London In A Day (And A Half)

The trip to London started with our flight from Bangkok International Airport on the night of Tuesday 3rd July. It was a twelve hour flight, and the seats are so uncomfortable that I could hardly move about, let alone sleep. Needless to say, by the time we touched down in London, I looked like a freak for not having slept for a day! Luckily my seat was by the window, so I managed to get some shots of the various clouds outside.

A walk in the clouds

High above the clouds

Aerial view of London

Upon landing at London Heathrow Terminal 3 early morning on Wednesday 4th July, we collected our luggages then took the Heathrow Express to Terminal 4, where we deposited our luggages before embarking on a day's tour of London.

Aboard the Heathrow Express

We took the Tube everywhere. London is a very big city, but the Tube is a very good system. As long as we found out our bearings, we knew where to go and which train to take. It is practically impossible to get lost in London with the convenience of the Tube!

In the Tube

Our first stop was Westminster Station, where we wanted to go to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard. So we switched trains at South Kensington Station before reaching Westminster Station.

From there, we went to the Guard Museum to witness the Changing of the Guard Ceremony, went into the grounds of Buckingham Palace, St James Park next to the palace, and walked down the entire stretch through the government houses all the way to Trafalgar Square.

South Kensington Station

Westminster Station

Changing of the Guard ceremony

Inspection

Guards on horseback to escort the guards back to the palace

Marching towards Buckingham Palace

Entrance gate of Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace

Queen Victoria Memorial

St James Park

Ducks on the grounds of St James Park

Swan on the lake of St James Park

Governor's House

World War II Memorial

Government Offices (No. 10 Downing Street is behind)

Statue of Captain James Cook (the founder of New Zealand)

The Military / Navy Entrance

Trafalgar Square (the statue was pointing to the site of the battle where he won Napoleon)

Fountains of Trafalgar Square

Typical British telephone booths

Outside Museum of Natural History

A typical British pub

Me with the pigeons

More pigeons

Yet more pigeons

We went to Chinatown for lunch after that. We had a buffet lunch at a Chinese restaurant, before proceeding to find our way to Covent Garden.

Statue of Oscar Wilde on the way to Covent Garden

For all football fans

Covent Garden

St Paul's Church (Actors Church), Covent Garden

Covent Garden Market

Covent Garden Market is a great place to shop. There are many varieties of products as well as being a flea market. I managed to find Lush Handmade soap and bought the original Lemon soap. The last time I used Lush products was when they had a shop back where I live, but somehow the shop closed down, and now Lush is found only in England and Australia (I think).

After exploring Covent Garden, we took the Tube again to go to Piccadilly Circus, then back to Westminster Station to see the Parliament House, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey.

Piccadilly Circus (with SoHo in the background)

London Eye

London Bridge

The Maritime Museum

Thames River

Parliament House

Big Ben (close-up)

Statue of Sir Winston Churchill

Westminster Abbey

After this, we went back to Heathrow and waited to board the plane for Malta!

British Airways at London Heathrow

The second time we were in London was during our England tour on Wednesday 18th July. We were on our way to Reading from Bath, so we detoured to London again to take in more of the sights. We parked at a public carpark near the Tower of London, next to Thomas More Avenue, and as usual, took the Tube round again.

This time round, we went to Tower Bridge, saw the Tower of London (from outside), took the Tube from Tower Hill Station to Oxford Circus (the Orchard Road of London), Knightsbridge for Harrods (YEAH!), Bayswater (for the famous duck rice) before finally taking the Tube back to Tower Hill Station, collected the car and continued our journey to Reading where we spent our last night in England.

An interesting statue on the edge of London

Glimpse of the Tower Bridge

View of the Thames from Tower Bridge

The Tower of London

The grounds within the Tower of London

Other side of the Tower of London

Tower Hill (or whatever that is left of it)

Oxford Circus

My mum and I went shopping at Oxford Circus and I bought two dresses at a sale! It was a "Buy 1 Get 1 Free" deal so I bought 2 beautiful dresses at just 4.99 pounds! Where else can I ever get a deal like this? :-p

Burberry Building at Knightsbridge

An embassy in Knightsbridge

Harrods Building, Knightsbridge

The whole of the Harrods Building (almost)

Candy section of Harrods (the chocolates on display make me drool and crave so much!)

More chocolates (what a torture!)

Jewellery section of Harrods

Toy section of Harrods

Streets of Bayswater

Four Seasons Restaurant - home of the famous duck rice

Apparently the restaurant was set up by a top Hong Kong chef who moved to London. I am not one who eats duck often, but this duck rice really beats others hands down, which is why it is famed the world over. My mum insisted on taking fifteen stations just to go to Bayswater for the duck rice!

Tower of London at dusk

Going out of London (Tower Bridge at dusk)

With this, we ended our London trip and went on to Reading for our last night in the United Kingdom!