Sara took advantage of some tour bus tickets and set about being a tourist for the day in London. She later admitted that watching the sights she's seen a thousand times roll past the windows offered more for the imagination than she ever expected...
Did you know that Sean Connery and Roger Moore are neighbours, on the same street of London’s billionaire row in Belgravia?
Did you know that in 2002, when they dredged a section of the Thames for the Golden Jubilee, six unexploded WWII bombs were found at the bottom?
Did you know that Cleopatra’s needle is over 3500 years old and its twin-sister lives in Central Park?
Did you know that Gordon Brown is already living at 10 Downing Street?
Did you know that Trafalgar Square used 
to be the royal stables?
Did you know that Tower Bridge is not really made of stone? It’s actually steel with stone cladding over the top to make it match the Tower of London.
If you’ve got a head for trivia, The Original Tour will quite literally be a field day for you. Some of the facts and figures that the onboard guides had at their fingertips made us suddenly imagine what the cluttered streets around us would have looked like in Victorian times, or Elizabethan times, or even before the two cities of London and Westminster had grown to join together. The major monuments, like St Pauls and the Tower would have seemed so much further apart when there was still scrubland and trees in between. It’s completely mind-boggling when you compare it with the glass and steel monoliths that dominate our skyline now.
Even though the tour is made for “real” tourists, we found it was fun to sit back with the camera-snappers and watch the city go by on a sunny day. For someone who has been in and around London most of their life it’s actually refreshing to look again at all the parts we take for granted or don’t really see on a daily basis. The best thing about the tour, though, is probably the free Thames cruise. It’s not often you get to see London from that angle and it was quite exciting floating by the moored battleships which seemed giant in comparison to our boat and floating easily under the bridges was a nice change from battling through the crowded pavements above.
Plus, as if all that wasn't enough, you'll have an arsenal of trivia for the next pub quiz.
Book The Original Tour with Thames Cruise from £16.50
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