Day 14: Last day in London and it meat our last 2nd day of the trip.So sad.....lol.Anyway we woke up and had our breakfast in the hotel.After which,we checked our the hotel and went down to St Paul's Cathedral.
St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral on Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The present building dates from the 17th century and was designed by Sir Christopher Wren. It is generally reckoned to be London's fifth St Paul's Cathedral,all having been built on the same site since 604 A.D. The cathedral is one of London's most famous and most recognizable sights. At 365 feet (111m) high, it was the tallest building in London from 1710 to 1962, and its dome is also among the highest in the world.
Sadly,photography is not allowed inside but we did climbed up to the upper top most gallery,where you can have a nice view of London City.There was a whispering gallery,where it was at the dome of the cathedral.There are tiny holes on the walls,where you can actually speak through the holes and the people on the other side of the dome can hear wat you said.Followed up is the stone gallery and golden gallery,total up is 500 plus steps.
After that,we headed down to Victoria Station,where we originally wanted to go Buckingham Palace.But in the end,we went into a restaurant for lunch instead,hahahaa....
After lunch,we headed down to St Pancras International station.We were looking for our train back to Paris but we cannot find it on the list.Stupid me!!Bought the train tickets for the wrong date!!In the end,we had to buy another tickets back to Paris for a total of 300 plus GBP!!!So expensive,and it was not a confirmed seat tickets.It was just for a seat near the door.So angry with myself...So we ended up waiting at the station until it is time to board the train.
On the train,we didn't wanted to sit near the door,so we went to the cafe coach to stand.After the train started to move,there was a group of Australian.They had reserved seats in the train but they didn't sit on the train,they also stood in the train from London to Paris.They had bought a lot of beers up and they were making merry there.(Noisy!!They even sang loudly!!OMG)
After 4 hours plus of standing in the train,we finally reached Paris (Gare de Nord station).It was around 8 plus and we still need to take the metro back to the Airport station.So we bought the tickets and took the metro back to the Airport station.By the time we reached there,it was quite late.Then we still have to find the stupid shuttle bus back to the hotel.
In the end,it was a small bus with so many people trying to squeeze up the bus (as the shuttle bus was going for 3 hotels together).Luckily we managed to get up the bus,if not,we will have to wait another 15 mins for the next bus.Finally we reached the hotel and checked in.Then we just went to bed,super tired day.....
Hotel stayed: Campanile Hotel
Places visited in London: St Paul's Cathedral
Day 13: Woke up to prepare for our day tour to Stonehenge.But it was too early,the hotel cafe is not opened till 7.30am.So we waited until 7.30am to have our breakfast,so by then we left the hotel,it was already 8am.We reached Victoria Station by 8.30am and the meeting place was like 15mins away from the station.Sadly,by the time we reached the victoria bus station it was already 8.50am.The coach bus had already left,in the end we didn't get to go for the trip. So we decided to go for Buckingham Palace,which was just nearby the area.But again,it was a disappointment as the opening times was 11am.So we headed to Wellington Arch first,as to pass time while waiting for the palace to open.And we kept walking until we reached the Hyde Park.We also passed by the Marble Arch,it is an arch made of marble.Nothing much there.In the park,there were a lot of statues and birds flying around.Princess Diana Memorial Fountain and playground were also built inside.Then we kept walking until we reached Kensington Gardens.There,we saw King Albert's Memorial statue,it was super huge and tall.From there,you can see the Royal Albert Hall.It was across the road,it is abit kind of a round building. Then we kept walking to Kensington Palace,and still need to walk through the garden before reaching the palace's entrance.(Why the garden always so big?)
Anyway,photography is not allowed in the palace,so no photos taken inside.In the palace,we were asked to find the 7 princesses lived in the palace before.Princess Victoria and Diana were in the list. After the palace,i was too tired to walk back to the Buckingham Palace,so gave up going there.(The 2 royal parks not small).We took the metro back to Tower Hill station,it was 4 or 5 station stops away (That's mean we had already walked for 4 stations away from the palace station).At Tower of London,we went to All Hallows by the Tower.It was a small church beside the Tower of London.Anyway we just went inside to have a look.After that we went a ride on the city cruise along river thames.
Along the river,the guide gave introduction on the bridges and buildings we passed.He did mentioned that London Bridge did went down 3 times.And there was a bridge,they called it 'Lovers' Bridge',another bridge named 'Women Bridge'(Waterloo bridge),another bridge named 'Blackfriars Bridge' and there was a wavy bridge which was closed by the police after hours of its opening.Because people was falling from the bridge and it was too dangerous.Anyway the bridge did open back,now people are walking across it.There was a building shaped like an atomic bomb.Lol We passed by the famous London Eye and the House of Parliament of London in Westminster. Then we stopped at Westminster Pier and we went up to have a short walk around there.After that we took the cruise back again to Tower Hill Pier,where we took the metro to South Keingston station to have our dinner.Then we headed back to the hotel to end our day
Places visited:
1. Wellington Arch
2. Hyde Park (Royal Park)
3. Marble Arch
4. Serpentine Gallery
5. Princess Diana Memorial Fountain
6. Kensington Gardens (Royal Park)
7. Peter Pan's Statue
8. King Albert's Memorial
9. Garden Walk
10. Kensington Palace
11. All Hallows by the Tower (Church)
12. City Cruise (Bypass a lot of bridges & Buildings)
Day 12: Woke up early again to catch our train to London.Walked down to Amsterdam Central train station and waited to board to train to Bruxelles Midi station,to change to Eurostar. When in Bruxelles Midi station,the gate for Eurostar train was already opened,we went in.Luckily we went in early,need to pass through customs and luggage scanning stuff.
