Bonney's
Vacation Sagas

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Penny Lane

Penny Lane there is a barber showing photographs
of every head he's had the pleasure to know
And all the people that come and go stop to say hello

Second Day

We were up early the next morning and finally figured out where we needed to go to find a tour bus boarding location. We had purchased tickets through the apartment management. That walk alone, was a killer for me and it turned out not to be the closest. We waited five or ten minutes before the bus arrived. The tour guide onboard was knowledgeable and pleasant to listen to.

The tour buses had different colored lines, each having its own route. We took the yellow line to the Tower of London via a nice route past city highlights.

After I got on the bus, I discovered that when I had changed purses the night before, I had left my camera in our room. Oh, no! But Lesley had hers with her. So far on the trip, I think she had only taken about twenty photos versus my eight hundred +. So I "borrowed" her camera and snapped away as the bus drove through London. It was shortly before we reached the Tower that it dawned on me I was using up her battery before the main event. Too late! The battery died before we got off the bus. But between our room and the Tower, I must have taken at least seventy-five photos. Which will appear here if Lesley can ever find the cable to her camera and download them. The bus tour fare did not include the price of the ticket for the Tower of London. But, we had pre-purchased a London Pass that included our fare there and to other attractions. It also gave us a discount in some of the souvenir shops. We stopped for lunch at outside the gates before entering the Tower grounds.

We headed to the building displaying my favorite things, pretty rocks.

The Crown Jewels, which are part of the Royal Collection, are displayed to millions of visitors every year, guarded by Yeomen Warders ("Beefeaters") in the Tower of London. They actually had moving sidewalks taking people past the display cases of the jewels.

The Jewel House at the Tower has been used for the secure storage of the precious ceremonial objects, commonly known as the "Crown Jewels", since the early 14th century, when Westminster Abbey (the alternative store) was found to be unsafe.

We completed our tour of the Tower. At least I did. I sat on a bench so Lesley could go see a few other places that had multiple steps leading up to them. When she was done, we went to catch a water taxi beside the Tower. This ticket was also included with our London Pass. We exited the water taxi and the last stop closest to where we were headed. That was near a tour bus stop and we eventually caught a red line bus that should take us near Marble Arch. The first part of this red line tour was the same as the yellow line we had already been on, but the route eventually separated and went toward Marble Arch.

We knew our hotel was on a street between two other major ones, so we walked and walked and walked and eventually came to our outer parameter on the other side. Somehow, we had missed our street. We knew the general vicinity of our hotel, but we couldn't remember the name of the street and didn't have it with us. Great!

On one corner we came upon a pizza restaurant, So we went in to eat lunch. We asked our waiter if he knew the names of the cross streets if we went in a particular direction. He didn't. But his cell phone could pull up a map of where the restaurant was and show the surrounding streets. Five or six blocks away, we found a street with a name we recognized, and headed there after we finished our meal.

Before going up to our room we stopped at the small grocery to pick up some snacks for our supper, knowing we would not be heading out the rest of the evening. We spent the evening watching old game shows on TV, eating our snacks and packing up for our journey home the next day.

We had the forethought this time to make arrangements with our shuttle company for a ride to the airport rather than paying the exorbitant taxi fare that ended up being double the shuttle price. And funny thing, the shuttle seemed a bit faster, too.

I had not expected to enjoy London as much as I did (except for that walking part). The history and style of the old buildings was impressive. Several park areas kept the city from being a concrete jungle. And for this trip, we didn't run into any real rain.