London was hot. I got a sunburn. I know, very unbelievable. But believe me, it's summer but i did not feel a drop of rain. So obviously the whole city was out.
We bought a day pass to ride on the topless hop on hop off bus :) Finally i get to visit the places that i've read in story books. Like Baker Street. Or Harrods. Lol.
On the bus. Here's Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes stayed at 221b :D
People on the bus.
Very busy Piccadilly Circus. I find the neon signs very un-london.
Random street lamp with a flower pot dangling! :)
Look at the crowd! See the glorious weather! We're at Trafalgar Square.
Artists scrawling on the pavements with chalk for money. I find this one particularly interesting. It totally looked like a painting..... he even drew a dish for you to lay your money in :)
Ok then we came to Buckingham palace. Interestingly i came to know of 'Beckingham' before Buckingham :p
Beautiful park en route to the palace. Peek at the Big Ben!
It was reeeeeally sunny. I put on double layers in view of the 20 degrees but.....
Here we are... See that the flag is up, which means the queen is at home!
It turned out to be the queen's birthday! Unfortunately we didn't come to know of it till we switched on the TV in the evening. But she had a procession in the morning, arriving in a carriage with marching and firing and stuff like that. Gahhhhhh wished i had been there!!!
This is the balcony where you always see the royal family standing and waving to the crowd on TV.
So this was the closest i ever got to the queen.
Nah i didn't post anything.
Yay Big Ben!
Westminster Abbey- very large Gothic church. It is a traditional coronation and burial site for the monarchs. I think Princess Diana was married and subsequently crowned here?
The entrance.
Palace of Westminster aka Parliament House. Magnificent structure.
The clock tower... and a peek of the London Eye.
Random protests. It was actually the first time i witness a live one.
On our way to the River Thames cruise.
An attempt at an artistic shot.
HAHA. I thought London Bridge was some incredible super old historic bridge. But it looked like some normal old bridge.
This was often mistaken for the London Bridge. But it is actually.......
Tower Bridge.
Tower of London. Where those old twisted dark tales of English monarchy you read in books happened. This was where King Henry VIII chopped off Anne Boelyn's head. Hadn't had the chance to tour the inside though.
One of the gates.
There used to be a moat but it was filled.
Traitors' gate. So it was said that Anne Boelyn was brought in as a prisoner through here.
Haha! Harrods!
A touristy phone booth pic with my friend's irritaing finger.
I think this was somewhere near Hyde Park. Oh dear i can't really remember.
Random artistic shot of a rose...
Wahaha Primark!
The tube.
Nice little cafes by the streets.
Finally, i think this was some huge shopping mall? But i like the lights :) Reminds me of christmas :)Generally we took less than a day to visit almost all major tourist attractions of London city. "Visit" as in touch-and-go, did not have the time to go into attractions like the museums or the rides eg. London eye. No even the churches. The attractions are actually very close to one another so if weather permits, walking is very ok. In fact we only took the bus to Trafalgar Square and walked all the way to river thames, took the boat, walked again, then took the bus home. Pardon me for being such a typical tourist lol but i only had ONE pathetic day there so had to make the best of it.
This was one of my most enjoyable tours! Probably cos i felt like i was going back to my childhood, actually witnessing places i read about as a child, and monopoly locations like MAYFAIR. Hahhaha. Would definitaly tour London at my own time in future.
