London Day 8

Nothing much happened today. Except that we didn't eat macdonalds at all today. (miracle)

Yup we decided to eat something different. Some traditional English fare. Went to this nice cosy warm pub in the afternoon for lunch. Meal costs about 8-9 pounds for a hearty meal. (their servings are enormous)

Obviously it's cold. Around 2 degrees and raining cold bullets again. Nothing like a warm cup of hot chocolate to warm the fingers.

Joyce had beer battered fish and chips. The star of this dish is the tartar sauce. Extremely light with a touch of lemon or vinegar in it. Wonderful really. The fish was crispy and fluffy on the inside. Delightful flakes of fish crumbling on your fork as you cut the fish open. Very good indeed.

But man, the best lunch I had so far in London. Suffolk pork sausages with mash topped with gravy on a traditional yorkshire pudding. The portion here is huge. (even i can't finish this. I met my match). The mash (mash potato) here is about the size of 3 large KFC mash potatoes lumped into one.

The sausages are lightly salty, pudding was nice and chewy, the mash and gravy was a perfect blend of sweet and salty and the peas add some nice texture. Delicious.

It was so cold, we ended up shopping most of the time(to hide from the cold). Got some souvenirs from the gift shop. Nice mini! (one of Joyce's favorite cars)

 

The statue Eros. (one of my favorite statues)

After some shopping, we went to buy some groceries. Ran out of mineral water. They have lots of instant meals at their supermarkets. They eat a lot of processed food them Brits. Check out their range of sandwiches. It's like a library. You need to categorize them. 1.2.1.1 beef sandwiches, 1.2.1.2 roast beef sandwiches, etc.

They have these automatic checkout counters. Where you scan your own shopping and pay through a cash machine. Got into a little trouble at first.

There you go. Done. Happy shopping. 2.55 pounds for a pack of orange juice and a bag of apples (to feed my apple craving)

 

Didn't do anything much to be honest. But we booked a local one day tour to the birthplace of shakespear and also to Oxford and also to Hogwarts(Harry Potter) on Friday. So do stay tuned. Going to change hotels tomorrow. Tata.

London Day 6

Its almost half way through our London honeymoon. Been enjoying so far! Today, actually we planned to go to Salisbury, and take bus no 3 to the famous Stonehenge. After having breakfast at the hotel, we were greeted by cold bullets of rain, and the sky didn't look too bright at all, so we decided to postponed Stonehenge.

Where to go? Well, Joyce wanted to watch a play in one of London's many theaters, so off we go to Picadilly Circus! It's already busy in the morning!

We were feeling cold. (i think i'll just say this in every blog). Even when i'm typing this, the BBC London Weather reporter echoes with me, "...It's going to be rainy and very cold..."

There are many many theaters in London. Each theater shows the same show every day for the whole year! One theater shows Avenue Q, one theater shows Thriller, one theater shows Oliver, one theater shows Jerusalem, etc. We went to Queen's theater to buy our tickets to Les Miserables, or affectionly known as "Les Mis".

 

 

The price ranges between 20 pounds to as much as 59 pounds. (1pound=2.3sing). We went for the semi-high range, 42.5 pounds each. So 85 pounds in total. Oh ya, if you don't know, I tabulate and log our spending every day which I think I might post it on the last day, as a reference for those who wish to come London one day. I feel like a tax  collector.

Decided to go to visit St Paul's Catherdral (the one which marry poppins sang to the children about). Easy to find. Whatever it is, just take the underground. Never walk unless you have time to get lost. (see first day blog)

Gigantic! Magnificent! Intricate design! Very old!

 

Yet internally, a perfect blend of ancient and modern. (Got cafe in the basement next to the crypt! lol)

We were absolutely awestruck. This place has services on sunday and on weekdays, communions. When you're in it, you feel so small and that God is so big. When you look up, paintings fill the ceilings, each painting tells a story, almost like a comic. (you feel like you want to take a closer look, but no way can you reach it) Quite a humbling experience really.

There were about 5-6  mothers who brought their disabled, wheel chair bound children just to linger around in the church, hoping that somehow their children will be healed. They also honor people who have contributed to England in past. Those who have fought in wars, those who have risked their lives to save this catherdral(St Paul's would have been destroyed in WW2 if not for these people), etc.

  

 

 

We walked through narrow spiral stair cases up to the stone gallery (376 steps up). We can't take pictures, but you see people looking at the paintings, trying to figure out which part of the bible it portrays, and praying.

