Author: OTRAdmin March 21, 2017

After such a great trip to the UK last year I vowed to return and bring the family this year for a couple of months. No greater introduction to the motherland would beat a trip to London so we gambled on the spring weather and jumped on the Tube at Elm Park. There would be a lot of walking today starting at Tower Hill station, around the very crowded Tower of London, over Tower Bridge and along the Southbank.

The morning clouds started to break as we strolled past HMS Belfast, London Bridge, Millenium footbridge with views to St Paul’s Cathedral, and Blackfriars Bridge. My last visit to London must have been at least 20 years ago, the skyline had changed dramatically since then with a number of new bizzarely nicknamed buildings such as The Shard (Salt Cellar), Gherkin, Walkie-Talkie, and Cheesegrater.

We continued on to the London Eye where we stopped for lunch and watched the street performers. Then it was across the very crowded Westminster Bridge and past Big Ben and Parliament, a poignant reminder of last week’s terror attack on this very bridge was the rows of flowers and heightened police presence in the city.

A walk through St James’s Park took us out at Buckingham Palace where we said a quick good day to the Queen before heading down The Mall to Trafalgar Square. I was expecting to see thousands of pidgeons as in days gone by, but today there were only thousands of tourists, the birds were deemed a health hazard and moved along.

The day was getting on so we ventured towards Leicester Square and into Covent Garden to take in a street show before heading back towards the River and to Embankment station to make the journey back.

On a separate trip to London we visited the Science and Natural History museums, the latter being the more impressive of the two.