Day 6 Thurs 20th June London 'The Total London Experience' Tour

I will start by letting Murray & Lorraine's family and Friends know that they arrived safely and we have spent the evening catching up with all the news.

This morning was another very early start for us as we booked another tour "The London Total Experience Tour".  We were picked up from our hotel at 7.15 am.  Nothing like using every spare minute we have here to see everything we can!!!

We drove around hotels picking everyone up and the tour started at 9 am. Our guide Ruth, was fantastic.   We started with a sightseeing tour of London by bus and then our first in depth stop was St Paul's cathedral. It was immense and exquisitely beautiful inside.  Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos. Then on to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard.  The land surrounding the palace was far bigger than we had imagined.  Paul, who wasn't that keen to fight the crowds to see the changing of the guard, said that it was the highlight of the day.  We then drove to a Medieval restaurant near the Tower of London for lunch. Pretty basic but enjoyable. Then on to do an extensive tour of the Tower of London and the crown jewels.  I need to start polishing up my history as I really had no idea about the Tower of London and was amazed at the story behind it,  We saw the ravens which you will see in the photos. Legend says that the kingdom and the Tower will fall if the six resident ravens ever leave the fortress.   They are very well looked after and even get a special funeral service and salute when they die!!!

Next stop a river cruise down the Thames followed finally by a ride on the London Eye.  Unfortunately visibility was not good.  It was light rain and heavy mist so the photos aren't very good.  We had to find our own way home from there.  We are getting very good with the underground now and got home in no time even with having to change trains.

Had dinner with Murray and Lorraine at 9.30 pm!!!!  (very late for us but over here we seem to be eating later each night.)  Tomorrow is our last day in London and we think we will do something more leisurely after two very full days

By the way for those who don't already know, if you click on the pictures they open into a new window and are larger.

Dome of St Paul's cathedral 

Telephone Box - they are everywhere

Westminster Abbey

Crowds at Buckingham Palace

Panoramic view of the palace

Taken from the bus window as we were driving along

From bus again

City of London street sign

Tower Bridge

Beefeater - correct name Yeoman Warder inside the Tower of London

Guard inside the Tower of London

Tower of London ravens - twice s big as our crows

Big Ben from London Eye (visibility not very good)

Top pf London Eye

Side view of St Pancras Station from our hotel

London Eye at night using zoom taken from our hotel room

Dome of St Paul's again with the brilliant Panasonic Lumix LZ40 zoom
 from our hotel window