buy online they hold on to the printed tickets and you get a small strip receipt as proof of purchase to carry on the bus with you. The dates on ours were not checked once!
We promptly got off at the next stop to switch over to the Red Line, which offers live commentary. It would have been nicer if they made it plainer as to exactly where the stops are, as we pretty much stumbled into the right stop. Boarded the Red Line bus and we were on our way.
Alana and I were brave and sat up on the open second level, even though it began to spritz off and on. Got some lovely shots though, and it was very neat to hear it with the commentary. We lasted until after we swung around the Thames for the second or third time, at which point the temperature had truly begun to drop, and we took cover downstairs. Teeth chattering, we got off at the stop closest to the Hard Rock Café, and stumbled our way around until we actually found the restaurant (note to selves: BUY A MAP!). We were seated immediately and at a wonderful booth in front of a large window, where we watched all the poor people get soaked and chilled. This weather is absolutely mad; it was freezing today.
Armed with my AAA card we got a 10% discount on the meal (yay, discounts!), and then braved the elements to see if we could catch the Big Bus back to our starting point. We arrived back at the hotel at around 6ish. Mum and I spent the rest of the evening trying to decide how many things we could shove into the next day, and for some reason I was very hyper *G*.