/ Shortly after arrival in London, catch a bus tour to see some highlights of London quickly and easily, which is your next big adventure. The tour will enable you to sit down for two hours and relax while the sights glide by. Several companies offer similar tours with open top double-decker buses winding through town in a two-hour route that shows you a nice overview of the important landmarks. You definitely want to sit upstairs in the open for the best view, so if this is a rainy day, postpone the tour for better weather. You can hop off and hop back on a later bus at places that catch your interest. The tour takes you by the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, through the West End, across Tower Bridge and into the downtown financial center. Even when you are stuck in London's heavy traffic or waiting at the bus stop for more passengers, you will always have an eyeful of fascinating sights, accompanied by live commentary from the guide
Walking tour: Starting from Piccadilly, walk along the curved section of Regent Street, one of the most majestic promenades in town offering a sweeping urban vista that is particularly impressive when you stop after three blocks and look back from the corner of Vigo Street. The sleek oval building across Regent Street is the flagship of Aquascutum, an elegant clothing store with superb displays and service. Garrard, jewelers to the crown, is adjacent, as is Austin Reed, another major clothing store, and all the way up Regent Street major retailers continue for nine blocks, including Europe's largest toy store, Hamleys, and Liberty, a designer department store.
Continue on Oxford Street, then turn at Old Bond Street into the most expensive shopping turf in town. Before 10:00am is the least expensive time to see it, because the fancy jewelry and accessory shops are not yet open and the window displays are just being set up. Compared to busy Regent Street, this is a more peaceful route to walk and the buildings here are each unique. Pay attention to the upper floors as you walk along and notice the fine sculptural details in the terra cotta cladding on many of the facades, some of which look vaguely Dutch with their fanciful gables. Like most of London, the buildings here are old and just six floors high, so there is a real human scale and sense of history on this street and throughout the city.
Stroll through the Burlington Arcade: one block long and has 40 small shops with exquisite, expensive merchandise. London's covered 19th-century malls were copied from the Parisian glass-covered passages that had become the rage, and are early inspirations for our modern shopping centers. While presenting the standard range of clothing, antiques and jewelry, each shop is unique with only the highest quality items on display. Finish up with a visit to Fortnum and Mason, then the Changing the Guards at St James Palace and Buckingham Palace.