London: Big Bus Day

Jeff and I have both been to London before, but never together, and never with the girls. We were sure it was a city they would love, and we were right.

We originally thought that we would be going back to the States after Malaysia, so I planned a big, blow-out trip back, starting with a direct flight from KL to London. Business class on Malaysian Airlines costs about the same as an economy ticket on a U.S. airline, so we left Malaysia in comfortable seats and had a civilized, 13 hour flight to London.

My parents met us in London, and even though we were all very jet lagged, we managed to walk down the street from our hotel and have dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe before collapsing. We stayed at the Sheraton Grand on Park Lane, and it was a very nice hotel. Thanks to all of Jeff's points and status, we were able to get two connecting rooms at almost no expense to us. We also got a lovely breakfast each morning, afternoon tea, and drinks and light food options in the evening. It turned out to be a great base for us.

On the first morning, the waitress asked if we would want milk in our tea. This is a thing I hadn't introduced the girls too, because I don't take milk in my tea, but I'm glad they got this opportunity, because it turns out that Elena really enjoys milk in her tea! That day she also fell in love with Big Bus Tours.

Since the girls had never been to London before, we figured the best starting activity was a bus tour to take them around the city. One of the lines started right near our hotel. My parents were also staying nearby, so we met up at the stop, and got the front row of the bus for me, Elena, and my parents.

Jeff, the photographer, wanted to sit in the open part farther back, and Vivi sat with him. 

The audioguide was predictably hokey, but my family loves audioguides, so they were happily plugged in as we took in the sights of London from our elevated vantage point.

Jeff did a great job getting pictures from the bus as we drove by things. We went back and forth across the Thames, and the bus driver was good about slowing down when there was something worth photographing. I felt a little bad for the people on the road actually trying to get somewhere, but for us it was great.

St. Paul's was particularly difficult to photograph, because it's quite big and also nestled in between a bunch of other buildings.

Jeff got a great shot though.

We got to see Tower Bridge from a distance,

and eventually, we went over it.

Jeff managed to get a shot of the Tower with the Shard in the background, London, old and new.

Finally, we looped back around to Parliament, where the audioguide reminded us that it's the bell that's called Big Ben, and the tower is actually the Queen Elizabeth tower.

We made the full loop back to our original stop, and then we got off to find a pub for lunch. We found a lovely one on one of the smaller streets near our hotel.

They had plenty of seating upstairs, good food, and lots of different beers on tap, so we enjoyed an excellent lunch with my parents before they packed up and headed to their next hotel in Oxford.

Our Big Bus ticket also included another line of the bus, and Elena was especially enthusiastic about continuing our big bus tour. She really wanted to go to Regent's Park because it's featured in one of her favorite movies, Cruella, so we looked at the route and figured out where we wanted to get off to get to the park.

Along the way, we drove by the Churchill Arms, which has a spectacular flower display all around the outside. We definitely marked that as one we needed to come back to.

Elena probably would have been happy to ride the bus around London all day.

But we got off at Regent's Park, which is lovely. Unfortunately, it was only at that point that I thought to look up where the fountain from the movie is. Turns out, they filmed it at a fountain in Greenwich, not in the actual Regent's Park. Elena was quite disappointed, but the park was so pretty and there were several nice fountains, so we managed to move her past it.

We also got back to the hotel in time for tea and scones, so overall, it was a great day.