Visiting London 2

In the morning we decided on O'Neil's for our breakfast and so we walked there. St-Pancras station building is really spectacular and looks like a red castle.

We chose a big keg as our table and since nobody came to take our order, people at the neighbor table told us to go and order at the bar.

Our son and I went for breakfast in buns: egg and bacon, which was delicious.

 My husband decided on small breakfast with eggs, bacon, sausage, triangle potatoes, toasts, grilled tomatoe and baked beans. Coffee was free to refill, more in big cups like back home, but not great. He didn't like the sausage at first but then it was ok. You get used to it apparently.

After such big breakfast we decided to take the bus 91 to Trafalgar Square, then walked to St-James park. We arrived too early for Horse Guards change, so we could walk and appreciate the park.

We walked through the park to Buckingham Palace, where crowds started gathering in advance.

My favorite view of the palace was from the park without crowds surrounding it.

After a couple of pictures, we walked back to Horse Guards Parade at the other end of the park. Really, the Parade was much nicer and with much fewer visitors, than crowds at the Palace. We were close to them. The ceremony took 30 minutes with most of the time just waiting between the guard changes.

We then had enough time to walk back to Buckingham Palace and to see the Guards leaving with orchestra and it made us nice pictures. Once the crowds had thinned we approached for pictures.

We then decided to walk to Laughing Hallibut for fish and chips lunch, and we walked through Victoria station neighborhood, which I found t be very modern. When we arrived my husband decided on best fish and chips and our son decided on a kebab right in front.

Fish and chips were good, but we had to return as no sauce was provided, but we could buy a kraft type of mayonnaise or sauce packaged, very disappointing with such good fish and chips although a bit bland by itself.

We then decided on taking a bus to St Paul's, and after that to Tower of London and Tower Bridge.

St Paul's was spectacular and I could use my printed vouchers with my National Rail tickets purchased on line and retrieved on arrival from a machine at Kings Cross station. The woman before us argued for a while, but she didn't have the right train tickets to qualify for the 2for1.

The Cathedral is spectacular, we walked around, then took the stairs to the next level which was quite high. Whisper level. My husband and son walked up to the highest level and to the roof, and I could appreciate people were whispering, but the acoustics made it everyone to hear, very amusing.