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International Easter Rally: Part 4 - London
Big Bus Tours offers international tours of several great cities, including London. We knew we would have very little time in London and we wanted to see as many of the famous landmarks as we could. So we traversed the Big Bus Tour green bus line to join up with the blue (taped recording) bus line. We soon realized that we really should have a live 
person as a guide when we pass by the really important attractions of London, so we hopped off, waited for awhile for a red bus, then hopped back on. The red buses were more crowded and sitting upstairs in the open air was not possible when we 
first got on; however, a lot of people got off at the Thames river cruise stop and then we could go upstairs and enjoy a better view of the sights and get some fresh air. We had a nice guided open air bus tour of Tower Bridge, The London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abby, and Bucking
ham Palace. We would have loved to spend more time on the tour, hop on and off more to see everything as well as take the complementary river cruise, but time was marching on and we had to get back to Euston station to catch a 7:00 pm train to Nuneaton (which is about a 10 minute drive from Purley Chase Centre
). We had a couple hours left and had a decision to make. We could stay on the Big Bus tour and use up the rest of our time in London, jump off and walk along Oxford St and shop the major chain stores, or take a bit of a risk and ride a city bus to Portobella Market, which a Londoner woman I met on the plane told me is an antique hippie shopping place that teens would enjoy. We chose the riskier option and hopped off the Big Bus tour for the city bus to Portobella Road. With thanks to Cody for his expert British coin c
ounting, a hot dog vendor for making change, and the rest of the teens for their coin contributions and help with the bus ticket machine, this turned out to be the best decision. Portobella market was fantastic! Two miles of little boutiques, second hand shops, antique stores, street vendors and performers. Excellent prices, a fun crowded street and ev
erything you could ask for in the way of souvenirs, gifts and trinkets. This was a real London experience and everyone enjoyed the market. I highly recommend going here if you travel to London. With some help from a friendly young college student, we were directed to the #18 bus stop, which took us right back to Euston station with 
plenty of time for dinner before our train departed for Nuneaton. We ate dinner, reclaimed our stored luggage and boarded the Virgin train utterly physically and mentally spent. It was now 2 pm EST (7 pm GMT) and we had been traveling for 24 straight hours. We walked perhaps 5 miles on our London tour and we were very happy to have a seat (and a na
p for some) on our one hour train trip. Purley Chase Center awaited us and we were all looking forward to getting there and starting the Easter Rally retreat, once we had a nice, long, long, sleep.
Big Bus Tours offers international tours of several great cities, including London. We knew we would have very little time in London and we wanted to see as many of the famous landmarks as we could. So we traversed the Big Bus Tour green bus line to join up with the blue (taped recording) bus line. We soon realized that we really should have a live 
person as a guide when we pass by the really important attractions of London, so we hopped off, waited for awhile for a red bus, then hopped back on. The red buses were more crowded and sitting upstairs in the open air was not possible when we 
first got on; however, a lot of people got off at the Thames river cruise stop and then we could go upstairs and enjoy a better view of the sights and get some fresh air. We had a nice guided open air bus tour of Tower Bridge, The London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abby, and Bucking
ham Palace. We would have loved to spend more time on the tour, hop on and off more to see everything as well as take the complementary river cruise, but time was marching on and we had to get back to Euston station to catch a 7:00 pm train to Nuneaton (which is about a 10 minute drive from Purley Chase Centre
). We had a couple hours left and had a decision to make. We could stay on the Big Bus tour and use up the rest of our time in London, jump off and walk along Oxford St and shop the major chain stores, or take a bit of a risk and ride a city bus to Portobella Market, which a Londoner woman I met on the plane told me is an antique hippie shopping place that teens would enjoy. We chose the riskier option and hopped off the Big Bus tour for the city bus to Portobella Road. With thanks to Cody for his expert British coin c
ounting, a hot dog vendor for making change, and the rest of the teens for their coin contributions and help with the bus ticket machine, this turned out to be the best decision. Portobella market was fantastic! Two miles of little boutiques, second hand shops, antique stores, street vendors and performers. Excellent prices, a fun crowded street and ev
erything you could ask for in the way of souvenirs, gifts and trinkets. This was a real London experience and everyone enjoyed the market. I highly recommend going here if you travel to London. With some help from a friendly young college student, we were directed to the #18 bus stop, which took us right back to Euston station with 
plenty of time for dinner before our train departed for Nuneaton. We ate dinner, reclaimed our stored luggage and boarded the Virgin train utterly physically and mentally spent. It was now 2 pm EST (7 pm GMT) and we had been traveling for 24 straight hours. We walked perhaps 5 miles on our London tour and we were very happy to have a seat (and a na
p for some) on our one hour train trip. Purley Chase Center awaited us and we were all looking forward to getting there and starting the Easter Rally retreat, once we had a nice, long, long, sleep.
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