One of the first things I do in any new city is to take a hop-on-hop-off bus. It’s a convenient way to get an overall feeling for the place and, if I pay attention and am lucky, to figure out the geography.
I know London so well that the only time I go on the bus is when I am acting as “tour guide” for people who’ve never been here before.
As this is the first trip for Scott, Sherrie, and Brianna, that was what we did today. Of course, London is such a huge city that there are three different routes. Even with multiple routes and a full day, we barely scratched the surface. The weather cooperated—warm and sunny, with perfect blue skies.
The top of a double-decker bus provides a unique view. While they were bowled over by the famous landmarks (like Big Ben, Tower Bridge, The Horse Guards, The London Eye), I had a different focus. The city has changed so much over the years that I was on the lookout for what was new.
London was my last trip pre-covid (I returned on March 20, 2020 the last day regular flights were allowed to go from London to NYC). I’ve been here multiple times since covid, but stuck to my favorite places and didn’t really explore. This time, I was wowed by the incredible amount of building that has gone on (and continues to go on). The juxtaposition of old and new is quite striking. I especially loved going past the Tower of London with the backdrop of the new skyscrapers.
My recent trips here have been during the winter months. Great for seeing holiday decorations, but I didn’t spend any time in the parks. London is chock-a-block with them. I was also delighted to see spring flowers and intense green.
Middle of the day we needed to change from one route to another. The transfer stop is quite near Chinatown. That seemed a propitious place to walk around a bit and have lunch (we hadn’t done any “hopping,” just sitting). The crowds were immense.
On the next route we passed by Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament. The crush of people made me very glad we were viewing everything from the top of the bus. We’ll try to get there later in the visit, but during the week when hopefully things will be fractionally less chaotic. Though given that it is Easter vacation for many, that may be wishful thinking on my part.
Traffic was so congested that mid-way through the third route that we almost came to a complete halt. We hopped off the bus and onto the underground. Besides, experiencing a ride on the underground is a must-do in London.
This evening, I had purchased tickets for a dance performance at Sadlers Wells Theater. None of them had ever been to the ballet before, so in addition to being in a new country and city, they had a first-ever cultural experience.