Three of us traveled by Virgin Atlantic to London with a 15 hour layover there before flying on to South Africa. November 26 was in London.
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| Virgin served us well |
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| Map of London. We mostly went on the red route and some of the blue. |
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| Where else would Paddington Bear be, but at Paddington station? |
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| Bookseller on a canal |
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| We took the "Big Bus" (red double decker buses) tour. One of those convenient "hop on, hop off" tours with commentary all the way. |
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| Passed some ritzy places! |
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| Lovely flowers |
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| Trafalgar Square with St. Martin in the fields |
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| Not sure the significance of the blue rooster but on a day like this, it sure stood out! |
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| Trafalgar with St. Martin-in-the-fields |
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| Near 10 Downing Street. Note the mounted guard. |
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| Entrance to 10 Downing Str. where the prime minister lives. |
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| Houses of Parliament |
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| Big Ben on his tower |
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| The London Eye over the Thames |
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| How nice to get the Eye and Ben superimposed! |
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| Crossing the Thames |
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| A London alleyway somewhere |
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| Nooooooo ooooo ooooo! |
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| Entrance to the Tube |
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| Tower Bridge |
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| Tower of London |
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| The moat |
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| C standing by her great great great (plus or minus) grandfather's name on Tower Bridge |
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| Our relative, John Staples, was the mayor of London when the Tower Bridge was built. |
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| Ahhh, we found wifi! |
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| Walking past the Tower of London |
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| Poppies in the moat to commemorate Armistice Day on November 11. |
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| The famous, or infamous... |
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| Tower of London - a horrible place in times past. |
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| Please don't throw me in jail here! |
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| Agh, it looks fierce! |
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| I think they were starting to take up the poppies |
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| Part of our Big Bus tour included a ride on the Thames |
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| S and I went outside for a better view |
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| Hmmm, another, more modern London Bridge. The original is in Arizona I believe. |
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| A few autumn colours still around |
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| Houses of parliament |
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| It looks like each of these capsules could hold 20 or more people, and it didn't stop moving. Apparently slow enough for people to embark and disembark safely. |
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| Westminster Abbey |
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| Hard to get all of the front in one shot! |
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| Buckingham palace. The Queen was in and seeing people. We saw them going in and coming out in small happy groups. |
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| You MAY not make us laugh! |
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| Candy stripes? |
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| Fountain at Buckingham Palace. At least it's only water! |
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| The golden statue |
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| Road through St. James park from Buckingham |
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| A London street |
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| Ditto |
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| Must be an easy day |
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| So thankful we weren't on the regular public transport although I'm sure it's very efficient. It was just nice to sit on one bus set and get taken to all the touristy spots, no hassles. TY Ruth, for the heads up about it! |
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| Whole foods market |
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| Heathrow international waiting area. Camera on the charger! |
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| Our "little" flight. Doesn't look too bad, does it? Seriously though, it was only 10+ hours. |
And so ends our day in London.
