Today we had a “Panorama” tour of London by bus. We saw quite a bit of the city as we toured some of the standard streets covered in these tours. There was a fair amount of repetition from our night tour a couple days before.
Then it was on to Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guard. On the way we saw more of beautiful London.
We didn’t actually stand in front of the palace (with the thousands of others). Instead, our guide took us to the Guard Barracks where the guards and the band were forming up. Not nearly the crowds here.
Then we had great, unobstructed views of the guard marching off to the Palace.
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the Tower Bridge,
and the Thames River with The Shard across the river.
After the tour, we walked over for lunch at a very old Pub/Restaurant and walked around the corner where we took a walk through Westminster Abbey (after a rather long wait in line) (again, no pictures in the Abbey).
From there we headed off to try to find Leadenhall Market, an old Victorian Market with a glass, conservatory type ceiling. It was very pretty. Some guidebooks indicated that it was one of the inspirations for Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter films (seemed a stretch).
We spent a fair amount of time just walking the streets to see what there was to see. We found little courtyards, interesting architecture and tons of flowers.
We were all a bit pooped so stopped for hot chocolate at a local eatery called Eat. Then we spent some time wandering the streets in the area and ended up back at the Tower of London where we watched the Tower Bridge open.
Our walk took us to St. Katherine’s Dock, a former commercial area that has undergone renovation and now features offices, restaurants and sights to see.
Our goal finding our restaurant, situated in the basement of an old warehouse, where we had ticket for a Medieval Banquet complete with King Henry VIII and his court. The food was excellent and the entertainment great. Everyone except the Jester/Juggler/Acrobat and the waitresses sang and all had great voices, especially Henry himself.
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On the way to the tube station we had great views of the well lit Tower of London,
the Tower Bridge,
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