A BUSY day

 As we anticipated it was a busy day, both for us, and for the millions of Londoners as it was a hot, blue sky perfect day.

We started off by getting a breakfast in a nearby cafe. It was just right.

We started our tourist activities by going to Covent Garden to meet up with our walking tour guide. The Covent Garden area is really neat and there was a market being set up in, what appears to be, an old train station.

The walking tour was very nice and even though it covered much of the same area that we have already been to, the guide was full of interesting facts.

The photo below was taken in St.James Park with Buckingham Palace on the background.

The tour ended about 12:30 and we knew by then that going to the Tower of London was going to be a zoo so we changed our plans and instead took the river ferry to Greenwich. It still took some waiting however we were on the water maybe 45 minutes later for a delightful ride down the  Thames. The photo below was taken on the ferry boat.

After a wonderful ride we got off at Greenwich village. Our first stop was the Cutty Shark sailing vessel. This was just a walk through for us as we have seen ships like that before.

The village there was packed with people ( like Banff in July) and really was beautiful ( and touristy). The Royal Park ( where the old Observatory is located) was really busy with many families enjoying an exceptional day weather wise. The location is breathtaking. The photo below is a panoramic shot taken there. Canary wharf is straight ahead, the historical Center is to the far left and the O2 stadium is to the right.

The main reason I wanted to go there was to take a photo. In the photo below I am straddling the 0 meridian line. Now all I have to do is take a photo at the equator !

We did a relatively quick look at the Observatory museum items. The clocks were particularly interesting. We also saw some neat telescopes (photo below)

With lots of walking still to do today we headed back on the ferry about 4:30. The ride back was just as interesting as the ride out with the opportunity this time to view the south bank ( where as the north side was our view when  heading out).

Once back at Big Ben we walked some back streets up to Buckingham Palace where we had the following photo taken.

We continued our walking/sightseeing by going around Green Park and then to the  Piccadilly area, and "my goodness" it was hopping with crowds of Saturday night revellers. WOW!

Supper tonight was at the same  place we had breakfast this morning. It was Italian food for us and we watched the final few minutes of the FA Cup.

27,000 steps today!