And so we reached London at around 10am plus,we headed straight to the hotel 1st.But unfortunately,the room was not ready.So we only checked in the hotel,then we went down to a nearby cafe for a full english breakfast.Then we ended up staying in the cafe until it is time we can put our luggage in the hotel room.Finally we can put our luggage in the hotel room,the room was kind of hot and there was a window and we were on the 4th floor of the hotel.
London metro was always packed with people and the circle line train is every 10 mins or more.Sometimes there was no even 1 circle line train,basically you will need to take a train to some place else to transfer.Another weird thing you will notice in London is the police's siren.Every 5 minutes,you will definitely hear a police's siren on the road (like there are a lot of crooks to catch in London,the police there very busy).
After that,we headed down to London's main attractions,which we went for the Tower of London 1st.We went for the exhibits inside,which was named An Armour for a King,where they displayed all the different amour worn by different kings.In there,we also went to the different crowns & staffs for the Kings and Queens.Too bad we cannot take photos of the crowns and staffs.They are very beautiful and expensive (A lot of jewels & diamonds on it).
After that,we walked over to Tower bridge,where we went up for the exhibit.You can even walk on the link bridge on the top.We went to engine room where we got to see the machine inside the bridge on how the bridge was being pulled up when large ships are to pass through.There was a display on a motorcycle which was being used to fly over the tower bridge on 2009 by Robbie Maddison. After that,we walked from Tower Bridge to London Bridge.Then from there we walked to The Monument.
The Monument to the Great Fire of London, more commonly known as The Monument,is a 202 ft (61.57 metre) tall stone Roman Doric in the City of London near to the northern end of London Bridge.It is located at the junction of Monument Street and Fish Street Hill, 202 ft (61.57 metres) from where the Great Fire of London started in 1666.You can even go up and climb the 311 steps to the top.Anyway we reached quite late,it was already closed.After that,we went back to Bayswater station,where we had Burger King for dinner.Went to a supermarket for tibits shopping before heading back to the hotel.
Hotel stayed: Leisure Inn
Place visited:
1. Tower of London
2. Tower Bridge
3. London Bridge
4. The Monument
5. Streets in Bayswater station
Went for a Europe trip from 8th May 2010 to 23rd May 2010. I went to Paris -> Zurich -> Munich -> Frankfurt -> Amsterdam -> London and back to Paris again.
Day 1: Fly to Paris in the night on an A380-300 plane with Singapore Airlines. Took 11 hours flight.
Day 2: Reached Paris Airport (Charles de Gaulle Airport)in early morning. Took the metro train straight to the Notre-Dame de Paris church, had a tour inside. It was very beautiful and the windows are decorated with colorful glasses.Because we still had our luggage along,so we took turns to go in the church to view.When it was my turn outside,i saw a guy selling Eiffel Tower key chains quarreling with the secuity guard of the church.There are alot of those guys selling the Eiffel Tower key chains,10 for 1 Euro wo...lol.
And then we made our way to the Louvre Museum but we didnt went in. We just took photos there and had our 1st sandwich there.It was nice to eat,just that mustard was put inside!!
After that, we decided to check in to the hotel to put out luggage first.So we made our way to Bry sur Marne station,and found our way to the apartment hotel. There is an oven and a gas stove in the room. So we had bought breads,hotdogs,hams and drumsticks to put in the oven for breakfast.
One thing good in Paris is the breads.Always have a great fragrance and it is not hard (like stone).Lol.
Another thing noticed in Europe was there are graffiti everywhere, on the walls.The metro in Paris are also quite old and most of the windows are vandalized.
Anyway, we made our way down to back to main city again and went to Eiffel Tower. Bought a 3.50 Euro ice-cream and sat there to enjoy. After that we walked to the Arc de Triomphe and walked down along the streets for shopping. As most of the shops are not opened,there is not much to shop around.We bought hams,hotdogs and chicken wings to cook for dinner when we passed a small mini-shop(which is so hard to find a shop open on this day) and went back to the hotel.
Places visited:1. Notre-Dame de Paris
2. Louvre Museum (Pass-By)
3. Sainte Chapelle (Pass-By)
4. Eiffel Tower
5. Arc de Triomphe
6. Statue of Joan of Arc (saw on Day 3)
7. The Panthéon (Went on Day 4)
Hotel Stayed:City Residence Marne La Valleé
Day 14: Last day in London and it meat our last 2nd day of the trip.So sad.....lol.Anyway we woke up and had our breakfast in the hotel.After which,we checked our the hotel and went down to St Paul's Cathedral.
