On our third day in London, we were due to do a Stonehenge and Bath tour.  All five of us were (we thought) on the same tour. A cab was booked to pick us all up at 7 am and take us to the tour collection point.  At 6.45 am we realised that our tickets show TWO different drop off points.  Same destination – but different tours.   

Cabbie decided to drop off the three at their pickup point for an 8.30 am departure – then took us to our drop off point for an 8 am departure.  And naturally – we didn’t make it in time. While the others were still waiting for their bus to go, ours had gone.  No refunds for missed buses, money done.  Cue anger and frustration.  We went for a very grumpy breakfast while we took stock of what to do with our day now.

Saved by the tour agent

After pulling up the big girl panties, we decided to start with the hop on hop off bus and take it from there.  While we were on the bus back in Australia Benjamin Lord of Expert Class Travel had seen our post bemoaning our missed bus, and had pulled the iron out of the fire.  Benjamin gave me a call and offered to rebook us onto a tour the next day, to which we readily agreed. He then booked us on the  Bath/Stonehenge tour at no cost to, us which was extremely generous and him.  So we decided we would change our ticket for the Tower of London from tomorrow, to today and visit the tower. 

Riding around on the hop on/off bus, we rode around for a while and got off at Tower Bridge.  

The Tower

We wandered around and over the bridge and down to the Tower of London on the opposite bank.  By the time we arrived, it was already packed.  It was term holidays in London. And considering it was a glorious sunny day, even the locals were out.  The lovely lady at the ticket booth changed our ticket without a hassle, and we entered the tower.

The tower was founded towards the end of 1066 as part of the Norman Conquest of England. The White Tower, which gives the entire castle its name, was built by William the Conqueror in 1078.  It’s amazing (to me) that the building is so old… old buildings in Australia are around 200yrs yrs old.  This one was over a thousand!   Loved the building and the architecture – but I must say I was very unimpressed with everything else.  I expected rooms set up like it was in the day.. and while there was a couple – there wasn’t many. 

The queues for anything were miles long (or so it seemed). I wanted to see the torture room – but that had a queue extending back to harrods.. and the queue for the Crown Jewels went almost back to the airport.

Characters in costume

Adding to the historical tone of the tower were several costumed actors, strolling around. They reenacted various events regularly. Sir Walter Raleigh on his way to the scaffold. Queen Elizabeth I as young woman was kept there, a courtier, a Lady in Waiting etc.,  I loved the characters in costume 🙂

Hop on/of bus

Leaving the Tower we headed back to the Hop-On/Off bus stop. And then got promptly got lost. So we walked all over and eventually found the stop for the bus before changing routes at another stop to get on the red line hop on/off. Finally arriving at Harrods Department Store.

Harrods

The store was massive and expensive!  Up on the Christmas floor 2 metres of tinsel was 25 pounds (around $50!)  The deli floor was fabulous. I loved the way they all dressed like back in Mr Selfridges time LOL

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Tromso Airport

Our flight was leaving around 1 pm. So, we organised a big cab to take all five of us plus luggage and headed to the airport.  Arriving at the departure door, we were greeted by the view of the mountains around the airport, snow-capped peaks, fluffy clouds, and blue skies. Everyone grabbed their cameras and started firing off shots. 

Happy at finally getting some pics that didn’t involve rain, we entered the terminal, checked our bags through to London, went through security, grabbed some lunch, and chilled till the first leg of our flight.  Tromso to Oslo is just on 2 hrs. Then we had a two-hour stopover in Oslo before we were back in the air and heading for London. Followed by another two-hour flight.  We were treated to a gorgeous sunset as we approached London and landed in the city’s twinkling lights.

London

I would have to say that Heathrow is the worst airport we dealt with on this trip.  It took about 90 mins to get to the top of the queue to get our passports stamped at immigration control  – a couple of big planes landed, and only two windows open processing people!  We had hotel transfers booked, and the poor man was waiting for us forever.  It was great to step out of immigration and be met by a driver who took our bags and took care of us. 

For the next four nights, our’ home’ was the Glenlyn Hotel in Finchley, about 30 mins out of London by underground – but nice.  Comfy, clean rooms with a lovely buffet breakfast included.  The only drawback, and shock as we didn’t know till we arrived) was there was NO lift!  Getting our large suitcases up two flights of narrow, steep, twisting stairs nearly killed us all the first night.

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