A view of Tower Bridge from our boat tour on the River Thames.

The last time I was in London, I had a guided coach tour of the city. This whole Hop-On-Hop-Off bus tour idea is bloody brilliant! We were able to see parts of the city that I had never even seen before, all from the comfort of an open-air double decker rooftop. Then, we could hop off and hop back on whenever we liked.

This gave us a chance to explore the city in our own way. First, we all took the bus to Westminster Square where we caught the City Tour boat. This brought us down the Thames back to Tower Hill, where we picked up yet another line to Leicester Square.

My little travel group originally hopped off at Leicester to get food (unfortunately of the American variety, but when you’re that hungry, it doesn’t matter too much), but ended up staying for its storefronts. We explored a variety of souvenir shops, all selling the same exact items (which, as you can imagine, was very frustrating… fidget spinners are highly overrated), and then ventured to M&M World, the Nickelodeon Store, LEGO World, and the Kingdom of Sweets (to anyone on this trip reading this, avoid buying Haribo, Kinder Eggs, or Kinder Buenos, etc. in these kinds of shops; a grocery store or druggist is much cheaper).

Having the freedom to explore the city gives us the freedom to explore our interests, and I am so grateful that we are able to do that with this program.