London Bus Tour
Buckle in for a big ol’ picture post!
K found us a great hop-on-hop-off option with two different loops that we did over two days. Our only issue was with the audio guide - the dead air and bland instrumental music was bad enough, but they somehow made it even worse by cutting off nearly every informational bit right when it was getting good!
“but no one expected that THANK YOU THE BUS IS STOPPING DON’T FORGET YOUR BELONGINGS
Luckily on the second day we found one of the few buses with a live guide. We actually ended up doing the whole loop again just for the commentary, and it was very very worth it.
Day One
We started off with a nice view of St Stephen’s Cathedral:
Harrods - the fanciest department store around:
Love how intricate and different each building’s facade is:
A view of the West entrance to Westminster Abbey:
And the gatehouse leading to Dean’s Yard next door:
One very large Ben and the Palace of Westminster/House of Parliament:
The South Bank Lion with the London Eye in the background. Some fun facts:
- The Lion was cast in 1837 out of Coade stone, one of the earliest types of artificial stone.
- When the London Eye first opened, it was the world’s tallest ferris wheel. Each of the 32 pods represent one of the London boroughs.
- The “Shrek’s Adventure London” attraction lives in the building behind the lion.
Front view of St Paul’s Cathedral:
Passing over Tower Bridge:
And first close-up views of the castle that is the Tower of London!
The Guards Crimean War Memorial in St James’s. At the back is Honour (later renamed to Victory) with three different regiments of guards posted below her. The two figures in front are Florence Nightingale (left) and Sidney Herbert (right). https://www.victorianweb.org/sculpture/misc/crimea/1.html
We hopped off the bus and took a walk through Green Park:
To check out Buckingham Palace!
The Queen Victoria Memorial, just a few feet behind my last picture. Shout out to the guy who stared at me taking pictures while walking directly into my field of view.
A view down The Mall leading to Trafalgar Square, and Big Ben on the right.
I couldn’t pass up capturing this face . . . The fountain wasn’t on at the time but I’m assuming water flows from the mouth.
And a ridiculous gate leading back into Green Park.
We decided to hoof it back home and wound up catching a spectacular sunset.
We also found these absurdly cute chocolate treats.
It turns out that there’s a whole line of similar products with goofy mascots - check them out here.
Day two
We passed through Paddington on the way to the other bus loop.
The British Library!
This picture was just a second or two too late. You can still kinda see how sharp the lines are on building in the foreground up near the top right. It looked like someone used photo editing software to just cut the building in half.
View from London Bridge - Tower Bridge, the HMS Belfast, and The Shard.
We scored seats at the very back of the bus, so I was able to snag some more great pictures of Tower Bridge and the Tower of London.
Parliament Square is home to twelve statues of political figures. Here we see Lincoln standing up:
And guards on horses!
Near the end of the tour we happened to idle next to this legendary bicycle:
Off of the bus, K casually offered that we check out a rooftop terrace so we walked back over to St Paul’s Cathedral:
Some nifty light fixtures.
An old water pump with the Monument to the Great Fire of London in the background (if laid on its side, the top of the monument would touch the spot where the great fire of 1666 began).
And in true K fashion, the rooftop was absolutely spectacular.
A quick shot of our surroundings. The lit up section in the back was blasting some very bassy and beat heavy jams - not exactly what I expected for cathedral views, but it was fun nonetheless.
We finished off the night with our first trip to Nando’s - a popular peri peri grilled chicken spot. They have all of their hot sauces available to try, so we had a great time sampling ALL-THE-THINGS!! It was delicious!