Great fun and so inexpensive, especially in awful weather. A rucksack with a flask, sausage rolls, ham sandwich, jaffa cakes, thornton's choccies, warm clothes and a travel card. In between peak times you can sit almost alone upstairs near the heater and you're warm and comfy while London rolls by. Enjoy festive decorations you can't see from street level. See lovely balconies and secret gardens. Meet gargoyles face to face. Marvel at the architecture. Read all the blue plaques and pub signs - hop off at a really interesting one, have a pint (and a pee) and get on a bus in another direction.
Watch London life unfold at the traffic lights. Read famous street addresses. Actually visit places you've only seen pictures of. Get lost somwhere amazing and ask the driver how to get back when you've had enough. Revisit. Take pictures, keep a journal. Do it again the next day.
Get your travel card at any news agents. The bus employees are great to deal with in most cases and ask other travellers at the bus shelters for directions. Read your A-Z and the fronts of the buses or contact the London bureau.
I love the route that no.8 takes along the Roman road (east London), all the way into the City and West End. There is just so much to see.
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