London, England 2017

On my way to South Africa, I had a 12 hour layover in London so I decided to leave Heathrow Airport and explore the city. To do this I decided on riding Big Bus London.They offer 3 different bus lines with slightly

different routes and different languages. I opted for the blue line, we had a live English speaking guide who was very knowledgeable. All together, I believe it was about an 8 hour tour of the city in which I felt satisfied. The weather was a bit cold so that made the boat ride to Greenwich a little uncomfortable. I was surprised that the boat ride from London Tower to Greenwich was only about 30 minutes. Again, we had a very knowledgeable guide who kept me chuckling the whole trip.

Witnessing the London Bridge for the first time was probably they most disappointing thing in my life. I truly felt like my whole childhood was a lie. Singing the song about the London Bridge with my friends countless times you start to believe that it's this wonderful bridge that towers over everything. WRONG. It was just a regular bridge, a road spanning a river. At least you could see Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster in the background.

Tower Bridge, on the other hand, was more of what I was looking for, especially being from Michigan.

One of the last stops on the tour was Buckingham Palace. It was nice to finally see the guards in person after seeing them on TV countless times in my life. They stood still as could be although I did manage to catch one who dropped his gun. It also had an eerie feeling because this was just a couple of days after the Westminster Bridge attack. Barricades were in place to stop motor vehicles.

All in all in was a great way to spend a layover. London was definitely NOT on my short list of places to visit but I thoroughly enjoyed my time there.