We slept in today, not realising that we were supposed to be going out to Windsor Castle on a tour - it appears that the letter we were supposed to receive upon checking in to the hotel had gone missing.

Instead, we had a slow start to the day and, after visiting the Trafalgar Tour rep at the hotel across the street, we caught the tube to Marble Arch and took a City Sightseeing Bus tour around London. The bus took us past Mini-Ben (a miniature replica of Big Ben - duh) and told us the story of Speakers Corner (near Marble Arch) where people used to be hanged, after first having their last drink up the road and then having their last words on a soap box. Speakers Corner is still used today by people wishing to expouse their views, however, sometimes sadly they aren't hung afterwards any more :P



The bus took us past Big Ben (the real one) and the houses of Parliament. On past Downing Street, which was barricaded off at each end for security reasons I suppose. Around Trafalgar Square with Nelsons Column where we got off for a lunch stop.



We ate lunch at the Sherlock Holmes Pub where Kaye had fish & chips (again) and I settled for a nice serve of bangers & mash :)

Back on the bus again past many lovely old buildings and down Fleet Street, where all the newspapers used to have their offices - they're all out at Docklands now, the rent was too high in Fleet Street aparently :/

On past St Pauls Cathedral and down King William Street and across both London and Tower Bridges. We saw "Ken's Testicle", London Town Hall, a big glass ball of a building designed by the same architect as the new Credit Swiss building (the Gerkin).



We drove on past the London Eye (which we will get a ride on in a week or so) and stopped for a river cruise up and down the main section of the Thames between Westminster and Tower Bridges.



Back on the bus we made our way back to Marble Arch, full circle on the tour, then caught the tube back to our hotel. We ventured out later to the local pub for dinner, but it was packed full so we took the tube to Oxford Circus and had dinner - back home on the tube again to rest up for our big trip to Bolton tomorrow!