Day 2

Friday 20th

I wasn't sure what to do with myself today. Dani was working from 11am - 11pm... That was a lot of time to kill.. Still not sure of the public transport system, I followed Dani in to The Bell. Once there I decided I would to to The London Dungeon, The Sea Life London Aquarium and the London Eye.

TIP: I bought my tickets online in a combo from the London dungeon website. I'd recommend this as you get a discount if you purchase combo tickets and they have heaps of options available. So if you're not interested in the aquarium for example, you simply choose a combo that doesn't include it. Another benefit of the combo tickets is you get priority entrance at most venues, so you can jump the queue and go straight in.



First stop was London Dungeon, you must do this first if you purchase combo tickets, and then all other tickets are valid for one month. It's pretty central, right near London bridge.

You walk in to a dark chamber a few steps inside the door and you lose mobile phone coverage, so you can't call for help! You'll then have your photo taken before you're wished a horrible time by several gruesome characters. If you've never heard of it, it's basically s brief history of London. There's not a lot of information, so if you know anything about London already, you might be a little bored. But for someone like me, who knew pretty much nothing, it was great. The tour covered the plague, the fire of London, surgery, old courts, Sweeney Todd and Jack the ripper, among others. There was supposed to be a laser ride, but that didn't happen, not sure why.

There's a fairly decent shop at the dungeon also, I picked up a nice coffee cup with a noose for a handle!

So out of the dungeon, I managed to use the underground on my own! :D it's not that difficult and most people don't seem to mind giving directions when asked. The London Eye and Sea Life Aquarium are right next to one another and you get a nice view of westminster Abbey and Big Ben from across the Thames.





The Aquarium wasn't bad, with sharks, turtles lots of fish and all the usual stuff. We have some pretty great aquariums in Australia, so I wasn't too impressed by Sea Life. I was more interested in the penguins, jellyfish, shark eggs and seahorses, which I hadn't seen up close before. There was a couple of interactive counters which are great for kids and a section where you can feel a live starfish. There are several booths with what looks like boat steering wheels which you put a penny into and it squashes and imprints an image onto it. Definitely a unique souvenir, just make sure you use a nice penny, not an old dirty one!



Back to London Eye, there's no need to book in, just rock up when you want to go.

TIP: do the London eye at night, it's open until 9pm and you'll get to see the beautiful city lights. You can always get a great view of the city during the day by visiting St. Paul's Cathedral.




So I went for a wonder around the city, saw a nice park with a pond, ducks, pelicans beautiful flowers and even a squirrel! I've noticed there aren't many benches or places to sit in London, so if you stumble across a park, it's nice to escape from the city for a while and relax.




Got a little lost, passing time until nightfall, stopped by some shops... I'll be back later, Burberry.




Back to the London Eye and I'm so glad I decided to do it at night. The city lights are so beautiful. The whole ride lasts about 40 minutes. There's also a 4D cinema experience, I'd recommend coming at about 8pm to see this, so you still have time to do the eye afterwards. I did the eye at 8:30, so when I came down the cinema part was closed already.

It was another long day and I was so tired after all the walking, when got to the station I was told cannon street ( the station I needed to go to) was already closed, so I ended up catching a taxi back to the bell before going home with Dani.