14 June 2009

Arrived at London Heathrow airport promptly at 6.20am. Got our car rental from Avis. Driving a manual car on the right hand side proves to be quite a challenge as Ed forgot to change to low gear on numerous occasions but finally got the hang of it eventually. We drove to Kay's brother's house at Warlingham which is about 44.3miles away and took us about an hour. Arrived in good time and was met by Kay who told us to follow her to her 2nd brother's house for breakfast. And so, we followed her and was greeted by her brother, his wife and 2 children and he cooked us a delicious and hearty breakfast. I especially enjoyed the fried eggs. Here's how the house looks like and here's our little blue rental car on the left hand side with yellow number plate.


After breakfast, we started on our journey. Took a tube from a nearby train station to downtown London Victoria Station.



And from there, we took a bus to Russell St where the British Museum was located. There was an exhibit on ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome and the Middle East. As we enter the main entrance, we could see the Rosetta Stone which was found in Alexandria in 196BC. This was key to the decipherment of ancient Egyptian writing because its inscription is in ancient Greek as well Egyptian hieroglyphs.






And here's more pics of some familiar scenes of London, ie. the double decker bus and the stinking telephone booth (it smelt of urine and I was tempted to pinch my nose coz it was overbearing but I had to force a smile for this picture, hahaha).


After visiting the museum, we were all hungry and stopped for dim sum at Kay's eldest brother's restaurant which is a short walk from the museum. The egg tart and char siu sou was to die for. I had a picture to proof this (just don't salivate as you enjoy the pic).



After lunch, we went to Buckingham Palace. Here's an explanation with regards the changing of guards: "Changing the Guard or Guard Mounting is the process involving a new guard exchanging duty with the old guard.The Guard which mounts at Buckingham Palace is called The Queen’s Guard and is divided into two Detachments: the Buckingham Palace Detachment (which is responsible for guarding Buckingham Palace), and the St. James’s Palace Detachment, (which guards St. James’s Palace). These guard duties are normally provided by a battalion of the Household Division and occasionally by other infantry battalions or other units.When Guardsmen are on duty, the soldiers are drawn from one of the five regiments of Foot Guards in the British Army: the Scots Guards, the Irish Guards, the Welsh Guards, the Grenadier Guards and the Coldstream Guards." - http://www.royal.gov.uk/RoyalEventsandCeremonies/ChangingtheGuard/Overview.aspx

Unfortunately, we didn't get to see the changing of the guards but the Buckingham Palace grounds was really pretty.


From Buckingham Palace, we went to Big Ben & The House of Parliament, saw the London Eye (nope, didn't have time to go on it. From far, it doesn't look like the ferris wheel is moving but on closer look, it actually does) and Tower of London (this is not the London Bridge as many would assume). The river that runs through this part of town is the famous River Thames, as can be seen in one of the pics below.




From the bridge on the Tower of London, we could see this building called The Gherkin which was completed in Dec 2003 and opened 28 April 2004. A very unique building indeed, looks like a cucumber, thus, the name Gherkin.



After visiting the Tower of London, we went to St Paul's Cathedral. This is the church where Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer. A very beautiful building indeed.


From there, we took a tube and went to Charing Cross station and headed towards Chinatown. As we walked through Chinatown and looked at all the delicious food, we decided to go to Kay's 3rd brother's restaurant located just round the corner from Odeon Theatre. Oh, and I had the best lobster noodles in my life. It was so yummy, I can't even describe it in words. It was the yummiest dinner thus far. After dinner, decided we have to walk some more to walk away all the excess weight we've just put on at dinner.


We passed by Odeon West End - that's the place where all the superstars gather to do their film premieres.


From there, we walked to Trafalgar Square and then wanted to visit 10 Downing Street but alas, it was not accessible to the public. But, we are all happy with the beautiful sights London has to offer. Here's the few last pictures taken of buildings all around beautiful Trafalgar Square. Did you know that no more pigeon feedings are allowed in the square that used to be so popular with the tourists? Smart action on their part coz pigeons can spread diseases and that's not so healthy is it? Did you notice the Malaysian embassy in one of the pictures? And then, there was I trying to climb up next to the lion to take a better picture but alas, forgot that I had short legs thus, making the climb up so much more difficult. Had to contend with just posing with the lion above me instead of next to me, argh!