London Day 2

London Day 2 pictures
Well it's now Monday and decided to split the blog posts to make them a bit more digestible i.e. not so long.
It was windy overnight and overcast this morning, though the forecast was for good weather.
Today we were going to do Terry Gasson's London walk.
Terry is a member of the Friends and a tailor who was born and trained in London, Savile Row no less.

No 1 Savile Row

Well Terry, being a Londoner has devised a walk to cover a lot of the territory a visitor may want to cover, if they wanted to walk.
There are notes and maps, so that's what we used.
So it was out of the hostel, down through Carnaby Street, of 60's fame, then across Regent Street to Savile Row. The Tailors were just starting to work as we walked by, mostly down in the basement. No 1 Savile Row is Gieves and Hawkes, tailors to Nelson and Wellington.
Then down Burlington Arcade, lots of top class jewelers and perfumeries onto Picadilly.
Past the Ritz where afternoon tea sets you back 30 pounds, into Green Park, to Buckingham Palace-the queen was home.

Household Cavalry

After some geographic confusion, we then headed to Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament and into Whitehall where the Household Cavalry sit quietly on their horses.
Downing Street is here too closed off to the public by large gates and armed police.
It's then back to Trafalgar Square and down to the embankment.
The Embankment Gardens are a picture and the various statues spread throughout the garden very interesting.
On the Embankment is Cleopatra's Pillar, a gift from the Egyptian ruler to Great Britain, after Nelson's defeat of the French in the battle of the Nile, a few years ago.
We divert here to cross the Thames on one of the Golden Jubilee bridges to meet our destiny with the London Eye.

Houses of Parliament and Big Ben

For the uninitiated, the London Eye is a bloody great ferris wheel, that takes you high above London for the best view over central London that you can have. The trip takes about 30 minutes and is a must if you're visiting.
It's then back across the Thames to complete out tour, up past the Lyceum Theatre staging performances since 1834, into Covent Gardens, the old vegetable market, now better known for the Royal Ballet.
We wander round here for a while, there is much to see.
A young woman is singing opera in the lower market and an Australian street performer is doing an escapologist act outside.
We are done, it's been a walking day on hard pavements, so separately we make our way back to the YHA.
My feet are sore and I need a coffee, Eve needs her roots painted and Margaret needs something, though I have no idea what.
Thanks Terry great walk.