Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Spring Break Part Two: Sunday in London

For our first full day in London we woke up and had a delish breakfast at our hotel (included), they had the regular continental spread, but also European cheeses, spiced Morroccan fruits and some other extras.  Afterwards, we headed over to Camden Market to do some shopping.  We ended up just browsing around, didn't buy anything.  In typical Budzak fashion we always are waiting to find something better and rarely buy souvenirs.  I would loved to have more spending money to browse all the vintage clothes racks we saw.  After a while of wandering we stopped in at the End of the World pub for a rest.  Then headed to Picadilly Circus to get on a double-decker bus tour.  I had found a coupon online for the "Original Tour,"  it had a 24 hour hop-on hop-off tour which included a river cruise.  It was nice to drive around for a while looking at the outside of Buckingham Palace and having someone point out all the sights.  We jumped off around Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and the Houses of Parliament.  After a little while there we headed over to the London Eye.  I was a little scared as ferris wheels always make me nervous.  But this was much bigger than I had expected! Each pod fit maybe 20 people who could walk around.  It moved very slowly around so no herky-jerky stops like on a traditional ferris wheel. The view was nice, I want to rent one for my birthday party someday if I'm ever rich and in London :).  Afterwards we tried to hit the Tower of London, but it was too late so we decided to save it for the next day and went back to the hotel for a quick nap.  The quick nap turned into a long nap on accident (stupid cell phone alarm) and we had room service for dinner . . . the jet lag had gotten us a little.

Check out the scooter chairs at Camden Market!

Busy shoppers

Not our feet, but there were a few of these booths, you pay to have little fish nibble on your feet? very strange . . .

Double decker bus! a little empty on top since it was so chilly

Tom and Big Ben (which is actually the name of the bell, not the clock)

Westminster Abbey, where Prince William will be married pretty soon 
Outside the Houses of Parliament
The London Eye
View from the Eye, crowd around a breakdancer
View from the Eye, another observation pod

Tom taking in the view
View in the Eye
View of the river Thames from the Eye
Big Ben as we were starting to lose daylight

3 comments:

emilymcb said...

Oh man. This is making me miss London so bad.

Jen said...

So cool, Lissa!! I love the Eye! I'd be so scared...

Unknown said...

Nice to see this post about the London..

Scooter service London