Cigar-bus tour revs sales at Maryland stores

IS IT safe?" asked one of my east European visitors nervously, as she boarded one of London's famous double-decker buses for the first time.
Only one of my three friends spoke English. so to save her a day's translation and me a day's guiding duties I had booked us on the Big Bus language tour of the capital.
The full tour circuit takes about two hours, with 22 stops at which passengers can hop on and off.
We boarded near Big Ben and stopped off at Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, St Paul's, and finally the Tower of London, from where we took a river cruise - included in the tour price - back to Westminster.
One great advantage of the tour is that it allows you to see a lot of London's main tourist sights with relative ease. This proved particularly important, as my female friends had decided to sightsee in high heels.
We could also adapt my itinerary quickly. My visitors loved the National Gallery but weren't interested in seeing inside St Paul's, so we simply took a few photos and caught the next bus.
Though none of the London bus tours offered commentary in my friends' native Romanian, Big Bus tours offered their second language, Russian.
They told me the translation, delivered through headphones plugged into the back of seats,
was fine, but I found the traffic noise on the open top deck distracting. and we invariably missed the start of each section as we reboarded.
We heard little about the dates of key buildings, but the commentary was fun, anecdotal and enlivened
with music and sound effects, and included practical information on visiting attractions.
What my guests enjoyed most was being at eye level with the beautiful facades of old buildings, above the shops and hotels. I too saw the capital in a new light.

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