Sunday 28/4/19

We travelled into London yesterday by bus. Very efficient and quick service and even with all the road closures for the London Marathon we made it into Hyde Park in less than an hour.

We than had to navigate the underground and thank goodness for Rob’s navigation skills as we used the underground to criss cross London for the rest of the day. If it had me navigating the network, we may have gotten lost!

We used the underground to travel to Goodge station and then walked about 300 metres to our hotel. Gower house and dropped our packs.

Our room is small but clean and will do well for a couple of nights.

We headed out again and used the underground to travel to Leicester square. We walked around and tried to get some half price theatre tickets but due to the Marathon there were limited offerings, will try again tomorrow. We then found an old English pub to have the obligatory pint!

Back on the underground we travelled to The Embankment station were we found we had come out at mile 25 for the London Marathon. It was a very festive atmosphere with lots of people about.

We walked over a footbridge and past The London Eye, then over Westminster Bridge with the view of parliament and then past Westminster Abbey and up to James St station.

History at every turn, our pocket tour today certainly does not do London justice but it is a lot of fun to see all these historic places, albeit briefly.

On the tube again to Tower Hill were we ran into the Marathon again and due to this we were able to walk over Tower Bridge via the middle of the road which was closed to traffic for the day. Hoping to return here tomorrow for a tour.

We then walked along the Queen’s walkway past the Shard and up to London Bridge with stunning views of the city all around. Up past the monument we hopped on the tube again at Monument station. 3 line hops later we arrived at Russell St with a pub, The Swan, round the corner! Dinner was a red wine and beef pie and a glass of Shiraz, then a short walk home. All up a fantastic day in London!