Footprints in London - Buckingham Palace

London Day 2 (11 Nov '07)

Nineth Stop : Buckingham Palace

Day 2, we woke up bright and early and headed out to Buckingham Palace to witness the changing of the guards that happens (according to Blamer again) around 11.30 - 12.00 noon. We alighted at St James Station and walked over to Buckingham Palace.

Along the way, took some photos of their colonial style houses, and their red post box. By the way, the blue card that Blamer is holding is their equivalent of our EZ-Link Card, called Oyster Card, wonder why it's called Oyster though, hmm....

Buckingham Palace, quite a crowd had already gathered near the entrance of the palace, I reckon they are mostly tourist like us to be gathered here. Anywayz, while waiting for the changing of guards ceremony, it's photo-taking time again... ...

We waited and waited, but pass 12 noon there was still no guard changing. However the queen did drove past us (see if u can spot her in the car from the clip). Thinking that there might be no ceremony today, we headed out for some fun in the leaves at the nearby park.

Tenth Stop : St James's Park

At the park, we photo whore like crazy... ...

This leaves trail is something u wun get to see in S'pore

We tried to throw some leaves,

Me? One time.

Love-Hate Partner? Many times. Talk about unfair treatment...

However, I got a video wa ha ha ha

Lots of animals at the park as well, ducks, swans, squirrels and even a pelican!

More spectacular views of the park,
We managed to catch London Eye in the background in these,
Great view of a castle like structure behind, which we later got to know that a memorial service was being held there to pay respect to war veterans.
Half way through the park, we suddenly hear military drums sounding off. As we hurried to the driveway, still managed to catch a glimpse of the parade in front of the Musuem of the Guards.

However highlight of the Buckingham Palace trip was taking a pic with this handsome policeman.


Eleventh Stop : Westminister Abbey

We proceed to the next destination, Westminister Abbey. This is suppose to be a place of worship as well as a clock tower. It seems to me a lot of historical buildings of London consist of clock towers though... A nation obsessed with time?

Notice that my pic is a bit blur... Tells u a lot abt the photographer eh?

More pics at Westminister :

Twelveth Stop : House of Parliament
Next stop is House of Parliament, which happens to be just beside Ah Ben, more photo-taking!!!

Thirteenth Stop : Charlotte's Guest House

After a quick lunch of Subway Sandwiches, we have to say goodbye to the comfort of Crown Prince Hotel and travel out of London Zone 1 to the more shabby Zone 2 area to check into our official den -- Charlotte's Guest House.



Our unit :

More pics of the interior. As it is approaching winter, temp is ard 9-16 degrees, I was happy to see tat we had a fireplace, but it turns out tat it's a fake.
Time to hit the covers... chao~~

Footprints in London ...

Prelude: Hearthrow Airport -Here I come!!!


Hi hi, here I am, entrusted with the task of blogging down our first trip out of Asia-Pacific with my love-hate partner cum blamer cum kao pei, Rainbow Lim (aka Lim Caihong). I may use the names interchangably, so do refer here as and when u need to. : )

As she flew over first for work and bloody took the camera with her, I did not have the chance to take photos of my virgin flight to London. It was a 14 hours long flight on board British Airways (thank god for the in-flight entertainment) and by the time I arrived in London, I looked like this:

Lack of slp from trying to watch as many movies as I can on board, however blamer was busying photo-whoring:

Sighz~~ Nvm her, I shall indulge myself in the breakfast I bought from a small cafe located just opposite the hotel (Crown Prince I think was the hotel, dunno if I have a photo of it):

It's a simple English breakfast with sausages, bacon, eggs and beans (very generous on the beans) and typical of English breakfast, it always comes with toast. Really delicious I must say, but it cost 3 plus pounds which roughly equates to 12 singapore dollars, not cheap.

After breakfast, I decided to join in the photo whoring myself, ha ha!!

