London de Tour part II

After a very long and tiring night celebrating the New Year's Eve, the next morning we have to get up early to catch up with our pre-booked one day tour to visit three of Britain treasures, Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and City of Bath. I want like to choose another beside today but unfortunately the tour is fully booked.We booked the tour from this site. The downside taking a bus tour is the limited time to explore each location. But the advantages are fast track queue, less traveling time then when using public transportation, and you can sleep and relax on the bus. We slept all the way back from City of Bath to London to charger our energy, when we reach London around 7 pm it's still too early to get back to our hotel so we went to see London Eye & House of Parliament.

London Eye

My Pingu & The Others with House of Parliament & Big Ben

Our next big destinations are Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Tower of 
London, Tower Bridge and Picadilly Circus. In the morning we went to Buckingham Palace, so sad we couldn't not enter the palace for the moment, because it's only open for visitor on summer while the Royal Family away for their annual holidays. But don't be so disappointed we still can see changing guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace, see the schedule here.

Buckingham Palace

Changing Guard Ceremony

Moving on to Westminster Abbey, this church is a traditional place of coronation (including the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation), Royal Weddings (Prince William and Kate) and Burial Site for British. I can't believe I actually standing in the aisle where Prince William and Kate were married.The Abbey is filled with monuments and tombs, many kings and queens of England were buried here, and also including that of Sir Isaac Newton, whose grave plays a minor part in The Da Vinci Code.

Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey

Moving on again to Tower of London & Tower Bridge, these 2 places are really close so you can go there at the same time. The Tower of London ice rink offers a stunning setting for winter skating in the city, along with views of London's ancient fortress. Too bad I couldn't skate, otherwise I would jump to the rink and skate.

Tower of London Ice Rink

From Tower of London we just take a slow walk all the way to Tower Bridge, one of the most famous bridges in the world. The bridges consist of two towers which are connected, there is a main road so pedestrian can walk across the bridge when it's open. The view of the bridge is amazing at night.

Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge

We ate dinner in a nice Italian restaurant located near Tower Bridge called Cantina del Ponte. I highly recommended their mushroom risotto, it's really smooth and super delicious. After dinner we went to Picadilly Circus, a very crowded and large street full of shops, museums, and other attraction like Ripley’s Believe It Or Not. We went shopping and bought some shoes, jackets, etc.

Picadilly Circus

Ripley’s Believe It Or Not