Wednesday dawned with clear blue skies - the rain and clouds of the previous day having been blown away by a high pressure system. We were now settled into British time, and woke around 630. We aimed to cover a visit to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard, a Thames Cruise, a visit to the Aquarium and to the Tower of London on this day.
Avi was keen on a journey in a double decker London bus - while there were no buses directly to Buckingham Palace, we found a double decker to Oxford Circus (roughly halfway there) and climbed up onto the first row of the top deck. Avi loved the trip, but made his displeasure at its being interrupted fairly soon very evident. Nevertheless, we managed to bundle him out, and after feeding him with french fries from a nearby McDonalds, headed by cab for Buckingham Palace.
On reaching the Palace, there was a massive crowd waiting to see the ceremony, despite it being a working day. Avi was difficult to control. At this pt, Radhika noticed that Avi's Bob bag was missing. I was sure we had not left it in the cab, and Radhika was sure she had not left it in the McDs. On looking at the pics we had taken in the bus, we found that the bag was at Avi's feet in the bus. So as the guard approached the Palace, I was on my Blackberry, trying to find the number for the Bus Company, much to Radhika's irritation.
The changing of the guard is a classic example of how the Royal Family is the most popular Theme park exhibit in the world - there is much pomp, pageantry and "tradition" involved. The ceremony lasted about 30 minutes. After a break for taking photos, I resumed my search for the number, and found a contact for Transport for London, the umbrella org that co-ordinates the bus and underground services. Fortunately, we remembered the bus route no, and the photo gave us the exact time when we had boarded. On calling them, they gave me the number for the relevant bus company ( East London buses). I then spoke to the bus company - they had not yet found anything but asked me to call back after an hour to check, as the bus wld get back to their depot then.
With nothing else to do, we continued towards Westminster, stopping on the way for Avi to eat some muffins (which has been his staple diet on this trip) and for us to grab some sandwiches and coffee. We then headed to Westminster Pier, for the Thames Cruise. In the meantime, an hour had elapsed, and on calling the bus company, they confirmed that the bag had been found and that we could pick it up anytime before 9 PM from their depot. During all this period, Avi, while aware that his bag had been lost, did not press the point about getting it back too hard.The Thames cruise we
took was a 30 minute journey from Westminster (which is the western end of Central London, and the location of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament) to the Tower of London (the notorious and historic fortress / prison, where the crown jewels are kept, which guards the Eastern approach to central London). As in the Seine cruise we took, we enjoyed it very much, looking at historic and modern buildings, and the numerous bridges. The guide kept up and enthusiastic and entertaining commentary thruout.
Avi had a great time too, and was very excited to see "London Bridge" (which incidentally is actually the Tower Bridge, located next to the Tower - London Bridge in its modern avataar is a much plainer structure located further West) .
After disembarking, we headed for the Tower, and entered just in time to catch the last tour of the day guided by a Yeoman warder. (The Yeoman warder's are the traditional soldiers stationed at the Tower, and needless to say, he was dressed in medieval combat regalia). The tour lasted about an hour, ending at St. George's chapel, with the warder taking us through the gory history of virtually every spot in the Tower. After the tour, we got into the queue to see the Crown Jewels (which include items captured in various campaign including the Kohinoor, which is on the Queen Mother's crown, and some items belonging to Tipu Sultan). While in the Tower, Avi went to sleep.Post our Tower tour, we took at train to Bow Road, an eastern suburb of London, and picked up Avi's bag from the depot. We then took a bus back to Holborn. Interestingly, most of the crowd in the bus, as also on the streets at Bow Road, were immigrants, mostly Bangladeshi, if one were to go by the Bengali signs on some shops.
Day 5 - June 3
Our last day in London dawned with us not having done the Aquarium, any of the museums, or Hamleys. We decided to focus on the British museum and the Aquarium. We started off in the morning, walking down to the British Museum, which was just about 10 minutes away from our hotel.
We picked up an audio guide and chose a quick tour of the most famous exhibits, which started with the Rossetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles, and continued on through various other artifacts from around the world. While the tour was a short one ( less than 90 minutes), Avi was totally bored less than half way thru it, and forced Radhika to abandon ship and me to hurry thru the rest of the tour. (Though he very cutely responded to Radhika's scolding by saying that she should bring him there once he is bigger). The collection at the Museum is amazing (probably even better than the Louvre) though India did seem under-represented.
After a quick lunch at the museum, we headed for the Aquarium. The Aquarium was extremely nice, with a massive collection of fish, large and small. Avi was delighted to see his friends, ranging from sharks, big and small, to giant sea turtles and rays, and of course, Nemo and Dory. There was even an opportunity for Avi to touch a Starfish. Arguably, this aquarium is even better than the Underwater Worlds we had seen earlier at Langkawi and Singapore.
By the time we were done with this, it was almost 5, and we rushed to Regent Street, concerned that Hamleys may close for the day. Fortunately it was open, and Avi was able to marvel at the Hamleys in the London Phoenix Mall as he put it. The only hiccup was when he insisted that we buy the giant Puffington engines in the store display.
We then tried to look around some of the other shops on Regent Street, but Avi did not countenance this - so we headed to the hotel to be able to pack for an early departure the next morning.
Shall update you on our journey to Bristol (via Windsor and Stonehenge) and the great time we had at Bristol in our next mail.
Luv
Raj, Radhika and Avinash
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