London: City of London; Thursday, 26 August, 2021

I finished work at lunchtime and headed straight up into London and over to my hotel, where I was able to checkin nice and early, which meant I would be able to get to my first book attraction of the day with plenty of time to spare.

That was until the London Underground decided to start falling apart on me. I got to Tower Hill station just as they were shutting the doors as the Circle and District lines had just been suspended. No problem I thought, I’ve got time I’ll quickly hop on a bus back to London Bridge and get onto the Jubilee line, which I did. The tube got two stops to Waterloo where it promptly terminated due to yet more disruption further up the line. Undeterred I headed up to the surface to catch a bus across Westminster bridge. I’d be a bit late for my first booking, but I’d get there.

Only as soon as I got to the surface it was clear there were problems with the buses – lots of demos taking place in the centre of London meant that there were no buses running from Waterloo to Westminster, and the only way of getting there was by foot, so I headed off down past County Hall and over Westminster Bridge.

By now I’d only have about 20 minutes to look round the Jewel Tower – one of the last remaining parts of the original Palace of Westminster – which wouldn’t be enough time, so instead I had a quick look round the outside and then headed over to my second, and more time sensitive attraction of the day – the Palace of Westminster itself.

Being late August the UK Parliament was in recess, which meant that the Palace of Westminster was open to us plebs to look around. Naturally there are several different layers of security to get through before you can get into the site, and that was why it was important to be on time for my booking.

Through security I picked up and audio guide for my self-guided tour round the palace. The first stop is the magnificent Westminster Hall – a magnificent medieval hall, and one of the few survivors of the original palace here, as most of the rest of the site has been lost to various fires over the centuries. From Westminster Hall you climb up a set of steps, that have often been used as a stage for visiting dignitaries to address the houses of parliament, and enter St Stephens Hall, and from here into the Central Lobby. After St Stephens Hall a strict no photos policy was enforced so I wasn’t able to take any pictures but given how often the two houses or parliament are shown on TV its not as if it was spaces that people wouldn’t recognise.

The only real difference in real life is that both chambers look much smaller than they do on the TV, and quite a bit more cramped that I’d expect. After visiting the House of Lords the tour takes you through to the House of Commons, the routing of the tour taking you through the Nay lobby so I effectively voted against the government to get into the Commons chamber. After the two chambers your descend back down into Westminster Hall and, almost to be expected, leave via a gift shop selling overpriced political tat and a coffee shop that charges tourist prices rather than the heavily subsidised rates the politicians get.

A quick check online showed that there was still some significant disruption to the tube network, and protests still disrupting buses, so I walked up Whitehall to Trafalgar Square and had a wander round before picking up a number 15 bus. The number 15 is probably one of the cheapest ways to do some serious sightseeing in London, as it runs from Trafalgar Square past Aldwych, The Royal Courts, Fleet Street and St Pauls, to the heart of the City of London and then onto the Tower of London, before continuing on into the top of the Docklands. As I was the only person at the bus stop as the bus pulled onto stand I got the pick of the seats, so naturally had the front seat on the top deck for an excellent sightseeing tour back round to the tower.

I hopped off at the Tower and headed back to my hotel room to freshen up, before heading out to grab some dinner and then making my way over to Green Park for my second bus based sightseeing tour of the day. This time, though, it was on an open top bus – and more importantly, at night to take in the different views of the city all lit up. The 90 minute tour went round quite a large part of the centre of London from Kensington all the way across to the Tower and back.

Back at Green Park I hopped onto the now operating tube and headed back to my hotel for a well earned rest.