Day 21 August 1st a day in London.

Day 21 August 1st a day in London.
I was happy to have woken completely refreshed after the tiring day yesterday. We quickly had breakfast and set off to reconnoitre the route to the Victoria Coach Station where we would catch the bus to Glasgow on the morrow. I had already worked out the underground route, so it was a confirmation run in this respect. On emerging from Victoria tube station I asked taxi driver where the bus station was; he obliged; I also asked him how much a taxi would cost from our guest station to the bus station; his best guess was around £60.00; around $NZ133 compared with about £4.00 for the train. We found the Coach Station without any problems. The only problem with the train was that we had to climb about four sets of stairs with our heavy bags.
After finding the coach station the time was about ten in the morning so we bought two tickets for the “Original London Tour” hop on hop of bus. I planned that we would stay on the bus for one 2 hour round trip then start the hop on hop off bit. One of the first buildings of note we saw was the residence of England’s first woman Prime Minister; Margaret Thatcher. She owned the building, but not the land. All the land in the immediate locality was owned by a landlord Earl somebody. Every tenant of the land was obliged to repaint their homes annually with the same unique colour bought from the Earl who had it specially manufactured for him. Next stop would be Buckingham Palace and when the guide said that the changing of the guard was soon to take place i decided that we would hop off. We asked a palace spokesman where it would take place and the followed his directions. We had missed the actual changing ceremony but were able to witness the relieved guards marching through the gates back to their barracks. After a few more photos we then joined the queue in order to buy a ticket to view some of the interior; we reached the ticket seller who told us that the next entry group would be three hours into the future we decided to hop on the bus again. The next stop was the Big Ben, Parliament Buildings and Hyde Park stop. It was very difficult taking good photos from the moving bus so we hopped off again. I managed to capture Big Ben striking the hour as well as some good photos of the parliament. After spending some time sitting in Hyde Park watching the river Thames flow by we hopped back on the bus; next stop Trafalgar Square where we joined the huge crowds of people enjoying the sunshine and the music of the Jamaican steel bands. After taking photos of Nelson on top of his high column we managed to find some lunch. The National Art gallery was located here and we viewed some of the many old works. Then it was back on the bus again and after passing the Big Eye we crossed Tower Bridge and arrived at The Tower of London. I decided we would finish here as the Travelodge London Tower Bridge was nearby and I wanted to book for our last three nights in London. We then caught the underground back to our Guest House.
We enjoyed our day in London.