England 2013 · Page 3

The next day we took the coach straight from Bournemouth to London.
We got off at Harrods, one of the most famous department stores in the world. Our first stop was Buckingham Palace, right at the Changing of the Guard.

You can't really imagine how many crowds of people are there wanting to see the spectacle.
We were pushed around more than we could follow a planned route.
The only words from the police were: "Don't stop, go, go." The palace really is imposing to look at, although personally I had imagined it bigger.

According to the guidebook the Queen was in residence, as the flag was flying.

From the palace we walked through the park, past the museum and on to the Thames. Less than 300 metres further on, Big Ben was shining in the midday sun. After a short break at Big Ben, we crossed the bridge to the other side.
At that time there were countless crowds of people all over London, which wasn't exactly pleasant.
On the bridge, beware of the flower girls and the shell game players.

The Christmas market was right on the Thames. This Christmas market is beautiful, as it doesn't sell cheap junk, only goods related to Christmas. And suddenly there he was in front of me: the real Father Christmas.

Next on the agenda was the Tower of London.
As it was a bit further away from the Christmas market, we promptly bought a ticket for the Underground.
Riding the Tube really is an experience in itself. We bought a 2-zone / 1-day ticket for 7.30 pounds.

We took the black line from Waterloo to Embankment (one stop) and changed there to the green line, getting off at Tower Hill. As soon as we came up into the daylight, the prison was right in front of us. Right behind it are the Tower and Tower Bridge. We took a little walk across the bridge and right along the Thames to see the bridge from a bit further away. Back over the next bridge and down into the Underground.

From Monument we took the green/yellow line back to Embankment and then the brown line to Piccadilly Circus. When we came up, there was suddenly a different world in front of us: modern London.

After looking around a bit, we discovered an M&M's store. It's crazy – a whole shop on several floors just for M&M's. You should see it once, but don't be surprised at the prices. Two streets further on we came to Chinatown (in Soho). Our next destination was Oxford Street. This famous shopping street is a real showpiece. At the end of the street was our meeting point for the coach. We still had some time, so we headed towards Winter Wonderland, a funfair.

And the crazy thing was that the park was closed because it was full, and crowds of people were standing in front of the closed gates. In Germany more and more fairground rides are closing because fewer and fewer people visit them – and here they close because it's too full. London is simply a different world.

Now came the biggest challenge. The meeting point for the coach was Marble Arch and the road attached to it.
That shouldn't be such a big challenge. But the road is about 2 kilometres long, and we counted around 50 coaches, all on the move – coming and going. Luckily we had the driver's phone number, and after several phone calls we were standing in front of our coach 30 minutes late. Finally sitting down and having a bit of a rest. It had been lovely, but also very tiring to see all that.
Several kilometres on foot right across London, with crowds of people everywhere.

By car we continued to Winchester. The city used to be the capital of England and the original seat of government until it was moved to London. At its centre is the cathedral. Winchester Cathedral is one of the largest cathedrals in Great Britain and was built from 1079 to 1093.

Right past the Christmas market we went to the next highlight of the city: Winchester Castle.

The appearance of the huge Great Hall hasn't changed over the centuries, and it is still completely in its original state. In the hall hangs King Arthur's Round Table, which has hung there since around 1463.