London Day 4 (Oxford Street, Bond Street, Covent Garden)

 Indulging a Thorntons caramel ice cream with a chocolate smiley on top, while window shopping in Oxford Street alone is a special experience. I kind of learnt how a backpacker feel like when travelling alone.  As the fourth day would be our last day in London, we decided to go separate way to do the things we like. A friend went for shopping in Oxford Street and Bond Street, a friend went to a museum while the others went to see their favourite football team's stadium. 

Since I don't like football and museum is a little boring for me, I chose shopping, more like window shopping. I joined a friend of mine in Oxford Street and Bond Street, where all the premium and high-end brands can be found there. Louis Vuitton, Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Dior, Longchamp, you name it!

Oxford Street is so long, I can take a London red bus to travel from one end to another to save some walking time! Anyone want some red cherries while window shopping in Oxford Street?

The royal baby is born on the day after I left London! On my last day in London, Kate is ready to deliver the little prince in a hospital in London! It was a happy news to the nation, and this news was in the news-stand in every corner of London!

The Nike store in Oxford Street is so huge it has 3 or 4 levels inside! I think they have displays for every product in their catalogue there!

The Apple Store is also HUGE! Am impressed with the way they deco the display units.

Walk slightly further from Oxford Street will reach Piccadilly again. I decided to check how it's like in daytime, but it turned out to be like what I've expected - Piccadilly is a merrier place during night time. There's a M&M World in Piccadilly that's worth a visit, especially for chocolate lovers like me! Here's some M&Ms imitating the famous The Beatles Abbey Road album's cover!

Before heading back to Sheffield, we headed to Covent Garden to past some free time. Nothing much is special here, but we heard it's a popular tourist destination, so we thought it might be good to drop by here for a while. 

London Transport Museum, nothing spectacular here and certainly not as entertaining as the National Train Museum in York. 

After checking out some non-moveable bus in the museum, it's time to board the real bus back to Sheffield... I wouldn't mind to pay London another visit anytime in the future. There are so many places which I haven't explore yet. Heard that Greenwich and Kew Gardens have some pretty sights too. Will surely give London another visit if I have a chance to 'drop by' UK again!

NEXT - Day Trip 7: Liverpool, UK

London - Day 3 (Buckingham Palace, Royal Albert Hall, British Museum, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly)

One thing that you shouldn't miss in London is the marching ceremony by Queen's guards in front of the Buckingham Palace, held almost every day in the morning around 10am. Buckingham Palace is now a venue for official Royal events and ceremonies.

We reached Buckingham Palace slightly early in hoping that we can get a nice spot to take some nice photos of the marching. However, the place was already crowded when we got there. We ended up walking around taking photos of the palace at different angles.

The horses were pooping while being rode along the street... A little disgusting.

So red! The guards were marching with utmost tidiness and unanimous! Seeing the guards reminded me of an episode of Mr. Bean where he tries to provoke a royal guard on-duty!

"OMG, a superstar is coming! Grab your camera!!!"

After watching the guard changing ceremony, we headed to the British Museum. Located in a rather remote location, a distance away from Tottenham Court Road Station. We have to walk pass some small streets to reach there, and it is hidden from the main road. Suddenly such a grand looking building emerged in the middle of the area. This is a HUGE museum, one of the best museums I've visited in UK to be frank. Unique architecture, informative relics display, divided into few sections of different cultures. 

Once broken consider sold. Erm... I doubt we can afford, not even one of them!

A typical background of the UK Gothic-styled architecture, with the iconic red bus of London.

Not far away is the Somerset House, looks amazing in photo but doesn't impress much in person. It's more like a venue for various event now. 

Then, we went back to the South Kensington area to visit the Royal Albert Hall, where only successful and globally known singers get to perform here. Adele and Janet Jackson are some of the singers who performed here!

