London, the sights!
When you pay a bucket load of money to have trimmed visits to bunch of places, the most you want out of it is capturing the photographs. You don’t care about the history, geographic or civics of the place but photos, keep them coming. Especially if there are to be sights done in all over a city like London, in the era of smartphone, you are madly clicking away. At least that’s what happened to us.
From the moment we sat in the tour bus, that itself was an experience by the way, we were wide eyed and rotating our heads in all direction. We did so much jumping from one window to other, it was a wonder the bus didn’t topple. And what else is conducive for a good old outdoor photography session, a bright sunshine and no rain!
My mom had prayed to all almighty gods to bless us for beautiful weather throughout our trip, especially in London, which is famous for its fickle weather. And our faiths were reassured when we looked out from our bus to a bright sunny, albeit unexpected hot weather. I foolishly had worn a sweater top and suffered the most I believe, but the pics came ok, so that’s that!
The first stop in the day tour was Albert Memorial, at the Kensington Gardens, and a outside view of Royal Albert hall. I got confused initially, as I was not sure both Alberts were the one and same, as I didn’t understand why two dedication were in front of each other. It took a bit of googling to get the answers and was happy to read about Albert and Queen Victoria’s mutual affection.
As we roamed around the memorial, trying to understand the sculpture in the inner and outer corner, suspected it to be about the land UK ruled, and for a moment felt a bit late sense of patriotism thinking about the atrocities the British rule did commit on our ancestors. But then moment was gone, as we were rushed back to our bus to visit other sights.
The next stop was Trafalgar square, named after the Battle of Trafalgar, a British naval victory in the Napoleonic Wars with France and Spain that took place on 21 October 1805 off the coast of Cape Trafalgar, southwest Spain. On the way to the square, we drove thru the Piccadilly street, a blink and you miss sight, and to be honest London is so rich with places to see, most of them were a fleeting glance.
We took a stop near famed Buckingham palace, where I had imagined walking around leisurely and tease the palace guards, like they show in most tourist videos. But my oh my, the ground was filled with people as we had reached around the time for change of guards. We were shepherded to a prime location to view the exchanged, where we captured the activity with unblinking eyes. Coincidingly there were some visitors who had come to visit the palace in the traditional carriage as well, so it was a double treat for us.
By this time the sun was almost scorching and boarding the bus again was a relief. once bund led in we started for Tower bridge, one of the most clicked sights of London. We were given 20 mins to enjoy the view and click pictures. We had chance to click several of them in good lighting but because of the fascination to stay and take more pics, we were the last ones to return, with me hollering about it to my mom the full way back. I was worried if the bus would leave us stranded, but my mom with here coy smile looked unabashed, and later when we viewed the taken photos, hers were the best of the lot. Talk about not taking stress and enjoy life!
The next stop was Madame Tussauds. Now, I have stayed in US and had visited Madame Tussauds L.A., New York and Las Vegas and my parents visited one in New York too. So we thought this time we could rush thru and check out other nearby sights till other tour member finish their visit. But when we entered in, we still were awed again and took as much time as other to click away pics with the waxworks. Even watched the same 4D action move at the end about marvel avengers!