L'ete a Paris: London

What an interesting day. So one of the girls on the trip signed up for a day trip to London together. It was kind of expensive but it included the train fares to and from London, a hop on hop off bus tour, a walking tour, a boat ride on the Thames and free time to explore on our own. Or at least it was supposed to.

Initially it seemed like it was going to be a very organized trip, we arrived at the train station in Paris and they had a representative there with our tickets and he showed us where to go and how to find the tour guide once we arrived at King's Cross station. We arrived on time and found our guide standing there with our names on a sign and a driver to take us to the tour site. We found our bus and hopped on and began to tour the city. We decided to just ride along until we got hungry and then get off for lunch just to hop back on, then take our boat ride back to the starting point where we could further explore the things we saw on the boat and bus tours. We had decided before hand that we wanted to see Buckingham Palace and the guards and then find Abbey Rd (Beatles!).

So we drove by Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral (where Princess Diana was married) and some other interesting sites before we decided to hop off at Oxford street to do some souvenir shopping and get some lunch. We found a few souvenir shops and then stepped into a pub for some fish and chips of course! We also had this drink called Pimm's which is just a mixture of different ade's and ice tea with fruit in it. It was interesting tasting to say the least haha. After lunch we decided to hop back on the bus to finish that portion of our tours but a bus never showed up. We were given a map of the bus routes with a list of the different stops and the times that a bus should arrive at each stop. Well we waited through three different stop times and did not see a single bus from our tour group. So an hour later, after I started to get really angry, we walked to another stop that was a few blocks over. After a half hour there one finally showed up. That was an hour and a half we wasted waiting on transportation.

Next we saw the London Bridge and took some pictures and such before the boat ride. The bridge was amazing, but I didn't know that it was so blue, and I mean bright blue! After that we went to get in line for the boat which ended up being a half hour late. Which meant that we had wasted 2 hours waiting for transportation. We no longer had time to go back to Buckingham Palace or find Abbey Road. I was livid. We essentially paid 260 dollars to drive on a bus past some sights, eat fish and chips, buy a t-shirt, ride a boat to the London Eye, hop in a cab and get back on the train to Paris. So frustrating. While it was amazing to have been able to see some of these historical sites and architectural landmarks I did not want to just drive by. We were supposed to have had time to return to these sites and walk around so we could fully appreciate them. I wanted to try and make a palace guard move and walk across Abbey Rd like the Beatles did damn it! It was just so frustrating that the reason we were unable to do this was because of an unorganized tour group's transportation system.

This will absolutely be a place that I will return to one day, without being tethered down to a bus tour program! The time I spent there was enjoyable, and everyone we met were very nice. The food was delicious and of course the sights were amazing. Overall I did see quite a bit - Big Ben, London Bridge, London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Platform 9 3/4, and more. & I made it out before the riots started apparently. Though I say they're lucky I didn't start a riot over how angry I was with the bus tour! haha I actually did not even hear about these until I returned to the U.S. so I guess its a good thing it was only a day trip after all!