After pretending that we are superstar at the Royal Albert Hall, we returned to our hostel to cook a simple dinner. A little too simple perhaps, a big bowl of spaghetti with just mushroom sauce. The spaghetti was not thoroughly cooked too, in the end it was too spongy... After partially filling our stomach, we headed out again to Trafalgar Square by London red bus! Do you believe a modern London bus costs more than 330,000 Pounds? That's almost equivalent to RM1.5 million!

On the London bus' upper deck!

Trafalgar Square is a beautiful open space with colourful lights illuminating everywhere! I heard that this place is quite merry during festive seasons like Christmas and New Year Eve!

We walked to Piccadilly which is a short distance away. On the way to Piccadilly has plenty of grand looking building, seems like a great place to spend a night at!

Watching a group of Nigerian (maybe?) and joined in by some British, singing some famous oldies beside a street of Piccadilly is a special experience. Although we didn't know what songs they were singing at that moment, but the warm atmosphere can be felt by passer-by.

Piccadilly Circus Underground Tube Station.

Electronic billboard ads, a modern side of London.

NEXT - Final Day 4 in London: Oxford Street, Bond Street, Covent Garden.

London - Day 2 (Big Ben, The London Eye, St. Paul Cathedral, Tower Bridge)

Staying in a shared dormitory with a stranger from another country is a first. If we could go back in time, perhaps I might have a little chat with him, check out about his culture and share ours, it's all about get to know more people and exploring at the same time. Too bad we and him were shy... Nevertheless, the hostel was filled with tourists of different nationalities. Two Hong Kong girls had actually chatted me up in Cantonese, and the fact that I know 4 languages blew them away! 

Let's move on to our trip in London! On the second day, we headed to the area around the ever busy River Thames. Rode in the Tube to Westminster Station and I was dumbfounded by the beauty of such iconic building, the first building that I saw after emerging from the underground of the Tube. A little disbelieved that I am actually looking at the Big Ben and The Palace of Westminster with my own eyes! Listening to the chime of the Big Ben is even more mystical... 

Of course, we took photos of Big Ben and also ourselves with the prominent structure to our hearts' desire along the bridge which links both sides of the Thames. From here, there were a lot and lot of walking! Once we reached the other side, The London Eye is not far away. 

Check out how it was erected! Engineering marvel indeed!

As mentioned in the previous post, our Madame Tussauds' ticket is also inclusive of a ride on The London Eye! The queue was looooong but the waiting time was lesser than one hour, perhaps one complete round of The London Eye has huge carrying capacity. The scenes on The London Eye was an eye-opening experience (pun intended). You can basically see all the attractions around the River Thames at the top. But the cabin was a little shaky when it reaches the top point of the ferris wheel! *Heart skips a beat*

The best group photo in London!

After getting down from The London Eye, we crossed the River Thames again by using the London Bridge to the St. Paul Cathedral. Yes, the ordinary looking bridge below is the real London Bridge that children normally sing in nursery rhymes! I'm sure half of Earth's population thought that the Tower Bridge (will be covered later in the blog entry) is known as the London Bridge!

Further down is the Tower of London. Not exactly what we would call a tower, huh? It's more like a castle to me, designed to be surrounded by a shallow river to prevent enemies from invading the tower. It's a huge structure but too bad there is no tall building or land that we can get a better glimpse at the Tower of London.

Walk along the River Thames with the Tower of London on the left led us to the grand Tower Bridge! The middle span of the bridge can be folded up to allow large vessels to pass through.

The handsome yours truly with a UK flag T-shirt bought purposely for this trip!

The story behind Tower Bridge is actually quite haunting.

We were told that the scenes of London will be different when night falls. So we chilled around Tower Bridge, mimicked 冲上云霄2, bought some souvenirs, ate KFC as dinner and very soon, the sky became dark. 

Behind this lengzai is The Shard, a glass-clad 87 stories skyscraper which is quite a stand-out in London's skyline. 

A wedding photography on the Tower Bridge, so sweet, so expensive =_=

This is not something you'll get to see everyday! A car/transporter/whatever propelled by 8 persons is road legal, but hogging the road with its slow speed!

