Golden Tours.. More Like Bronze Tours--London, England
After waking up bright and early this morning and enjoying a delicious Windermere breakfast full of plenty croissants, bacon, and eggs, Kelly and I made our way to the Victoria Coach Station to catch the Golden Tours Hop on Hop off bus. We were on the first bus out at 9am and made it to the third stop where we were planning on getting off and switching to the purple line, or as they say lilac because the British are fancier with their words. We got off and waited at least 30 minutes… still no bus.. so we decided to walk to another bus stop about 20 minutes down the road because maybe one would be coming the other way. WRONG! We waited another 30 minutes there and then walked to another stop because maybe the lilac line just wasn’t running? Finally we caught a bus and luckily by the time it was 11:15am, we made it to our first destination for the day, The Shard. How beautiful art thou! The Shard is Western Europe’s tallest building and you can go up to the 72nd floor to get a view of London from above. It was a bit foggy when we went up, but still breathtaking! I would highly recommend it to anyone. Also all of the staff members at the Shard were so friendly, so that is always a plus :)
After taking in the view, we made our way back to the ground floor at around noon, then headed back to the hop on hop off stop. We were waiting for the lilac line.. what else is new. Luckily it rounded the corner right as we were about to give up on it! YES! PRAISE THE LORD! We hopped on, and were planning to follow the bus all the way to Leicester Square to catch the free “Beatles Walking Tour” at 1pm. Unfortunately we got to a couple stops down and the bus driver came up to us and said that he was going to take a 20 minute break so we should get off. uhhhh… okay.. So our blistered feet suffered a wee bit more, but we eventually made it (after walking past the starting location multiple times because they were unclear about that as well). We met our tour guide, who was phenomenal! Also he walked his little yorkie named Buster with us during the whole tour. Kelly asked if it was his little sidekick and he said “No! He is the leader!” bahaha. I feel like my dad would really get along with him. On the tour with us were 2 girls from Connecticut and a lady from Canada, which reminded me of crazy Ashley S. AKA onion girl from this past season of “The Bachelor”. But really.. she was so random and the tour guide was always waiting on her cause she was just looking around so confused. Maybe she was looking for the onion?? Who knows! But the tour was great and very informational! Not only did the guide talk about Beatles related things, but other bands and fun facts as well. This included where the drummer for The Who lived, where Mozart lived, where the first TV was demonstrated, where Led Zeppelin got kicked out of the basement of a Chinese Restaurant for playing too loudly, where Jimi Hendrix played his first ever show(in front of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Cream.. not intimidating or anything..Lennon actually said that The Beatles needed to practice more after hearing it because it was so good! ) and his last ever show before passing, Paul McCartney’s current office, and where Harry Potter was published. I didn’t realize how jammed pack London was with musicians back in the day! Very cool. Since it was the Beatles walking tour we did go to Trident Studios, where they recorded Hey Jude, Dear Prudence, and I want you, and a couple other songs as well. What I didn’t know is what other groups has also recorded here. Including The Rolling Stones, Queen with ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, James Taylor with ‘Carolina in my Mind’, and others! As we continued on our tour, we saw a giant mural on a wall in Soho. Our guide told us that this mural is where the Beatles got their inspiration for their Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Album cover. It is incredible, because they are practically identical! We also saw where the original “Apple Records” was located. Sadly it is now an Abercrombie and Fitch. Ugh.. How terrible! We finished up our tour around 2:45pm, and found a hop on hop off bus, which surprisingly was in sight! We hopped on and made our way to The Tower of London. I had been here my last trip to London, but I knew Kelly would really enjoy it, so I did it again for her. But what wasn’t there last time was a RED CARPET! At first I couldn’t tell what it was for.. so I told kelly “The Queen is coming…. to Grove High School” haha. (Princess Diaries for those of you who don’t know!) I thought we might catch someone who was royal.. But it actually turned out to be the World Series Premiere for The Game of Thrones. There was security EVERYWHERE. But Kelly and I don’t watch the Game of Thrones so we just went on about our business before the Tower of London closed. We explored the tower and then walked back to the hop on hop off. While waiting, we struck up a conversation with 3 Australian women. They were all sisters and were so nice. They are going to Paris tomorrow for the day. (We learned a lot about their life considering our bus always takes forever). But it finally came and we made it back to Victoria Station. Then we just went to a grocery store, picked up a sandwich and headed back to the hotel so we can get ready for Warner Bros. The Making Harry Potter tomorrow!
xoxo,
Em