4 posts tagged “london”
We didn't wake up as early as we planned this morning (what a surprise). We didn't have breakfast and spent the rest of the morning packing our bags because, believe it or not, we would leave Europe today.
Thanks to May's tremendous effort on self-controlling over shopping in this trip, we didn't have too much trouble putting everything back into the bags. However, that didn't mean we didn't have to make any sacrifice. I had to leave my old, weathered leather shoes behind. We also could take two packs of tea leaf, which was given to us by our tour driver as a parting gift. It was almost noon when we finished packing and we had to head straight to the Gare du Nord train station to catch our Eurostar train to go back to London, where we would catch our flight to Singapore tonight (yes, we were leaving Europe, but I didn't say our adventure was about to finish).
We arrived the station and collected our pre-booked train tickets from an automated ticket machine (don't you love technologies). The next thing to do was to clear the passport control. The French custom officer was very noisy and asked a lot of unimportant questions. I dutifully answered all his questions to keep him happy and we were through. The funny thing was, 2 meters after we crossed the French custom, there was a black line drawn on the floor and a British custom officer was waiting for me at his desk, just behind the black line. That had to be the shortest travel between customs in the world.
The Eurostar train definitely not Japanese Shinkansen but at least it was clean and comfortable. Consider all the hassles associated with air travel these days, I still think travelling between European cities is the best way to do it.
We arrived London two a half hours later. Now we had about three hours to kill before we had to go to the airport. The girls decided to check out the Harrods department store. The boys, the ever-curious boys, went to visit, not one, but two museums. We first went to the Natural History Museum to check out some awesome life-sized dinosaurs and blue whale models. As much as we liked to stay, we had to go to visit the next museum before time ran out. The second museum we visited was the Science Museum, where you would how learn how everything in this world works. I even saw the real Apollo 10 command module there (if you don't know what an Apollo command module is, you really should read more). I just wish I could spend few more days there.
I think we broke the museum-visiting world record by visiting two museums in less than 45 minutes. Being seasoned travellers, we thought we were doing fine when we arrived Heathrow airport three hours prior to departure. The thing is that reality never fails to disappoint. At the end we still had to run to the gate to catch our plane after queuing for 90 minutes to check in and another 90 minutes to get pass the security check.
The flight wasn't exactly as good as I thought it would be and I am seriously think about taking back all the good things I have said about Emirates. Why? Because this flight didn't have the best in-flight entertainment system that I liked so much. Without it, this flight to Singapore seemed so much longer.
Today we decided to returned to Westminster Abbey (we went there yesterday but there were too many people so we left without going in) and the Big Ben. Westminster Abbey is a royal church and it answers to no one but the crown of England (that's what our guide said). We joined a guided tour inside Westminster Abbey and I think it definitely worthed the 5 pounds as you get to learn a lot more with an experienced guide. Westminster Abbey didn't always looked like it is today. It used to be a Roman styled architecture until Henry III teared it down and replaced it with the new Gothic style (he actually didn't have enough money to finish the rebuilt but that is another story). Every inch of free space inside the cathedral is filled with ancient statues, memorials, monuments and gravestones and painting. All these artifacts made the cathedral a museum in its own right. Royal family members were not the only ones buried here. Other people who have achieved in their discipline of life also earn their final resting place here (e.g. Charles Darwin & Isaac Newton). Records show that there are 3,300 people buried in Westminster Abbey.
After leaving the magnificent Westminster Abbey, we travel to St. Paul Cathedral by the tube. In addition to the monuments and gravestones inside it, St. Paul is most famous for its great dome that is 108m tall. St. Paul Cathedral was built by architect Sir Christopher Wren. The interior of the dome is decorated with beautiful paintings and mosaics. Believe me, you will get a sore neck if you want to see every details of the dome from the ground. No visit to St. Paul Cathedral is completed without climbing 530 steps of the spiral staircase to the Golden Gallery (85m from the ground) at the top to enjoy the panoramic view of London. We stopped in the Whispering Gallery to take rest and closer look of the dome. I think it took us almost 20 minutes to get to Golden Gallery and it was hard work (we needed to stop in the middle to catch our breath) but the view was well worth it.
