Blog Ben

On Thursday, I had an enjoyable day in London showing a friend the main sights. I think I appreciated it as much as him and, if anything, it made me remember how much I ejoyed being a tour guide back in Kamakura/Enoshima and that it could be a fun side-job if I live there in the future.

My bearings are pretty good around the most famous areas, but I wouldn't say I know London well. I'm sure I've been to the Changing of the Guards before but can't remember it, so I must've been quite young. Luckily, Buckingham Palace is just a stroll from Victoria Coach Station, and we arrived there just before 11am. The Police were out on horses, clearing a path between the gates and the Victoria Monument. Strangely, however, the procession didn't pass through there, and just continued into the Palace at a side gate.


We strained our necks over the crowds, me sadly realising that Europeans are taller; much easier to see over the Japanese!


We gave up soon after and strolled to Westminster. Suddenly, another procession came down a side road, so we had an excellent view. (By the way, Dad explained that there was significance behind the leopard-print vests, but it's a fashion faux pas regardless.)


Liran, my friend, spotted a squirrel in some grass, and was excitedly trying to take photos. To him, camels are typical, he said, but I laughed at the idea of a crazy tourist snapping a creature a few hundred yards away from one of the most famous attractions happening that moment.

He was impressed by Big Ben, although the sky gloomed over. I was nearly flattened by a crane if it hadn't have been for the operator pushing me out of the way.


We timed a boat ride along the Thames to perfection and set off, with a funny and informative guide explaining the monuments/buildings as we passed, including Cleopatra's Needle, the Tate, Shakespeare's Globe, OXO Tower, where Oliver Twist was formed, St Paul's, and onto Tower Bridge.




Incidentally, Tower Bridge is NOT London Bridge, whatever popular culture may deem. That's you Fergie I'm talking to.


Google too! Type 'London Bridge' in and look at the Image results...

The boat terminated at Greenwich, where International Time is set, and we had a beer in a typical pub. We took the Docklands Light Railway and Jubilee Line back to Westminster and walked to Trafalgar Square which has lost a lot of charm since the pigeons were deported.


On to Covent Garden, Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus, which Liran was amazed at how close they were to each other. Along Regent Street, we stopped at Hamleys to buy a present for his cousin, and then further along Oxford Street. Every tenth shop was an H&M which was slight overkill, and I even saw two UniQlos - the Japanese alternative which has just come over here.


We cut through Green Park, and past the Palace, to Victoria for the return coach to Bournemouth. Of course, the bus from Bournemouth Station was twenty minutes late, but that didn't detract from a grand day out. There's lots more to do and see in London but I was thrilled when Liran looked at the postcards in a souvenir shop and said he had seen everything displayed in the pictures.