London Layover

London, London, London...And lots of pics :)
London is beautiful! I loved it. The first day was spent at Notting Hill Carnival (the color!!) and then visiting and riding the the London Eye. The second day was spent in true tourist style onboard the Big Bus Tour taking lots and lots of photos. I couldn't believe I was there and still cant, even with the photos to remind me. But instead of going on and on about it...here are the photos. Hope you like 'em.

Notting Hill Carnival.
Unfortunately I lost my friend during our wandering around and then couldn't find a train station that was open and got squashed in a crowd twice (not fun and a little scary but hey chalk it upto experience and no harm done). Aside from that the color and the music, the energy, dancing and excitement was truly contagious. Definitely worth seeing.

The London Eye.
Dinner and catching up with an Aussie friend whose been living in the UK for the past 7 months at the Giraffe nearby followed by a 135metre high breathtaking view of London at night from the London Eye.

A view of the London Eye, the river Thames and parliament House.

Me inside one of the London Eye "Pods".

One of the views (north).

A birds eye view of parliament House at night (south).

St. Pauls Cathedral (north).

Me and the Eye.












Day 2 and the Big Bus tour.
A few scenes from around London, as many as my camera could capture. It wasn't an easy task as the bus was quite fast and although I had the option of hopping off and taking my time and hopping back on another bus my time was limited as I was flying back that afternoon. But it was wonderful being up on the double decker bus, in the fresh air and beautiful weather and for that moment in time I could have said I was in a dream seeing all the sites of London pass by.
The National Gallery on the left with St Martin-in-the-fields on the right.

Nelsons Statue in the middle of Trafalgar Square with the ever present crane, the National Gallery in the background and of course those double decker buses and some other tourists enjoying the (I am told) rare pleasant weather of London just like me.

The top part of St Pauls facade and as you can see it is undergoing some sort of work - construction, repairs or maintenance I'm not sure which.


The Royal Exchange with the statue of the Duke of Wellington.

The Tower Bridge which people (me included *blush*) often mistaken for the London Bridge. Its nearly 300 stairs to the top if your interested in climbing up...

The Tower of London. Home to the flightless ravens...the story goes that if the ravens ever were to leave the tower then London would fall...so naturally they've had their wings clipped. :)


The city of London is not without its guards...this is one of the guards you'll find as you are leaving. There is a whole ceremony the queen has to go through to enter the city, (I'm not entirely sure about this but I will check up on it and edit later) the mayor is called to the front gates to escort and protect her with his sword, without his permission she cannot enter, its a tradition that has been kept though it is not really necessary now.

On taking a little cruise down the river Thames I spotted something that really tickled my interest...an unusual place for a pub but there's just something about it that I like.

For the love of Shakespeare!!! Those who know me, know I love classical literature and my love of everything Shakespeare is something I cannot explain. Here is one place I definitely will be checking out. The International Shakespeare Globe Centre.







And so my first taste of London was delicious... I understand why people love it so much. I cant wait to do more exploring. Hopefully I didn't overload anyone with so many photos - and trust me I took much, much more but it would be ridiculous to put them all here.
VP