Accidental Tourists

There are people out there who think that looking like a tourist is about the most gauche thing you can do. It is to be avoided at all costs. Cool people look like locals. I disagree. Everywhere you go there are "cool" people and "uncool" people. Why on earth would looking like a tourist make you "uncool"? (Unless you have multiple cameras dangling from your neck and you're wearing a sombrero. - That would make you look like a very uncool tourist.)

After realizing that my knee was being a bit of a bother and realizing that Mark had hurt his Achille's tendon dancing, Mark decided that we should become tourists. Although we logged upward of 15K steps our first day out in London, we decided that buying tour bus tickets was probably a better way to go. City buses are for people who have a particular destination in mind. We were rambling. We needed a tour bus.

I hadn't been on a London tour bus in over a decade. Having grown up there, I'm not sure Mark was ever on a tour bus in London. But it was the right thing to do. The weather was pleasant and sunny. We sat on the upper deck, took pictures and got off the bus from time to time. (Especially when those rude Russians started smoking on the bus.)

Although if we had it to do over, we would not take the "City Bus" tour. We'd take the red double decker or the burgundy bus. I've been on those before and they are better than the one we took. The one we took also included a boat tour on the Thames but it wasn't an "open air" boat - it was a commuter boat, so we were a bit disappointed with that. The other two tours offer a trip on a "tour" boat with commentary rather than a commuter boat. (I know because I've been a tourist on those buses before!)

We enjoyed the two days without further aggravating our injuries and truly enjoyed our time as tourists. Cool tourists.

We also got some pretty good photos.