Getting off the bus at London bridge was not a magical moment where i realised how much i adored the area and that i would desperately try to find a home here. to be honest, i thought it was a bit of a dump haha. the London dungeon is (or was as of recently :( ) situated underneath London bridge rail lines and station. That and the main road next at its front doors makes this place a busy intersection of commuters, tourists, cars, buses, trains, tubes and even the odd horse and cart. When Cass and I arrived the que was massive! Its always massive, Ive never know there to be a day when you can walk in without a long wait! Actually, i came to hate this part of London because of all the stupid tourists lined up along the path way standing in the groups making it impossible to walk by, I mean cmon! what a nuance to anyone who needed to pass through there to the tube multiple times a day!
photographic evidence of the line. This line was often 50 meters long, and there was two sides. These poor suckers were queuing for tickets, the other suckers lined up the opposite direction had tickets but were waiting for admittance. lose lose situation. To make matters worse there is always roadworks along this sidewalk, so there were many days where you either walked on the road to avoid the que or my way was to walk through the que cursing at the lousy tourists standing in the rain... poor suckers
But going back to Cass and I, I'd have to say we had a really great time in the Dungeon! After the initial wait we were ushered inside to take a ghoulish photo of me loping off cass' head before we paid and were hearded into the waiting room to be led on the guided tour.
(this is a stock photo from google images, i do not own it.) Just picture me as the axe wielder and Cass and the old British rocker haha. Luckily that axe was plastic, I can only imagine the damage some retards would do to one another otherwise!! After our photo we were certainly pumped for the rest of the tour!
Now i don't know if any of you remember, but id been to a Dungeon before in Amsterdam with Mike. And this is the exact same company with many similar spectacles except for a few things intrinsic to the history of London. Things like Jack the Ripper and Sweeney Todd the Barber. It was a good tour, a little less scary than the one in Amsterdam. i was signalled out for any of the situations like i was in Amsterdam. no horrifying ghouls jumped out at me from behind doors and such. We did however get to go on a very cool ride... and by cool i mean stomach churning. It was a simulated hang mans experience. basically we were strapped into chairs which then proceeded to lift us up high above the ground. Then a judge and hangman would appear on the platform to condemn us to death! at which point a series of nooses dangled before us and the ride plummeted toward the ground.... not cool. don't know if Ive mentioned before but i hate falling, i hate jumping off things, i hate getting butterflies in my stomach. i hate no having a part of my body on something supportive and or solid... so naturally the photo i got of Cass and i falling is hilarious. Infuriatingly, Ive misplaced said photo and also the one of me chopping off cass' head. not to worry though, Ive an idea where it is and i shall make sure i find it and post it on here for you all to laugh at!!!Now a lot of you are probably thinking. why would you go on this ride if you don't like falling? well firstly the exhibit was like madame Tussuad's in that you were only excused if you were likely to die from participation or stood under a certain height. And secondly, when i saw the seats in the middle of the dark room and they began strapping us in i did not think they would be dropping us in a short while i thought, 'oh this must be the roller coaster ride that's included'.... this thought quickly gave way to panic as i looked about and realized that we were not going to be going anywhere but up. Eeep!
Said ride... my stomach is fluttering just remembering it... (not my photo)
After this and the non event roller coaster, Cass and i were out into the sunshine once more and we were laughing about Cass being hit in the head with a fake kidney earlier on. One of the part of the dungeon was a man talking about Jack the Ripper as he was dissecting an obviously fake body, he began throwing organs about and Cass was hit! she jumped like a fish out of water and I couldn't stop giggling haha.
Guilty as charged! This was the part Cass was hit with a flying kidney. Talk about laugh!!! (not my photo)
I must say i was a little bored by this dungeon. Amsterdam was AMAZING. London was a little bit cliche and the characters mainly just talked at you in a creepy way. It was still a great place, but sadly the pot smoking dutchies have beaten the tea drinking poms in the popularity stakes.
Happy snaps while waiting in the gloom for the tour to begin. It sucked that photos weren't allowed in the dungeon. hence the reason Ive had to steal the stock photos to show you guys what it was like...
I always thought she was called the London bridge... a common mistake apparently. just goes to show how ignorant Ive been all these years imagining this bridge 'falling down' as i sang that song. Tower Bridge provides an awesome view from the river of west and east London along the Thames. On the east side you can see Canary wharf and its skyscrapers, the old store houses lining the river, and lots of nicely blended buildings and boats of little to no importance. On the west side however you have the tower of London, London Bridge (which happens to be a very plain structure who's saving grace is that she glows red at night) The mayors office- a round ball like thing that no one is a fan of and endless other amazing buildings from all eras haphazardly blending into one another until the Thames bends and you see no more. My god i love tower bridge and her wonderful view. Driving over it on day 3 though was a quick affair, i was more looking up at the bridge than out to the side for the view. But it was a truly wonderful moment driving for the first time over this beautiful icon :)
(isn't she wonderful! i always thought she had a red paint job, perhaps its all the photographs playing tricks or maybe once upon a time she decided old biddies really do have more fun and changed her colour over to blue)
And that my friends, concludes our tour bus saga. After our passes ran out we were required to use the tube like common mules... haha. But that will be discussed in the next post, Instead let me tell you about hopping off the bus and onto the water cruise... oh yes. We were lucky enough to have included in our ticket prices (for the bus) a free guided cruise along the Thames. We boarded at the Tower of London, down east and as a very funny chap chattered on about the local history of the Thames and London itself we sat in the sunshine gliding along the river, taking in all the beautiful buildings until we arrived back at the Parliament houses.
:) love you cass!
Not wanting to move from our spot in the sun Cass and i let the boat turn around and take us back to the Tower of London with a different guide- this one wasn't as funny, but my word he was sex on legs! so good looking that i almost forgave him for his dull monologue.... almost. The second part of the cruise Cass and i spent chatting and relaxing as the afternoon began turning cold and we began to think of food.
Chilling like Villains on the Thames. Look at Cass with her beer. She was stoked as anything to find our they served drinks on the cruise! Must be where my antics come from haha
Dinner! Just look at the amazing spread we had! We also got to bring along our roadies from the off licence across the road. Coronas and spicy dishes are what taste buds were made for!!
