UK2026: Day 2: Londinium summoning

Note: not mentioning my usual morning walks as they get interspersed throughout the day.

We managed to sleep for approximately 12 hours. Woke up at 0930 local time (all times local) and grabbed complimentary breakfast at the hotel. Today’s mission was to see the sites. Seeing the sites may not be the same as experiencing them. We hopped on a hop-on-hop-off (hoho) bus tour and away we went. Nature was on our side again as it was clear and sunny and warm for the second day in a row. A national record?

We chose “The Big Bus” and stayed covered the blue route as we had walked most of the red route the day before. Bus an amenities were acceptable.

Part of our tour included a boat tour down the Thames. We chose to take the boat tour from the London Eye to the Tower of London. Boat ride was nice. Cool to see stuff from the water and go under some of the famous bridges.

We went past Big Ben so many times Mrs Milddogs started quoting European Vacation “look kids, Big Ben”. Of course, now that we are assimilated into the culture we refer to Big Ben by its proper name, Queen Elizabeth Tower.

Some pictures will appear in the gallery below.

Our tour lasted a little longer than anticipated, look kids, Big Ben, and left us pressed for time for dinner. We ate again at the free cafe at the hotel. A relatively rapid cleanup and change of clothes and we headed to the St Martin’s theatre. You know the one, 75 years of The Mouse Trap by Agatha Christie. It was a lovely play. Kept our attention and we did not fall asleep. Can’t tell you about it as they asked us not to.

Look left. Look right. Oh boy, the traffic, pedestrians, cyclists and abundant motorcycles all competing for attention makes any form of travel on or near the roads rather risky.

Post play we stopped a gelato shop and enjoyed some flavours.

Back at the hotel we organized our stuff for tomorrow’s travel day.