all things touristy

charing cross railway station.

marble arch

this is going to be the last post about the trip to london. gosh, i guess it is the time to put a closure already. haha...it has been almost two months since i am back from the cold english summer.

hence, i am putting up the landmarks of all places touristy in london which i have not done yet.

a beautiful view of the the millennium bridge and behind the bridge is st paul's cathedral. this photo was taken from a window in tate modern museum.
picadilly circus. always busy no matter wet or dry, night or day. this photo is taken from the second deck of the double decker bus on my way to abbey road.

tourism malaysia office next to trafalgar square. well, i guess only malaysians will take this photo. i wonder how much they are paying to rent the office in this location. it looks pretty quiet in the office and you might even miss the office if you are not observant enough.

trafalgar square and standing majestically in the centre is nelson's column. the pigeons have all disappeared from this square. well, i was glad i had seen the pigeons in 1999/2000. it made the place more romantic with the pigeons hahaha

st paul's cathedral and lovely lavender.

aaah....something you will not missed when you are in london. i love this photo.

westminster abbey. the place where prince william wedded kate middleton. as much as i wanted to enter the abbey, the entrance fee put me off. 16gbp. would you pay??

hard rock cafe at hyde park corner. why is this touristy? well, many would go there for their souvenir item and i was made to go to get a shirt for my brother-in-law. gosh, i walked all the way from trafalgar square!! i think i walked about 1km to reach this place just to get that tee shirt. he better knows the pain in the feet and effort i took to make sure i locate the store and get him his shirt.

opposite hyde park corner is wellington arch. hmh..come to think of it, i did not even enter hyde park corner. i was too lazy to walk anymore, so i skipped the place. my travel companion also did not have a planned itinerary, haha, so i led the way.

victoria memorial in front of buckingham palace. one taken late in the evening when there was only a handful of crowd still lingering taking photos and freezing in the cold. the other taken at around 11a.m. where the crowd was barred from entering the area around the memorial if they came late. 11a.m. is the time when everyone is getting ready for the change of guards and the police are out in every corner.

the change of guard this time around was slightly different. i dunno, i could not really remember how it was a century ago. but this time around i felt it was more elaborate. i also recalled seeing banners about celebrating some guard day. maybe that was it.

westminster and london's eye at different times of the day. i think like it when the lights illuminate the structures and make the sky look so blue. and of course, there is less traffic late in the evening.

whitehall, a wide road that runs from the parliament building to trafalgar square. on the left is the cenotaph and the right, memorial of the women of world war 2. those who watched prince william's wedding procession, would have noticed them paying respect while passing these memorials.

still at whitehall, walk to the horse guard avenue, through the arch and to the horse guard parade. i think they were preparding for the monarch's birthday that they opened the arch for the public. not sure if i am right.
the picture on the bottom right is taken from trafalgar square. it should be the admiralty arch which leads to the mall and straight to buckingham palace. again, i have seen it from prince william's wedding procession. hahaha.....boy, am i glad that i got a sneek-peek to these places before i left for my trip.

trafalgar square.

tower bridge. we took a bus there as our tube limit was reaching the maximum for the day. but it was a good ride as we passed st paul's cathedral before getting to tower of london. only then we knew these places were so close together.
we saw the bridge opening to make way for a few boats to pass through. it was awesome. but pity to those people who are stuck at both ends of the bridge waiting to cross. it was quite a long stop for them.

tower of london. did not pay to enter. felt stingy to part with my money again. 17gbp ;(

st paul cathedral.

well, this is slightly out of the way but definitely on my to-go list. haha.....although i am not that a big fan of the beatles, still, i better pay them a homage at abbey road since i was in the city. the only way to go there is by bus. the picture on the bottom right is the famous crossing on their album cover. i was not the only 'fan' there all right. haha...everyone who was there must pose while crossing the zebra stripes, hence cars had to stop while the drivers looked at people freezing their poses to capture the moment. ok. it was silly but we don't care! the drivers around the area are used to this i am sure because i did not see disgruntled faces.

millennium bridge again.

harrods and dodi and diana's memorial in the basement floor. the place is bustling with shoppers and the food court was especially crowded. the pizza eatery seems to be really popular as seen from the long line formed by eager diners. the pizza maker also burst into opera song once in a while. wished i could have eaten there.

but i still ate at harrods ;) i had their afternoon tea at georgian house on the fourth floor. i think i paid 26 gbp. expensive but it was an experience worth trying. we sat on the terrace and filled ourselves with sandwiches, scones and cakes. the cakes were yummy. but i don't like the scones. hard as rock. so in the end, i did not finish the scones. the menu can be found here.

this used to be my favourite shopping place- selfridges. it reputedly has the biggest shoe collection in the whole of london. that fish and chips stall there was its window display in conjunction with the ocean theme.

last but not least, let's go back to westminster again aka the parliament building. we booked a tour of the place and went there on our last morning there. it is a good visit and i learnt a lot about the building and the running of the house of lords and house of common. this is our only chance of visiting the place. i paid 16gbp. totally worth it. no photography is allowed inside of course and the security was really tight.

the pictures on the top are all take inside the building, the waiting hall. love the beams on the roof. we got a pencil and badge as souvenir.

and so, after wandering the streets of london for a week, i had managed to make a small collection of treasures to keep ;)
from top left: tiffany sterling silver pendant, collonil spray for leather from mulberry, no7 cream from boots, and shirt from uniqlo.
from bottom left: a ring set from swarovski, hair bands from h&m, limited edition oyster travelling card (this one i did not keep, i returned it and got 5gbp instead), and limited edition replica of first coca-cola bottle.

the flight home sweet home was very comfortable because i upgraded to air asia's hot seat by paying a little extra. it is so worth it. look at the extra leg space we have. so i slept, read and ate without any complaint.

aaaahh....the end of my trip. and now my body itches to go for another trip but i also know that i have to save more if i want to have another fruitful trip like this one to england and paris. so save now and buy some currencies as most are dipping now. till the next trip.