I have never done a Hop On Hop Off Bus Tour in London before. I have always either walked, taken a bus or the Tube, or taken a taxi to where I wanted to go. But this time, since I have taken Hop On Hop Off buses many times in many other cities, I thought I would try it in London.
There is one problem I discovered with doing it in London. That is the combination of London being so large, with sites so spread out, so dense in population (and therefore slow-moving traffic), and so full of tourists. It takes a very long time to get anywhere.
I had also long wanted to do the London Eye, but always seemed to run out of time and energy before I got to it. Nowadays, however, it is necessary to prebook pretty much anything you want to do in London simply because of huge amounts of tourists. So I booked a ticket for the London Eye along with the Hop On Hop Off Two-Day Bus Tour Pass a few months before I went on this trip.
After breakfast, I walked a couple of blocks from the hotel to one of the stops for the Bus Tour. It was the Trafalgar Square stop and was located just outside of the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery. My ticket for the London Eye was at 11am. I was there in plenty of time. It turned out to be the first group of the day.
I very much liked the fact that I could move around in the capsule to be able to see and photograph what I wanted. In some ways, however, the ride seemed a little too short in length.
I also had a ticket for a one-way river cruise included with my Bus Tour. I took the bus to the Tower of London so I could ride back to Westminster Pier via boat. Whenever I am in a city with a river, I love to take a scenic boat ride. It gives me a nice relaxing ride and shows the city from a different perspective. This time I just managed to get on the boat before it departed. So wasn’t very near any windows. The large window at the front of the boat was somewhat streaked and dirty. So didn’t take a lot of photos.
At Westminster Pier, I got back on the Hop On Hop Off bus and rode it to the Victoria and Albert Museum. This was a museum I have visited on a couple of occasions on past trips to London. I was really looking forward to spending time there again. On both of my previous visits I had lunch in the museum’s café, which had been large and carried a good variety of food choices, which were quite good. This time, the location for the food was quite small, with little variety and not much seating room. The food itself was also disappointing.
The museum was also, unfortunately, a disappointment. The main problem was that there were no signs to direct a person anywhere or anybody to ask. I had printed out a floor plan while at home but found it difficult to follow as the rooms themselves weren’t numbered or labeled in any way. The museum itself did not provide any maps at all. They had a thick, heavy book for sale as a guide instead. When I did finally find someone who worked for the museum, she told me about her own frustration on the lack of information provided to visitors. I eventually gave up trying to find some of the areas I wanted to visit and left.
I got back on the Hop On Hop Off bus and rode it all the way back to Trafalgar Square. Still had another day to go with the Hop On Hop Off Tour and had plans for what I wanted to do.
Next time – Day Two of The Big Bus Hop On Hop Off Tour: Kensington Palace
