Touring the Attractions of London, England
London, England
History of London, United Kingdom
London, England is a place with an incredibly rich and diverse history going back as far as, well… before history. Structures found in the River Thames push the dates of occupation in the area back to around 4,800 BC, but it wasn’t until the Romans came that it earned its status in history and they named it Londinium, which was later shortened to London.
I’m not going to sit here like some history professor and act like Mr. Knowitall or should I say Professor Knowitall, even though I am a huge nerd for stuff like this. The fact is London is a great city and anybody who visits will most likely find something they love about it. With all of London’s epic historical spots, it’s easy to see why it is one of the world’s top tourist destinations and brings in around 30 million visitors per year.
Our tour around London was short but sweet and the city’s well-laid-out transportation system made it super easy to see a lot in just a few days. Again, I know every Londoner reading this is saying, “mate, you can’t possibly see the whole of London in two or three days” and don’t worry I believe you, it’s freakin huge. I did see quite a lot though and that is partly thanks to The Original Tour company, where you can purchase a ticket to use the hop-on and off buses, as well as take the passenger boat tour down the Thames.
London, England YouTube Video
How to Get There
Map of London
London, England
London, England
Buckingham Palace
We decided collectively we would try to visit Buckingham Palace, after all, it may be our only chance to see and meet the Queen and possibly become close friends with the royal family. Instead, it ended up being a lesson in human behavior and swarm mentality. While there we accidentally stumbled into the Changing of the Guards like a bunch of silly Canadians, who don’t truly understand the significance of this daily parade. It’s so special that loads of tourists crowd around like a pulsing hive even hopping on the tops of barriers holding their cell phones as high as they possibly can trying to outdo and block the views of other spectators. On our visit people even shimmied, but you're not allowed to shimmy, so just like crabs in a bucket they in time returned to the bottom with the rest. Many Bobbies (police officers) were assigned to the task with pepper spray and batons on their hips, to handle the swarm. “Keep moving”, were the orders we kept hearing as we shuffled through the confusion with 6 of us in tow. We made our escape, but we weren’t out of it yet, all of a sudden we heard a loud noise and turned our heads only to realize the parade was coming in our direction. We accidentally managed to get an up-close view of what all the fuss was about as a parade strolled right by us in an anticlimactic fashion. People ran with their cameras held high, trying not to miss one moment, we laughed at them and carried on down the road to find beers and some fish and chips.
London, England
Tower Bridge
The Tower Bridge is an impressive sight to behold and your tour will take you right over it where you will be able to get an awesome close-up shot. It’s really quite neat unless a large boat decides to go under and you have to wait there for 20 minutes with a massive piss sitting in your bladder while mumbling to yourself “stupid bridge”.
London, England
Tower of London
The Tower of London was definitely my favorite attraction, with its medieval facade and scandalous history going back almost 1,000 years. With such an intriguing past it’s hard not to imagine what they would say if those walls could talk.
London, England
London, England
We hopped on the city cruises boat which was included with our tickets and we ended up getting some nice unimpeded views of the attractions, something I highly recommend.
London, England
London, England
London Eye
In the background is the London Eye as they call it, unfortunately, we didn’t have time to ride it. It offers probably the best overall view of London and goes so slow that it takes 30 minutes to complete one full revolution.
London, England
London, England
St. Paul’s Cathedral
St. Paul’s Cathedral is an incredible piece of architecture and the current dome has been a fixture of the London skyline for over 300 years, but written history tells of cathedrals on this very site going way back to 604 AD. The church has been rebuilt many times over the centuries mainly due to fires.
London, England
London, England
London, England
The tour buses will take you all over Old London and give you a real sense of how wealthy and powerful the British Empire was. Every building looks as if it cost a fortune to build and an entire lifetime to create. You will see Intricately designed and painstakingly carved borders and doorways, medieval gargoyles, dragons, and strange edifices all meticulously chipped away from whatever type of rock materials they chose to use at the time of construction. One thing is very evident when touring through London and that is in terms of durability, the British Knew how to create great structures that would stand the test of time. Many of these buildings are still in great shape after hundreds, if not thousands of years.
London, England
London, England
London, England
Big Ben
Big Ben is of course the large clock tower that is essentially synonymous with London and remains one of the city’s most popular attractions. The tour takes you by Big Ben, but unfortunately, the damn thing was under construction which is apparently a fairly common sight when visiting London and a bit of a letdown, to be honest.
London, England
London, England
Conclusion
London is worth a visit for a few days, but I felt like I’d had my fill, but that’s just my opinion and if you love big cities then you might enjoy a longer visit. That’s not me saying I don’t like London, I’m just not really a big city guy and find more peace in the countryside. That being said the history is fascinating and Londoners are very polite and friendly and I would definitely visit England again. Another thing that made our visit so pleasant was the fact that during our 4 days in England we never had any rain and even had a nice sunny day, which I’ve heard is fairly rare for October.
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