London Day 2

DAY 2   8 July 2012

Woke up early in the morning and had breakfast at Greggs ! 
Then we decided to buy the Big Bus Tours ticket, it is a London's hop-on, hop-off sightseeing bus tour...
The bus tour takes you to all the London's famous landmark and reveals London's colourful 2000 year history. Furthermore, the tour offers you a choice of a recorded commentary or a live commentary. 

We chose hop-on and hop-off sightseeing bus tour because it enable us to get on and off the bus at many places of interest ! 
Besides that, our tickets are upgraded to a 48 hours tickets at a promotional price which is  £28 !
Most importantly, the tour includes a free cruise on the river Thames and 4 guided walking tours plus Big Bus Reward Vouchers. However, we forgot to redeem the vouchers :X

This is a relaxed and safe way to experience the city !
However, the tour stop at 6pm, which means we couldn't take the bus to view the night scenery at night :(
Not only that, the bus tour has a specifically route, which is from station 1 - 43. You have to follow the route designed !

We took the Big Bus tour bus and stopped at Marble Arch ! 
It is a white Carrara Marble monument that now stands on a large traffic island at the junction of Oxford Street, Park Lane and Edgware Road.
We planned to change another bus to go Buckingham Palace. But the person said that it was too late for us to board the bus now :(
So we changed our plan and decided to join the Harry Potter tour.
It was too early for us to go there so we decided to walk around the area. 

We walked along the Oxford Street !  
Oxford Street is a leading luxury shopping destinations with a list of London shops, boutiques, departmental stores and etc. 
You can see Primark, Topshop, Dorothy Perkins, FCUK, La Senza, Swaroski, Esprit, Uniqlo, etc... Lots of big outlets there !!!!!!!
Our shopping mode is on and we forgot the time !!!!!

Hence, we bought the train day pass (zone 1 & 2) too for £7 as we planned to take the train to Trafalgar Square to join the Harry Potter tour offered by Big Bus Tour. We couldn't take the Big Bus Tour as we were already late for the Harry Potter tour so we decided to go for a faster way to prevent us from missing the Harry Potter tour ! Because we spent too much time at Oxford Street and we thought that we would make it on time for the Harry Potter tour, but failed :( 
Advice : Strictly follow the time when go for a tour !!!
But, we need to take the train to go back our hostel too laaaa !   

Acting cute 

This is what we did when it rained !
Hahahaha :) 

Free mountain dew at Marble Arch !!!

We missed the Harry Potter tour :(
Then we spent some time at Trafalgar Square & National Art Gallery. 
Trafalgar square is a opened and public space built around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. The name commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar, a British naval victory of the Napoleonic Wars over France. Read more about Trafalgar Square here :)

We just took some pictures around the area and we didn't go into National Art Gallery :(
Because we were having time constraint !
We went to take the Big Bus tour in order to board the river cruise :D

Counting down to Olympic ! 

National Art Gallery.
We just managed to take picture with the building. LOL

Finally, we can board the cruise already !
Feeling the wind on the top deck of the cruise ! *cold*
The hop-on and hop-off cruise starts from Westminster to Greenwich via Tower of London. However, you could board the cruise at any stops if you hold the tickets :)

We were busy shooting the pictures when we passed by the Tower Bridge !!!
The tower bridge is really amazing !
The central span of 200 feet between the towers is split into two equal bascules or leaves, which can be raised to an angle of 83 degrees to allow river traffic to pass. Read more about the tower bridge here
We passed by London Bridge, Millennium Bridge too !!!
In the beginning, I mistakenly referred Tower Bridge as London Bridge. Haha.
When Yu En told me that which one is London Bridge, then I was like huh? hehe

Ready to board the cruise !

Couldn't stand the strong wind ! LOL

We took the cruise to Greenwich (0° longitude) and went down for a walk :)
We went to a gallery and had our fun time there.
Then we visited National Maritime Museum :)

In the gallery !

K - the Iron Man wannabe ! hahaha

Fong Yee - the Iron Woman :)

After the cruise tour, we hop-off at Westminster and walked around !
Out of a sudden, it rained heavily ! Luckily our cruise tour ended already :)
We decided to have our dinner first. 
We took the train to Leicester again (it was 6pm something so no more Big Bus Tour)..
Automatically thought of Leicester, don't know why....
Chinese wanna have Chinese food there? Typical china man, especially Jack ! :P

Our dinner !
Sweet & sour pork rice and Wan Tan Mee :)
With a free Chinese tea served :)

After the dinner, we took the train back to Westminster, area of central London. 
The Westminster Abbey (the venue of the wedding of Prince William and Kate) is closed ! :( 
We didn't visit the Palace of Westminster too ! It is closed as well :(
Whoever wanna visit Palace of Westminster can come on the next day !

Then we saw the Big Ben !! Big Ben is the nickname for the great bell of the clock at the north end of the Palace of Westminster and generally extended to refer as clock tower too ! It was so amazing !
The night view is even more perfect !!!!!!
You wouldn't want to miss the night scenery !

Yu En had a ride on London Eye :) 
The others felt that it was out of their budget to take the ride.
However, she also felt that the London Eye is not high enough. She couldn't even see the Tower Bridge from the highest point of London Eye :(
Too bad !!!

TOWER BRIDGE !!!
Breathtaking view ! 

The London Eye !

Day 2 gone !
No doubt, it was a nice one ! :)
Love London ♥ but not the crowd ! haha