London! Here we come!!!!
Being the piggy me, I practically slept all the 5hours bus journey to London. Bus is not really comfortable but I was too tired and sleepy. But before falling asleep, still managed to take picture. Hehe. So vain la.
Can you see Amanda behind us?? HeheFinally reach London at approx 11.45am. Got stuck in a slight traffic jam but luckily not as bad as those we experience in KL. Got off at Victoria Coach Station and made our way to Victoria Train Station. We decided to drop our bags off at the hotel before meeting my friend, CK.
The train station has many levels. We had to take escalator a few levels down to get to our platform. However, directions are very clear as to which line you should go to get to your destination. I am very impressed by the clarity of information but standing at the platform, I can feel the dust n dirt all stick to my face. New pimples are to appear for sure. Haizz...
At Victoria StationWe stopped at Euston Station to get to our hotel. Had a hard time looking for it. Wasted about 0.5hrs to find the hotel. And not to mention the amount of walk we did that afternoon. Finally, a handsome young man showed us the correct way to the hotel. The hotel that we stayed in, Mentone Hotel is quite a nice B&B hotel. Costing about £30/night, it is considered ok.
Taken inside our hotel roomAfter dropping our stuffs, we made our way to Leicester Square to meet up with CK. He then brought us to China Town which was nearby. Walked around China Town for a bit and posed for a few pictures, of course. In my opinion, London's China Town is bigger than Liverpool's. There are lots of shops and I even saw pao! Was craving for it so I bought 2pcs. But what a great disappointment. It tasted horrible. The paste doesn't taste like red bean and the dough is too hard. Not nice at all. Wasted my $.
Posing at China Town gate
With Amanda n CK in China TownAfter that we made our way to Trafalgar Square. Trafalgar Square is a site of significant historic value and its monuments and statues also have individual heritage classifications. Since its construction in the early 1800s, Trafalgar Square has been seen as a centre of national democracy and protest. Rallies and demonstrations are frequently held at weekends on a range of political, religious and general issues. With its position in the heart of London, it is a popular tourist attraction; its trademarks are Nelson's Column, which stands in the centre, the four lion statues that guard the Column, and the large number of pigeons that live in the square. On the north side of the square is the National Gallery.
Nelson's Column
Behind us is the National Gallery
I climbed onto one of the four lions guarding Nelson's ColumnHaving climbed the lion and taking loads of pictures, we made our way to the iconic London Eye. It was quite a distance but due to good weather, it was not a horrible walk. I even managed to take a photo in the famous red telephone booth. Such a poser hor...
Halo! Halo! Wei Wei WeiAfter walking for what seems like forever, I finally saw the big round round wheel. The famous London Eye! A brief history of London Eye.
Since opening in March 2000 The London Eye has become an iconic landmark and a symbol of modern Britain. The London Eye is the UK’s most popular paid for visitor attraction, visited by over 3.5 million people a year. A breathtaking feat of design and engineering, passengers in the London Eye's capsules can see up to 40 kilometres in all directions.
These are some simple facts about London Eye that I found online.
A TEAM EFFORT
It took seven years and the skills of hundreds of people from five countries to make the London Eye a reality
A VIEW FIT FOR A QUEEN
You can see around 40KM (25 miles) from the top as far as Windsor Castle on a clear day
FLYING HIGH
The London Eye welcomes an average of 3.5 million customers every year. You would need 6,680 fully booked British Airways Boeing 747-400 jumbo jets to move that number of fliers!
DING! DING!
The London Eye can carry 800 passengers per revolution - equivalent to 11 London red doubled-decker buses
HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION
Each of the 32 capsules weighs 10 tonnes. To put that figure into perspective, it's the same weight as 1,052,631 pound coins!
SLOWLY BUT SURELY
Each rotation takes about 30 minutes, meaning a capsule travels at a stately 26cm per second, or 0.9km
(0.6 miles) per hour - twice as fast as a tortoise sprinting; allowing passengers to step on and off without the
wheel having to stop
THE ONLY WAY IS UP
The circumference of the wheel is 424m (1.392ft) - meaning that if it were unravelled, it would be 1.75 ti
mes longer than the UK's tallest building - One Canada Square in Canary Wharf
TONNES OF FUN
The total weight of the wheel and capsules is 2,100 tonnes - or as much as 1,272 London black cabs!
UP, UP AND AWAY
The height of the London Eye is 135m (equivalent to 64 red telephone boxes piled on top of each other) making it the fourth tallest structure in London after the BT Tower, Tower 42 and One Canada Square in
Canary Wharf
BLAST OFF
The spindle holds the wheel structure and the hub rotates it around the spindle. At 23 meters tall, the spindle is around the size of a church spire and, together with the hub, weighs in at 330 tonnes: over 20 times heavier than Big Ben
Wow, too much to digest already. Well, anyway, how could I not take a picture of the famed London Eye?? So we of course posed for a few pictures. Smile!!!
After crossing River Thames via Hungerford Bridge to get to the other side, we were greeted by a pair of silver couple. Are they real? I wonder. Suddenly the man moved. Wah lau. Scary but interesting. It was a Sunday and according to CK, there are a lot of street performers. Took pictures of a few of them (without paying of course) and just strolled along.
Initially Amanda and myself would like to visit Madame Tussauds and there is a package ticket that include a ride in London Eye costing £35. But we also wanted to watch Phantom of the Opera and in the end, we chose Phantom of the Opera. We just spent our time taking pictures along River Thames. We walked till we reach Westminster Bridge and wondered if we should cross it to Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. Our feet told us to do other wise.
You see, Hungerford Bridge and Westminster Bridge sort of like run parallel. So, if we were to cross Westminster Bridge, we are gonna be back to Victoria Embankment where we started. Finally, I decided I just want to walk half the bridge just to take a picture of Big Ben. My legs are too tired already having walked the whole day.
Our next destination after London Eye and Big Ben is to find food!!! All of us are starving already. We walked back to China Town to have our meal. Nothing special bout the food but at least filling.
After meal, we walked to our last destination, Piccadilly Circus for a few more rounds of photos. The Piccadilly Circus boast the neon billboard that is similar to Japan's. Piccadilly Circus is famous road junction of London's West End and is close to major shopping and entertainment locations. There is a fountain called Shaftesbury in memorial of Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury for his philanthropic works. At the fountain also stood the statue of an archer popularly known as Eros (sometimes called The Angel of Christian Charity , but intended to be Anteros).
Well, that's the end of my first day tour of London. We were all so tired, all 3 of us just knocked out after our shower. We need to re-energise for our day 2 tour!!!
