Sept 28 2016

Great beds at the hotel and everyone seemed to have a good night's sleep. At breakfast there was a very nice buffet. Then heading back out to Earl's Court at a bit before 9:00 AM we took the District Line to Westminster and met our tour guide, Henrietta Ferguson. After a small hiccup we got into the Abbey. Unfortunately, they had just decided that private guides would not be allowed to guide their groups inside the Abbey, so Henrietta could only lead us to various parts of the interior while we listened to the provided audio guides. It was also a shame that photography was not allowed inside Westminster Abbey as it is so beautiful and full of eye candy for the photog.

Tour Guide - Henrietta

After the tour we quickly marched towards Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard. She lead us first to a spot where  we could get excellent pictures of the "new guards" en route to the palace. We were right on the edge of the street so were really "up close and personal" as the band

and guards strode by. Then we followed them down the street towards the palace.

Then it was off to the Westminster Pier where we used out London passes to board a boat for a cruise of the Thames from Westminster to the Tower of London. At this point folks were on their own to explore the area and go into places of their particular interest. Many went into the Tower of London, where you could get a wonderful free tour guided by one of the "Yeoman Wardens". A favorite part of that tour was going into the treasury and seeing the Crown Jewels.

Around 6 PM we met back at the London Eye did a little shopping, picked up our tickets and got into the long queue to enter one of the "pods". The line moved fairly quickly and the folks charged with loading us into the pods were very accommodating and we nearly had a private pod. Just one person, not part of our group, was aboard. It's a 30 minute ride and since it was just getting dark we got some great pictures from our lofty perch!

Afterwards we took the "tube" back towards the hotel and folks found dinner on their own at various locations. It was nice to sit and relax after all that walking. Over 7 miles according to my pedometer.