The next stop is Kensington Palace. Kensington Palace was the residence of Diana before she was killed in a car accident. It was getting dark when we arrived there and the interior of the palace was very dark without sunlight. Most of the rooms were empty and it felt more like I was in an abandoned mansion than a palace. There was a Diana exhibition in the basement but since I am not a fan of Diana, I didn't spend anytime there. One thing I enjoyed there was its garden. It was beautiful and peaceful in the fading sunlight. Many Londoners and their pets were enjoying their relaxing late afternoon walk.
The next planned stop is to pay the world-famous British Museum a visit. We were, however, in badly need of food (we only had a very light lunch) and since this was the last day we spend in London on our own, we decided to indulge ourself with some traditional English food. We find a nice, small restaurant just outside British Museum. May had fish and chip and I ordered an English hotpot. Both was nice and not too expensive. We entered British Museum after dinner and found that most exhibitions were already closed except the Great Hall and we left after we took few photos.
And that ended our last day of sightseeing in London. We will have to get up really early tomorrow morning to join our Insight tour. I am going to set two alarm clocks tonight to make sure I don't oversleep.
The first thing we have to do this morning was to get our London Pass, which gives us unlimited use of public transport and lets us visit many major tourist attractions in London without queuing. The weather is not superb, but we knew that you can't ask for too much from London's late autumn.
We first bought tickets for a musical showing at Theatre Royal Drury Lane called Lord of the Rings (someone in our group is very culture-savvy). Then we quickly had our brunch in McDonald's (I am sure this was the first of many happy meals in McDonald's in this trip). The first real tourist attraction we are going to see in London is the change of guard at Buckingham Palace. We were a bit late and by the time we got to the palace, there were already hundreds of people standing in front of the gate. It wasn't easy for some of the shorter members in our group to try to see what was going on behind so many people's back. It started raining just before the arrival of the guards and I was really worry about my brand new D80 camera. The thought of losing my camera to the elements again made really nervous and I wasn't really doing what a photographer should do, looking for interesting things to capture.
The new shift of guards finally came with their shiny armors and everyone got excited. The first thing that struck me was their horses. I don't think I have seen more proud and beautiful horses. The queen surely knows how to keep her horses.
After the ceremony we went to Tower of London, a medieval castle that was used as armory, mint and noble resident. All the armors and guns in the armory were very impressive. It was also interesting to see how the British lived hundreds of years ago. We also managed to have our photo taken with the first ever female Beefeater. Just before we left, we finally got to meet the British Crown Jewel. I would try to take it, if the beefeaters were watching me.
We have spent longer than we should in Tower of London (who can blame us, it is a big place full of interesting stuff). We moved quickly to the Tower Bridge. It is amazing to learn that people figured out how to raise bridges that weights thousands of tonnes with nothing but stream power in 19th century. Too bad we didn't get to see the bridges being raised, but it was still good fun walking across the upper bridge that overlooks the Thames river. I wish the weather could be better.
It was time for us to head back to the theatre for the LOTR musical. We were running so late we only had 5 minutes the grab something to eat outside the theatre before the show. As for the show itself, I only had one word for it: awesome. The tricks they could do on stage in a live show is unbelievable. The show is full of humors, special effects and superb vocal performance (the actress who played Galadrial really could sing!). It also helps a lot when you are already familiar with the story. You can't appreciate what it was like without physically being there. Good show.
I think that was enough fun for one day. Time to go back to our sofa bed.
We started our day with the usual buffet breakfast (we were seriously spoiled in Dubai) and went back to our room to pack up. A short ride to the airport and we were set to leave a country where you can have anything as long as you have money. After a 7-hour long flight we found ourself in the world's busiest airport, London Heathrow Airport. The airport is busy alright. We queued for more than an hour just to get through the passport control. Our pick-up driver was late and we eventually arrived our hotel at about 10pm. It was quite a shock when I opened the door of our room. The room was small, dark and looked old. The bed wasn't even a real bed, it was a sofa bed. It took us a long time to work out how to turn the sofa into a bed. It wasn't easy to switch from a 5-star hotel in Dubai to this tiny, damp, dark room in London. The ironic thing is that we paid more for this room in London than any other hotels in this trip. I guess it is true that everything in London is expensive. Most restaurants were closed and we were too tired to look for things to eat on the street. We had our first instant noodle dinner tonight.
Can't wait to see the full glory of London in daylight tomorrow morning.
