This blog entry is basically the continuation of the post about my mini-holiday which has started already two days earlier with a visit of my cousin Ann and her husband Edward. I had spent two nights together with them - and their dog - in their little village some 220km southwest of London, namely in Montacute/Somerset. If you want to know what has all happened already the last two days since my arrival in England, please click here.
Anyways, like Marco and me, they had also planned to stay in London over Easter, mainly with Ann's sister Emily. So on Friday 6th of April we drove all together with their campervan Freddie from Montacute to London, passing the National Trust site Stourhead and famous Stonehenge. And here we are now, arrived in London city. Ann and Ed quickly dropped me off at my other cousin Emily's house. I quickly greeted Ann's sister, said goodbye to Ann and Edward and then hurried towards our hotel where Marco was already waiting for me :-)
Together Marco and I started exploring London. However, before posting any picture's of the following days, please let me give a little summary of our experiences:
Of course when you think of London it is always connected to high expectations. And thus, Marco and I were really enthusiastic about our 4-days stay in London. Unfortunately I'd say that our high expectations got a bit disappointed.
First of all Easter is probably or definitely not the right period to visit London. Initially enthusiastic that unlike in other cities most attractions in London would be open, we had to figure out that opening times were nevertheless redruced and during those limited visiting hours the attractions were totally overcrowded! The whole city was actually crowded! This resulted in Marco and me just restlessly walking around from one point of interest to the other to then figure that it would take us hours in the queue before being able to access a certain attraction. To get on the London Eye would have meant 2 hours in the queue. Several times we passed Westminster Abbey which was either closed for service or they wanted to have some 15-20€ entrance fee - in a church, which should be accessible to everybody!!! Same for other famous churches such as e.g. St. Paul's Cathedral.
So in the end Marco and I visited only really few things from the inside.
Secondly: Weather is one story, but well, this is unpredictable and everyone is aware of the fact that London is not famous for the all-year-super-sunshine-clear-sky weather. However, it is quite demotivating to take pictures on which everything seems just grey and boring. This might of course also be a matter of just having a pocket camera and not a reflex, but most of the pictures are just without any contrast. (And still I have been taking - and posting - loads...!).
A third issue was also some disorganisation from our side. Though we were equipped with guide books and a map we had no orientation, or better we had no plan/structure in our sightseeing. One afternoon for example we had ended up in a quarter of London which was rather a business district in which it turned out to be quite a challenge to find a decent place to have lunch. We had lost some 1-2 hours walking around to find a nice(!), that is non-touristic, non-fastfood, non-Italian, but inviting, charming and especially affordable restaurant for lunch.
Let's say our moving around in town was a little uncoordinated and little planned without getting well informed in advance...
Anyways, let's say that it was still a positiv holiday, because we still did get something to see of London, Marco and I spent some days together and I had the chance to meet my relatives who - as we had counted - I haven't seen for at least 3 years.
So here we go now with the pictorial description of our long Easter weekend.
After a short break at our hotel, Marco and I started with a stroll through the nearby Hyde Park.
Diana Memorial Fountain
Towards Piccadilly Circus.
"Headhunters" - I just had to take this picture as this is actually a Norwegian film ("Hodejegerne"), based on famous Norwegian author Jo Nesbø's novel with the same name. Went to see the film (in Norwegian) in Oslo quite a while ago. It had quite a success.
Little break at a nice bistro-pub.
Continuing on Whitehall street, leading to the Horse Guards...
...and further on passing Downing Street. However, we didn't meet the Prime Minister.
Saturday, 7th of April:
The first destination of the day was the British Museum. Very interesting, but very huge. Too huge actually to visit it all within a couple of hours. So we actually skipped some parts such as Asia, Africa and Oceania and also Europe and Middle East were just rushed through. We were not aware of the size of this museum which is definitely worth another, more detailed visit, especially of the missed parts.
The famous "Rosetta" Stone.
The medals for the 2012 Olympics in London this summer.
After over two hours in the museum we moved eastwards towards the Bank of Enland and the Royal Exchange...
...and further on along the river banks towards the Tower Bridge...
...and finally the Tower of London.
When we saw the queue infront of the ticket counters it was sure that we woudn't go inside the Tower of London that day. No way! So instead of losing time in queueing we turned around and went all the way back towards the West End and further on westwards to pay the famous luxury department store "Harrod's" a visit.
And when I say "luxury" store, then I mean it. Look at the prices!!! 96.000₤ for a watch!
295,000₤ for a collection of 16 bottles of wine!
We leave Harrod's with empty hands - nothing attractive that fit our budget.
Not far away from the department store, basically just on the other side of Hyde Park, lies our hotel where we went for a quick rest. We also got changed as we had tickets for "The Lion King" musical show at the Lyceum Theatre at 7.30 p.m., a present to Marco for our anniversary.
Sunday, 8th of April:
Everything shown on the pictures is just what my camera saw holding it over the heads of the crowd, but surely not what I could see.
Disappointed of having missed the "hightlight" of this morning, we left after already 10 minutes. There was nothing more we would get to see from the change of the guards then the heads of the other people.
We now headed towards Westminster Abbey, without going in though as they wanted a hell lot of money for that.
...until we ended up in the area of Covent Garden and Strand with the Savoy Hotel...
and finally the Central Market.
During the following 2,5 hours Marco and I were strolling through the streets, did some little shopping and later on took the underground out to Hampstead Heath where me had agreed to meet up again with my cousins Ann and Emily and Edward.
Monday, 9th of April:
Since the breakfast in our hotel was pretty scarce, we had a good excuse to have some English breakfast somewhere out in town.
And it initially looked good. We were in after only 15 minutes of queueing for our admission tickets.
However, once entered we got shocked by the queue to the building where the Crown Jewels were kept. It was immediately clear that we would get those to see :-( The queue was "kilometres" long with an estimated waiting time of maybe two hours? Three? I don't know.
A little walk away we could pass (didn't visit) St. Paul's Cathedral.
Close to St. Paul's Cathedral, just on the other side of the river after crossing the Millennium Bridge and next to the museum Tate Modern,...
...we could get a glimpse of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, a reconstruction of the Elizabethan playhouse where Shakespeare used to play.
We went out for typical English pie dinner and had a great evening together.
Unfortunately this evening ended relatively early; the next morning Marco and I were having very early flights back to Bologna and Oslo.
Tuesday, 10th of April:
Punctually at 3:30 a.m. the alarm rang and we had to get up. A pre-ordered taxi was waiting for us to bring us to Liverpool Central Station, in order to take the train to Stansted Airport. Here it was once more time to say good bye (oh how I hate it every time!) :-(
...and from Oslo Airport Rygge I went straight back to the office. Tough day after getting up that early!
No comments:
Post a Comment