Today felt like the longest sight-seeing days ever! Well, not really but by the time 10pm rolled around both Teesh and I were ready to hit the sack! The last month traveling, and for me long hours at work, have obviously started to wear us down.

We started the morning waking up very early to get to Madame Tussaud’s at opening. I had purchased our tickets months and months ago to make sure we got opening entry times (to save us standing in long lines) but I knew from past experience that if you don’t get there early enough and before most the crowds arrive – trying to get around getting photos of all the wax figures inside could prove very challenging. Madame Tussaud’s was apparently supposed to open at 9am but by the time we got to Baker Street it was still quite early at about 8.25. Even at that time, however, there was already a long queue forming. We were going to head to Regent’s Park for a quick stroll but thought it would be best to get in line and wait. Lucky we did because the line got infinitely longer after we joined.

As I suspected even with Madame Tussaud’s being open for only five minutes by the time we got inside it was packed. For the most part people were conscious of others around them but the odd few made it awkward for everyone. Still, I think Teesh and I managed to get our pics relatively easily. Except for when we sat at Barack Obama’s presidential table with him next to us. People there was just outright rude and pushy.

Despite the fact that the wax figures bear a remarkable resemblance to their real life counterparts taking photos which show this are really difficult. I think its because of where the figures are looking – you have to get your camera in the exact spot necessary to make it look like they’re looking into it. Oh – just to show how real-life the figures are there is one figure who had been posed to look like paparazzi, taking a photo of Mel Gibson and Will Smith. Teesh ran into the figure and actually apologised to it because she though it was real! Cracked me up!

At the end of our visit to Madame Tussaud’s we were famished so we headed to Giraffe at Marylebone for a yummy breakfast and then headed on to our next item on the itinerary – a (free) one hour tour of the National Gallery.

Tours at the National Gallery are offered at 11.30 and 2.30 daily and like the British Museum the tour you get is likely to be different every visit. The only drawback to free tours are the fact that there is normally no limit to the number that can be accepted in the group. Our group was surprisingly large nearing I would think about 25-30. Though the tour was good and gave a good snapshot of some of the collections in the National Gallery the group was really too big. For the most part I could hear the tour guide but seeing the art was another matter. Why do tall people always want to stand right at the front?! At least some of the more considerate people actually sat down when they got to the front.

From the National Gallery it was off to the London Eye – for only my fourth time! Heh heh. Even though we’d pre-bought our tickets there was a rather long snaking line that confronted us when we turned up at our allotted timeslot. Bit disappointing to have to wait (we were at least half an hour in the queue I reckon) but the line always felt like it was moving forward at least.

I never know what to think about the London Eye. Sure you have an absolutely amazing view point to see most of London but the fact you’re stuck in the pod for the half hour it takes to go around and though they limit how many go into the pod its still pretty chock full. Many end up hogging one part of a window or another which is not really fair to others in the pod. At least we had some pretty clear air.