The Oxford Tube is a 24 hour bus service that operates between Oxford and London. During peak periods of the day, a bus departs in each direction every 12 minutes. During the night, a bus departs every 30 minutes. We were surprised how full the buses are most of the time.
On Tuesday, we caught the 8 am bus from the Oxford park-and-ride to London. Traffic was relatively light and we made the trip in good time but were too late to catch the Big Bus Waking tour from Trafalgar Square. We got off at the first Victoria stop, right across from the Big Bus Tour office to ask for suggestions, because we wanted to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. They were not very helpful so we set off to the palace (only 2 blocks away) on our own.
We arrived at the palace and found a spot right next to the fence. Although the angle we were looking through the metal bars made it difficult to see, we hoped to catch some of the ceremony.
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| Our tour bus driver told us that this is the less busy season. It seemed busy to us! |
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| Some guests of honor for the ceremony. I think that they were Polish army officers. This one seems to be taking our photo. |
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| Our view of the palace 30 minutes before the changing of the guard. Not a bad spot? |
A nice gentleman let Matthew stand next to fence but as soon as the music started, everyone pressed him against the fence. One guy actually squeezed right in front of me and was pressing Matthew against the wall while he tried to take pictures. The families near the fence lifted their children on their shoulders until we could not see anything.
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| The crowd that gathered around us. Yes, there is a band in this photo. They are marching from Whitehall to the palace. |
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| A second band arrived. |
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| The two units inside the palace parade ground. |
The crowd became so obnoxious, and Matthew could not breath, so we left. (We couldn't see anything anyway.) Feeling more confident now, we looked for an Underground station to head for the London Bridge area of the city.
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| A view of Buckingham Palace as we walked. |
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| The "small" crowd on beautiful autumn day. |
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| We found the Green Park Underground station. What steep escalators. |
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| The train cars are smaller than the Washington D.C Metro. There is just enough room for us to face each other with a walking aisle in between us. The stations are maze-like, too. To exit, you have to walk through several train platforms to find an escalator or stairs. |
We rode the Underground to the London Bridge Station and visited Churchill's Britain at War to see how the people in London experienced World War II. It was a unique way to see the war from the view of families and non-combatants. Afterwards, we had lunch at a French bistro across the street. Our grilled ham and cheese sandwiches had the cheese on the outside of the bread.
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| Matthew at the dress-up area. Gas Attack Matthew. |
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| Air Raid Warden Matthew. This is his Winston Churchill pose, minus the cigar. |
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| Sailor Matthew. |
We caught the Big Bus Tour bus for the short ride over the Tower Bridge to catch the Thames River boat tour. The boat took us up the river to Westminster, near the London Eye.
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| On the top deck of the boat with the Tower Bridge. |
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| The Tower of London. The square center section was build by William the Conqueror in the 11th century and houses the crown jewels. |
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| The London Eye. |
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| Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. The large chimneys (right) are on the top of the new Parliament Office Building. |
The pier for the boat tour was near the Parliament Office building and directly across the river from the London Eye. We walked over the bridge and waited about 30 minutes in the queue to buy tickets. We then walked outside and right into our capsule. I think the ticket wait was longer than the 30 minute ride. At the top, we were 135 meters high and could see approximately 25 miles!
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| The Eye is suspended over the River Thames (pronounced Tems). |
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| Higher than Big Ben! |
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| Lori near the top. |
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| Matthew at the top. |
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| At the top. Parliament and the City of Westminster is on the right. |
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| The bank opposite Big Ben. |
With our feet back on the ground, we decided to go underground to Oxford Circus; the shopping district. The train took us to the very busy Oxford Street in front of the Selfridge store (founded by a man from Wisconsin) where the phrases, "The customer is always right," and "Only ___ days of shopping 'til Christmas," originated. We were tired so we didn't fight the rush hour crowds. We walked toward Victoria to find tea and our bus.
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| Rush hour on the Underground. We felt left out because everyone was reading papers and we didn't have one. |
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| Success! We had tea in Piccadilly Circus near the Ritz Hotel. Matthew likes tea and scones. |
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