London sights.

On arrival at Heathrow we were unable to get on to the recommended Hotelink bus as advance bookings are required and a two hour wait for the possibility of two seats on the next bus seemed like a waste of time. We decided to take the tube railway instead due to (a) the proximity of our hotel to Picadilly Circus station and (b) the much lower cost. This may have been fine under normal circumstances, but with three suitcases and two pieces of hand luggage between us the effort to get everything up numerous flights of stairs, across busy intersections, down a narrow laneway etc. had us both panting for breath and ready for a good rest once we eventually made it to the hotel. The Regent Palace Hotel is ideally situated right at Picadilly Circus with plenty of nice places to eat and buses literally right at the door. Our well earned rest was short lived as we had tickets for the BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall for 6:30pm. Managed to find our way there using London buses with enoug!
h spare time for a look around this magnificent facility and a relaxing drink in the bar. The show was fantastic, lasting over two hours, the first half consisting of a mixed choir, four soloists accomanied by the London Philharmonic orchestra conducted by an extremely energetic Russian conductor whose name escapes me. The second half was the full London Symphony Orchestra comprising strings, woodwind, brass and percussion, about 70 artists in all conducted by the same Russian guy. We had the most fantastic seats, front row, dress circle, centre stage.
Monday morning we walked all around central London, across Waterloo Bridge, past Festival Hall and all the buskers along the banks of the Thames to the "London Eye". At 135 metres, the London Eye is the worlds tallest observation wheel with 32 high-tech glass capsules, capable of carrying 25 people in each capsule. However we were fortunate to have only about 10 others in ours which made moving about for differnt views very simple. It takes approximately 30 minutes to complete one revolution and offers spectacular views of London and its famous landmarks such as Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, St Pauls Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and Trafalgar Square. We then walked through Green Park to Buckingham Palace, then back via Trafalgar Square and Covent Gardens to Picadilly. Although we had only 1-1/2 days in central London we crammed about 5 days worth in. Tomorrow we collect our motor home from Elm Park, North East of London and begin 14 days of touring under our own steam around E!
ngland, Scotland and Wales.
Kevin & Gail.
www.alaska-2006.blogspot.com

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