Going up furtuer to the golden gallery (528 steps up).

The view up there is breath taking.

  

And finally, another another set of really spiral, really narrow, really steep staircases to ball and lantern gallery, which is the top (approx 100+ steps more). Joyce and I were tired! But the view is worth it.

 

Making our way down was a lot easier. Haha...

Didn't know what to do from now on, since our play is 730pm. What can we possibly do for 6 hours? Silly me, shopping of course! Joyce whacked it!

 

 

Selfridge and Harrods are 2 of London's premiere shopping departmental stores. (I feel so english now, departmental stores! haha... i mean, shopping center if i'm in singapore)

Couldn't take it anymore at 530pm. Still, there is 2 hours to go. So we went to eat something called......

Sick of it already. After which, we proceeded to watch the play. Quite exciting. Many people queuing outside waiting to get in, 1 hours before it starts. Man Londoners are really really punctual about such things.

Holding area to ticket holders, got a bar and all.

 Getting ready to start.

 Can you imagine?  It's a monday night and it's full theater. Londoners love this sort of stuff. We both loved it as well. You must catch this if you have not.

Sorry for this late post though. Knocked out last night. It's 744am here. Tata!

London Day 4

Woke up early, decided not to have breakfast in the hotel today. Left the hotel and to our surprise. Today was a lot colder than yesterday. In fact, it has been colder and colder as the day goes by. On our way to take a train to Hammersmith station... brrrr.....

 

Ate breakfast at Macdonalds (8 pounds for 2 people. As compared to 20 pounds forr 2 people in the hotel). Anyway, after breakfast, we hopped on to our bus tour, known as the BBC (the Big Bus Company). Being a Saturday, it was more crowded than usual, but we managed a bus stop seat! The view was beautiful and it was extremely chilly! It's the wind cutting into your face. brrrr...

 

 

 

Went to take the London eye. It was flooded with tourists. Queue was fast moving and efficient though.

 

 

By the way, if you do not already know, we copied the London eye and named our Singaporean version the Singapore Flyer. Whats the difference? The view of course. No big ben in Singapore.

 

 

 

 

After the ride, we decided to grab something to eat. okay, we weren't exactly hungry, but we're so cold!!! We got waffles and hotdogs. Yummy...and warmmmmmmm.

Some photos we took on a very crowded Westminster Bridge.

 

We took a boat ride along the river that went through Blackeriars Bridge, Millenium Bridge, Southwark Bridge, and yes, London Bridge. (it has not fallen down, my fair lady)

 

 

To be honest, the ride was rather dull, so I was excited to get off it.

 

And we decided to grab a bite again. (Why do we keep eating you ask?) Because it is freezing! By now, both of us cannot take it liao. Go eat Fish and Chips! Traditional kind, with fish skin and fish bones. Crispy fish deep fried in batter. Drizzzled with vinegar, a dash of salt and pepper with a little squeeze of lemon. Piping hot and fresh, it really tastes so good when you're freezing. The warm fish sliding down your tummy. Warming it like a small blanket. Ahhhhh...

We couldn't bear to walk further as the weather is absolutely freezing. Brrrrr.... I was hopping up and down at the bus stop just to keep warm. Decided to go to someplace where we can go indoors. (Uh oh, I thought to myself, shops and shopping departmental stores. Danger Danger!!)

Anyway, we went to Oxford Circus and walked along Regent's Street, an Orchard Road equivalent. Man the shops they have in there are huge! Check out their Topshop. It's like 4 storeys, each storey filled with women who looked like they haven't  shopped in 10 years, on the loose! Scary.

There were so many people in topshop, there were 2 queues to their changing rooms on one of the levels, each queue with 20 women. Queueing and all of them still look so happy. The power of shopping affects women across nationalities.

Topshop was so big that it even has it's own internal food point for hungry shoppers. Okay, its for the guys. The girls are all too busy shopping to pay attention. Cool eh, it's just like Ikea, minus the furniture, plus lots and lots of clothes, plus lots of very focused women, plus a handful of bored boyfriends/husbands, plus a handful of poor shop assistants.

Went into a Guess shop, and they had their own personal DJ at the entrance.

 

Also went to Hamley's Toy Store (250 years old! this store!) They had their very own pirate mascots at the entrance, to lure all the kids.

 Anyway, time to sign off. It's 1am here. Check out Joyce's blog for next day's blog!