Europe/UK Day 3 - London

Monday, 11th August, 2008

Last day in London.. Well, can't afford to stay here for too long anyway. 2.77sgd to the pound vs 2.22 sgd to the euro.. Europe should be less pricey..

We had breakfast in a chic cafe near our hotel.

My daily cappucino


Concoct your own breakfast..


very good stuff, and nice service staff.


omg I just realized our breakfast cost us 28 bucks. Well, at least it was good!

The Mall is not a shopping mall, but the name of the road that leads from Trafalgar Square to Buckingham Palace. This is the road the Queen takes in royal ceremonies.

Admiralty Arch at one end of the Mall



Buckingham Palace, with the Queen Victoria Memorial in front of it.

We were there for the Changing of the Guards ceremony which everyone says is overrated but everyone still crowds here to watch anyway. This is only a Monday morning but there are still so many people around.

see more people than guards-a-changing


them!! If only I had a chance to take a photo with them and their furry hats



St James Park is right next to the Buckingham Palace.



Views of the London Eye from here


Samsung's version of London : Westminster Abbey

We wanted to meet chye for lunch at his workplace which we assumed was in the financial district which we wanted to visit anyway. His workplace is at Canary Wharf and I stupidly went to ask the tube guy which station I should alight if I wanted to go to Canary Wharf. "It's Canary Wharf." Oh. Turned out there WAS a canary wharf station. But it was too far from where we wanted to go so too bad lah. No fate to meet the chye.

London's Financial District

londoners also crazy over iphone





30 St Mary Axe Street building, or The Gherkin. To me, this is the most striking and characteristic building in the London city skyline.


Lloyd's of London building. Also another building that has been appearing in the news as a result of the global economic downturn.


Wah. got Singapura restaurant here.


We were actually looking for his company's headquarters. Kinda like how I went to Milwaukee to search for mine. Turned out it wasn't in this district, so we headed towards the tube to get there.

This, is the London Bridge which pb insisted on seeing. They really should build one that is more glam, since about everyone asks about it and whether it really is falling down. I suppose they have rebuilt it numerous times over the years, so it has fell/sunk many times! London sold one version of the bridge to some guy in the US who rebuilt it at Lake Havasu, Arizona. There are also rumours that the US thought they were buying the much prettier Tower Bridge instead. Kinda loserish.

lunch at Pret A Manger

And a couple of train stations away.. Holborn Bars, the traditional home of his company. It was designed by Alfred Waterhouse, whose brother is yes, none other than the co founder of PriceWaterHouseCoopers! "(Alfred) studied architecture under Richard Lane in Manchester, and spent much of his youth travelling in Europe and studying in France, Italy and Germany. Upon his return to England, Alfred set up his own architectural practice in Manchester." Wah lau eh. lucky guy.

It dates back to 1879.. and Charles Dickens used to stay in this area before this was built! Very pretty building. I always wonder if 100 years later, people would look at our minimalist rectangular blocky buildings and say 'Wow.. architectural wonders..'

Time to walk towards Covent Garden.. and we came by this retro looking ice cream truck outside Lincoln's Inn Fields garden.


=)

Enjoyed our ice cream cone in Lincoln's Inn Fields garden. I love how this garden/park is where the locals go to to have a quick sandwich lunch, or just to read a book. If only our weather was nice and cold, then it could happen to Singapore too.

Walked a bit more and reached Covent Garden. There is a flea market here but on Mondays they sell antiques which is = any rubbish you can find at home so it was quite boring for us. Otherwise it's a pretty crowded place ideal for people watching. One crazy street performer did attract lots of viewers:

Too bad we didn't have the time to stop and stare. It was about time to go back to our hotel to pick up our luggage and head for Paris on our 6pm Eurostar train!

Before we leave London, may I add that the Oyster card, our ez-link card equivalent is really cool. You know how we have to read up about whether a day pass or a 3 day tourist pass, or no pass works better for you everytime we visit a new city? The oyster card does that automatically for you and makes sure you get the best deal. If it does not, you get a refund. Ok we didn't really calculate exactly but it did help us cap our daily transport expenditure at about 5 pounds each. Pretty good! We donated it (the deposit) to charity as we left London.

My crappy makeshift dinner on the Eurostar back to Paris. Actually today is our 6th year anniv and I was expecting a romantic wine dine carats flowers and proposal by the Eiffel Tower. Instead we spent the night lugging our backpacks across the English Channel, bashing through the subways of Paris and towards our Parisien hotel. Oh well, maybe next time. =)