First stop : Love-Hate Partner's Office

We were supposed to visit the most famous icon of London, (known it since I was still a toddler singing nursery rhymes), LONDON BRIDGE!!! However, love-hate partner decided to drop by her London office first, saying that it is nearer to walk there from her office. (yeah right!) End up, it's a #$@% long walk.
Took some pictures outside her office, cos there was a stern looking security guard that forbidded us from taking photos of her office, we took fancy of a tree instead. (strange but... ...)
Guess we must have really liked the tree ha ha.
As I have mentioned earlier, it turns out to be quite a long walk, hence, some sights and "sounds" along the way, though I think u may not hear the sounds from the pics, ke ke.
As of now, I think we were getting quite lost, love-hate partner seems quite elated to chance upon a signage:

But it seems to me that this signage didn't have London Bridge on it, wonder why she is so happy????

As the feeling of giving my love-hate partner one time jiat liat, jiat liat whollop started welling up in me (cos she was the one who chose to WALK from HER OFFICE in the first place), she decided to appease me by bringing me to this place for our lunch, located at Old Spitalfields Market. Sausage and Mash is the favourite on their menu, i ordered one with traditional sausage and some beef sausage, mash is with some herbs which I have forgotten wot herbs and some veggies -- fried onions. Love-hate partner tried the mash b4, hence she decided to try their Benedict's eggs instead. Our spread:


Notice the sausage and mash at the back of the pic, quite a provocative display of the food yeah? Close up on the sausages :



and eggs (to be fair if not kao pei will kao pei later):




They have quite an array of sauces on their table,




but I would like to single out the HP sauce located on the extreme right of the pic.




According to love-hate partner, this sauce is very popular in UK, almost every restaurant has it on the table, I bought one back cost about 97 pence, taste a bit like normal bbq sauce though.




And FINALLY.... ....


Second Stop : London Bridge



Notice that the sun had started setting, (*bish love-hate partner).

At first glance , I thought the bridge was this,



Impressive right? But to my utmost astonishment, this is ... ...

And our dear London Bridge,



Can't see it? It's the little red strip of light in the background, disappointed? It's first ever bridge across the Thames River, wot u expect man? : )

Afterwhich we passed by this interestingly named restaurant. Since we are both working in the financial sector, couldn't resist snapping a pic of it. niack niack~~

Third Stop: Millenium Bridge


A lot of bridges across Thames River actually, the one u see here is the Millenium Bridge built especially to celebrating the crossing over to the new millenium, and across the bridge looms... ...
Fourth Stop : St Paul's Cathedral

The building here is the St Paul's Cathedral, however this is not the original one as the original one has been destroyed in the Great Fire of London. Apparently, it is under renovation hence we were unable to enter the Cathedral for more sightseeing.
More pics of the cathedral upclose. Also we heard that this cathedral was strategic built on high grounds such that you will be able to see the dome of the building if u are near the area from all angles.
As the sky is getting darker, we quicken our footsteps in search of our next destination, the London Eye.
Fifth Stop : Tate Museum for Modern Arts and National Theater
However along the way, we passed by two more landmarks, which is the Tate Musuems for Modern Arts (photos with the spider thingy) and the National Theater.




Sixth Stop : London Eye

Finally, we manage to locate the London Eye, really beautiful isn't it. Right now it is the world's biggest eye, but after we build ours, it will be second largest, heard that China is building one as well... ...





Seventh Stop : Big Ben

Next up is one of the must see monuments of London, Big Brother Ben. One of our favourite icon as well as u will see more photos of Big Ben later.



After Big Ben, we decided to experience the local life a bit and try taking their bus back to our hotel area for dinner at The Canteen (an award winning restaurant featured in Lonely Planet guides). And thus our first London Bus ride:


Eighth Stop : The Canteen

I just realised that we didn't take a photo of The Canteen, anywayz, think u all can just google it, the food is more important. We ordered some pie thingy with mash, but I seriously think the mash sucks after u have tried the Sausage and Mash's mash. Some water-cress soup which tasted yucky as well, think I did not catch the waitress's accent when she asked me how would I like my soup. Ended up my soup tasted a tat too spicy... ... all in all YUCKS! Maybe only the bread and the pie taste nice.


Yupz, end of day 1. Look out for the next post... ...