London - Day 4

Sunday, 4 September 2011

It was sad to leave London, but we had much to look forward to at our next destination:

France!

Ahman drove us to the airport and kindly took us via the scenic route.  Here are some of our good bye snaps of London:

The London Eye…

...Harrods (where the Queen shops)…

...and a highly exclusive, elite, aristocratic gentlemen's club on the left (not the type with red lights)…

Here are some other bibs and bobs that didn't fit anywhere else…

GOOD BYE LONDON!!!

London - Day 3

Saturday, 3 September 2011

 

A trip to London could not be complete without visiting Portobello markets in Notting Hill.  (Well, according to Sarah anyway).

 

Today was great weather, as it was during our whole time in London.  Catching the end of the mild English summer, we set out to explore the markets.  Jason had a coffee as soon as he could find a café to help him keep up with Sarah.  Actually, that was not a difficult feat given the volume of people traffic.  It took us two and a half hours to walk the distance of three blocks.

 

Before we got to the main market area, we saw a house with a plaque on it.  It was the home of the famous author and political essayist, George Orwell.

 

 

 

The markets were dense with crowds, and the stalls seemed an endless showcase of fashion, food, homewares, jewellery, and LOTS of antiques.  Most of it was girly and uninteresting to Jason, but being the good husband he is, he waited patiently for Sarah as she stopped at several stalls and shops.

 

 

 

 

But one place did catch our mutual interest, and that was the famous Hummingbird Bakery.  We bought an expensive cupcake to share, and as girly as it looked, Jason had no problem gobbling up his half.

 

 

 

 

 

We kept moving along at 0.2 kilometres per hour and realised it was lunch time.  Around the corner, we opted for an Italian restaurant where we had THE BEST antipasto platter ever.

 

 

 

We then caught the tube to the London bridge to check out the “London bridge experience and London tombs”.  Due to our lack of research, we actually thought it was a serious historical tour, but instead found ourselves in a kind of ghost train which was more of a ghost walk.  It started with ghoulish actors playing historical characters and sharing some historical anecdotes.  They were funny but we found it more gimmicky than informative.

Here are a few things we did learn...

• In the 1000's, the Vikings sailed down the Thames River and fought the Danes who had taken over.
• In the 1800's, the Thames River was polluted with rich people's excrement, corpses, chemicals and dead fish.

  Those actors then doubled as the various zombies/monsters/screaming people during a ghost walk that went for about 10 minutes.

  
  

  After that underwhelming experience, we headed to Westminster Abbey to catch the 5pm Evensong. 

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  We were not supposed to take photos of this, but Jason pretended to be ignorant of the various signs indicating this after the service had finished and had to be approached by one of the clergy.  Here are some of these illicit photos…

  
  

  

  
  

  

   

  Jason found the statue of Frederick Bonhoeffer rather interesting, as he is currently reading the New York bestselling biography…

  
  

  

   

  Some other landmarks we saw that day were the Big Ben…

  
  

  

   

  …and these statues near Piccadilly Circus…

  
  

  

   

  We walked around Soho for awhile and stopped for dinner at a French restaurant which was in a street lined with asian restaurants.  We did some more people watching over seafood.

 

London - Day 2

Friday, 2 September 2011

We set out to explore London on foot to see where we would end up.

On our way to the Thames river, we stumbled across St Stephens church where an organ recital was taking place.  For a small donation, we popped in to enjoy some baroque sounds in a church building around a thousand years old.

We continued on and saw a World War II memorial to the nation of Malta.  Maltese being Jason’s heritage, he stopped to have a read.  It was interesting to read that Malta became, and remains, the most bombed place in the history of war.

We then wandered some more and found ourselves at the Tower Bridge, a perfect prelude to the Tower of London.

We watched an tour guide/actor for awhile but found the gimmick distracting, so we opted for a listening tour.

We explored the bedroom of Edward the Confessor...

...an area where the arsenal was kept, and finally, the crown jewels.  (Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photos in these areas).

Here are some exterior snaps of the Tower of London...

And finally, some happy snaps of us...

We also saw a changing of the guards.  They weren’t the ones in fuzzy hats guarding Windsor Castle, but it was still interesting.  Unfortunately, crowds obstructed our view by the time we began taking photos.

It was very helpful to get another recommendation from Ahman for dinner.  At a local pub, we had the ultimate roast dinner complete with Yorkshire puddings…for seven pounds each.

We then headed to Soho for some coffee and people watching, and did a spot of shopping on the way.

London - Day 1

Thursday, 1 September 2011

We arrived in London and made our way to the home of Ahman and Bruce in London’s east.

We found their spare room on Wimdu and thought we would give the local experience a try.

We were a little nervous as renting a stranger’s spare room could be a gamble, but on the other hand, it could also turn out to be a great opportunity to meet some great people and get the local experience.

Well, it turned out to be a win.  Ahman and Bruce were lovely.  We felt like they wanted us to enjoy their beautiful home and their company, which we did.

On our first night in London, Ahman made a reservation for us at one of her favourite restaurants which was in London’s busy curry house strip nearby.

It felt good to shed the multiple layers we were forced to wear in Iceland.  I dressed up for the first time since being on holidays.  The food smelt and tasted amazing and was a great start to our time in London.

On that night, I realised that three days would not be enough to spend here.