We are horribly late.
We stumbled onto the Waterloo train station which was unlike any we had seen before. It was buzzing with people, stores, sights and sounds. It is the Royal Ascott horse race this week, so women were elegantly garbed and sported sun hats. Men were similarly distinguished, wearing top hats and tailcoats that made them look like The Penguin from a poorly drawn Batman comic.
We decided to treat ourselves. Pret a Manger’s Orange Hot Chocolate tickled the right spot. We sipped slowly as we wandered outside Waterloo Station to find our Hop-On Hop-Off ride for the day. Golden Tours got lucky and would escort Ruan and me around London today.
We boarded the bus outside the large London Eye, then departed west towards Westminster Abbey. As we crossed the bridge, the great gothic walls and the towering clock of Big Ben loomed over the River Thames. We disembarked here and took a stroll to Parliament Park to visit a familiar face – Nelson Mandela – who is the most recent addition to this hall of histories, including Ian Smuts, Winston Churchill and Gandhi.
We snaked along the road to curve around Buckingham Palace and Hyde Park. The broad expanse was full of braided pathways that we are keen to explore using our new found longboarding skill. The audio on the busses provided us with succinct and interesting facts and stories as we passed important sites.
London weather was true to itself and switched between warm and cold capriciously, leaving me grateful that I had decided on leggings instead of shorts. We enjoyed winding between the tall apartment buildings in Paddington. It was a wonderful area. Trees lined the road, but we could peek at the little garden’s residents kept on their verandas.
Westminster on a bright, sunny day!
People had always told us the wax museum is a must, so Chris and I had planned our morning route to include the Madame Tussauds wax museum after our Hop-On Hop-Off experience. Upon entry, we were granted our very own Golden Globe award and flashing paparazzi lights. The grand hall held familiar faces. I felt inclined to greet them like old friends.
This first room held Hollywood (and Bollywood) celebrities of high status. Then we got a chance to meet our childhood/teenage/adulthood heroes!
We descended through the scary history of London, to emerge at the last music stars. My parents had been to London years ago and brought back a picture of them posing with Freddie Mercury. My brother and I wanted to honour them by returning years later to stand next to the same legend.
As we wound further along the tour, we were met by a different kind of hero. We first spotted Hawkeye perched on a ledge; arrow nocked in place. As we approached, we recognised the rest of the Avengers team. The wall displayed posters and short biographies.
We were cordially invited to join in the 4D theatre to watch the Avengers Team get honoured with awards by the Queen in Buckingham Palace. We found our seats and the show began.
It was impressive. The graphics were good, the effects were fun, and the unique 4D effects were hilarious when it took everyone by surprise. A sneeze from Hulk left everyone wet as the chairs in front of our seats dispensed a mist. Webs shooting from Spiderman’s wrist sparked a jet of fresh air that burst onto the back of necks. It ended with the Avengers saving the day, again.
The next bit of the tour was by far the most exciting and bookmarked our day. Unbeknown to us, there was a unique Star Wars part included in the package.
“Everyone with Star Wars wrist bands come this way!”
At those words, Ruan and I leapt up to join the last leg of our journey.
We descended more stairs into the Obi-Wan – Darth Maul – Gui-Gon Jinn stand off. The music played us in. The realism in these characters faces was unbelievable. We expected the fight scene to commence, like a person pressed play, right here in front of us.
Each room introduced us to a different character.
Ruan tragically lost his arm in a battle with Darth Vader, then found out that he was Ruan’s father…. Imagine the horror!
It felt like we were chasing time the whole day and had still not caught up. By the time we saw the sunlight again, it was well past three in the afternoon, and we still had a few stops we wanted to make.
But we had to cut our journey short. Our last stop was St. Paul’s Cathedral, a large and invoking building that hid among modern buildings in London. Some tours show the intricacies of the interior and the awe of the architecture, yet time would not allow it.
The grand St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Credit: The Mirror.
The ride back was slow, and we were left to digest today’s tour, categorising it into bite size chunks. I feel like we have had a fantastic opportunity to see the city of London, but I am dying to know the people of London because that is where the real treasures lie. However, they are just as elusive.
