A Week of June-ness: Bundy's Tours goes Live in London

Hello all and welcome to another edition of 'A Week of June-ness.' I'm currently sat in Matthew's front room watching the Murray game at Wimbledon while I write this, obliging Tilly (the dog) in throwing her tennis ball, and we have the fan on arguing over what way it should point. I hope you're all not melting too much in this heat!

Now my tale today is about when 'Bundy's Tours' was commissioned for the first time by my friend who wanted someone to guide him and his American girlfriend around London. His girlfriend had barely been out of her home state of Florida before, and he had only been to London once or twice and didn't know the place that well. No pressure then!

I'm joking of course. I accepted this challenge and having been to London quite recently on a Mulie adventure I thought I'd combine some of the good things I'd done previously with some more touristy sights that someone who'd not been to London before would appreciate.

The itinerary went as follows:

St Pauls
Leicester Square ( Lego Store and M&M store)
China Town
Lunch in St James's Park
Buckingham Palace
River Cruise
London Eye

As we went to London on Sunday 25th, we could have a wander about St Pauls cathedral for free and as it was requested as a point of interest, we started our day off there. We got checked by security and then wandered round. I always found churches and cathedral's I had been to before quite haunting, maybe it's because I'm not religious. These places are always filled with so much history and tradition that it's almost overwhelming. After looking round I took their picture outside the cathedral as a memento for them and Bundy's Tours moved onto the next place on the itinerary.

I had originally planned to take them both to the Sky Garden as I thought it'd be a great way for them to be able to see London's vast landscape. However due to me being busy in London and Somerset previously with Matthew, I missed the day that the tickets went up on the website and by the time I did check, there were none left! We were all a bit disappointed by this but I had another plan up my sleeve. Leicester Square is the hub of the hustle and bustle of the West End with Soho and Chinatown within walking distance so I decided to take them there. We all remarked at how quiet it had been in London so far and Leicester Square was no different. While it was still bustling with people, it was nowhere near as busy as normal. We soon spotted the Lego shop and M&M world and decided to explore them both further. I had heard rumours of there being caramel M&M's so I kept my eyes peeled for these but to my devastation there were none to be seen!! Then I wondered if maybe these were just an American thing and after asking my friends girlfriend about them, she said they were definitely about in America so I made her promise she'd bring me some back on her next UK trip.

After M&M world we went across to the new Lego shop and were impressed by the Lego structure they had built such as a tube carriage, Westminster, a telephone box and I even noticed a Lego dragon poking it's head out from the wall above the door! After exploring downstairs we went upstairs where they had a whole collection of Lego pieces and a pick and mix station too and on the wall on the staircase they'd even built a 3D picture of the London landscape. It was all very impressive and once my friend and his girlfriend had their pictures done in the Lego tube carriage we carried on our wander around the West End and ended up in Chinatown. We looked around this area for a while until it was time for lunch.

My plans for lunch were to grab ourselves some picnic food and sit in St James's Park- again not far from the Leicester Square area- ready to head down the Mall to see Buckingham Palace afterwards. Just as my friend mentioned about finding a local tesco to buy our food, a tesco presented itself to us across the street so we headed in. While we were wandering about choosing our food, it was also interesting to see what our visiting American thought of it all. She found a lot of our cakes cute and picked herself some cherry bakewells to go with her meal deal. Armed with our lunch we headed down to the park. The weather was still holding out from the week before so we found ourselves a sunny spot and had our picnic whilst people watching and talking about British traditions and customs. 

Soon we'd finished lunch and 'Bundy Tours' then embarked on the Buckingham Palace leg of the tour. Unfortunately we couldn't have a mooch about inside as the Palace doesn't open up to the public until August but we could still stare into the Palace grounds through the gates at the guards standing duty at their posts. Again more pictures were taken before we headed back down the Mall to Westminster for our river cruise.

You could be forgiven for feeling a bit of deja vu here and you'd be right as yes, I had been on this cruise before but my travelling companions and patrons of 'Bundy Tours' had not and I had also enjoyed cruising down the river previously and liked the idea of cruising down the river again.

We arrived at Greenwich an hour later and looked around the high street there. Soon we spotted a touristy gift shop selling all the London paraphernalia and having two tourists who were new to London with me, I thought it'd be wrong not to go in to have a look around. My friend and I didn't buy anything but his girlfriend did and with that it was time to catch the next and last boat back to Westminster just in time to have some dinner and head over to the Eye.

We had dinner at the most British of restaurants- McDonald's! I knew from many previous jaunts about the Southbank that there was a McDonald's looking across the Southbank over the river to Westminster so I thought this would be a prime location being only a few minutes walk from the London Eye which was next on the agenda.

I decided not to follow my fellow travellers onto the Eye as I thought it would be a nice romantic thing for them to do on their own. I waited on the wall nearby and watched the world go by and the sun go down as it was now 8pm. Me and Matthew had gone on the Eye at this time so I knew this would be the best time for them to get a great view and of course, great pictures too.

Once they'd finished on the Eye, Bundy Tours concluded for the day and me and my patrons got on the train home completely knackered. Bundy Tours seemed to have a great first day. Everything went well and to plan and I'm well informed that my patrons had a great day too. So if you fancy a tour guide for your next trip to London then look no further!! Everything we did was either free or on an offer so I could even save you some money too!

That brings us to the end of the story, 'Bundy's Tours Goes Live in London.' Come back tomorrow to read all about me and my mum's trip to London to see the singing legend herself, Adele!