Yes, you must stay until night time to see the spectacular night view of the London city! With all the lights shining on the iconic buildings, you must see them with your own eyes instead of your camera to appreciate their beauty... 

This blog entry has made this River Thames exploration seems like a short travel distance between all the attractions but it's not! Crossed the River Thames for numerous times and we even resorted to travel from one place to another, all around the River Thames with the Tube. We were so exhausted but the excitement of exploration kept us holding on!

NEXT - London: Day 3!

London - Day 1 (Madame Tussauds, Baker Street, Kensington Palace, King Cross)

If you haven't been to London, you are never in the UK. London is the capital city of the UK, home to hundreds of attractions and historical architectures (that's why there will be a total of 4 blog posts solely for London). For the first time, we planned our itinerary all by ourselves. Booked the bus and accommodation ourselves, where to visit, where to take the Tube, how much time to spend at one attraction etc. So this is considered as our first backpacking trip! 

The journey by bus from Sheffield to London took about 4 hours, train should take an hour less. Why bus? It is because we got the tickets at promotional price of 10 Pounds, to and fro. We got to save as much money as possible because London is a big city, inevitably with higher cost of living. More expensive food and accommodation. 

The bus dropped us at London Victoria Station and our journey begins! Firstly, we bought an Oyster Card at more than 10 Pounds to travel around the city using London Tube, where you can use it infinitely during off-peak time! It was so useful as we get to travel from one side of London to another just by London Tube. 

The Underground Tube is a complex yet user friendly public metro system where one line intercepts another line by going deeper and deeper into the ground! You can basically travel to every corner of London by changing lines of the Tube. Some stations might look old because some are dated hundred years back!

Confusing yet crucial for London!

We headed to Pimlico by Tube as our accommodation for 3 nights are in the Pimlico region. After checking into our hostel, we went out in search for lunch. As we are account holders of Barclay's, we can use our card to pay for the bicycle rental where its stations are available across London. Another great way to explore the big London without having the need to walk (which we did) while exploring the beautiful city.

From Pimlico Station, we took the Victoria Line and Bakerloo Line to Baker Street Station. Baker Street is home to Sherlock Holmes' Musuem and Madame Tussauds wax musuem. We bought tickets via online for Madame Tussauds wax museum prior our visit to London. It was a combo ticket of Madame Tussauds and London Eye at 30 something Pounds. 

Look who's the President now!!

I met so many superstars in one day! Mr. & Mrs. Smith (Pitt to be exact), Robert Downey Jr., Adele and the bootylicious Beyonce Knowles! The entrance ticket for Madame Tussauds also included a Marvel Super Heroes 4D Experience movie where you can literally feel the saliva of some monsters and 'creatures' running over your legs! Sad case was my friend lost his Rayban sunglasses in the cinema hall... 

After reporting about the lost to the security counter, we moved on The Sherlock Holmes Museum located not far away. We didn't enter the museum though, as a small fee is needed upon entering. Sherlock Holmes, one of the world's greatest detective (fictional, that is), is said to live here by its creator. 221B Baker Street...

The streets of London was not exactly as clean as I imagined...

We hopped on to Tube again to High Street Kensington Station, where Kensington Palace is located just a stone throw away (well, more like few stones throw away). Residence of the British Royal Family since the 17th century, it was once the residence of Princess Diana. It has very beautiful environment and garden, and a huge green land nearby for the public to have exercises on. 

The first day in London doesn't end yet! We travelled all the way to King Cross Station (all thanks to Oyster Card!) where the story of the very famous Harry Potter begins! Unique architecture which hides the traditionally-built walls behind. 

Platform 9 3/4, this is where Harry Potter zooms through the wall with his trolley and hopped onto the Hogwarts Express! The employees of the station were very helpful in taking photos for us here!

Just opposite of King Cross Station is the St. Pancras Station, which houses a bronze statue named 'The Meeting Place'. This is the location where it is filmed in a popular Hong Kong drama called '冲上云霄2'. We tried to imitate the scene... But it doesn't turn out well xD

NEXT - London: Day 2!