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Published: August 5th 2008
London Eye
View over Big Ben The Luke’s have arrived in London. It feels strange to hear people everywhere speaking English, after being in non English speaking countries for so long. The accent sounds weird though.
Our apartment is in a central location , just North of Hyde Park . Our time in London has passed very quickly, which is always a good gauge of having a great time.
Early in our trip Maddy came by a quote in her travel diary, it went something like “ a traveller sees what he sees, and a tourist sees what he has come to see”. This has been a talking point throughout the trip, and the pendulum between ‘tourist’ and ‘traveller’ is forever moving. In London the pendulum swung unashamedly towards ‘tourist’.
We have been either walking or catching the ‘Underground’ to get to all our sightseeing locations. There have been plenty of them and there still seems to be so much more to see.
Our first touristy thing was The London Eye which is a giant Ferris wheel that rotates very slowly (one revolution in about 30 minutes) to allow a good view over London.
Some of our highlights include The
Tower Of London, where the Royal jewels are kept and some displayed. We had a very amusing tour with one of the Yeoman (Beefeater). The main emphasis seemed to be all the beheadings that went on there, especially in the reign of King Henry VIII.
The Tower Bridge is also an impressive structure spanning the Thames with a ‘liftable roadway’ to allow the tall ships to pass through. Even today it is raised ~20 times per year.
No visit to London would be complete without a visit to Harrods. Nice to look at, expensive to buy. We did however have a wonderful time browsing through the food hall, and the bookstore, ultimately buying books in English!
We all enjoyed a visit to All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (aka ‘Wimbledon‘ ) . Home of the famous Wimbledon tennis tournament and also with a relatively new tennis Museum. The locker room exhibit with the ‘ghost’ (hieroglyphic) of John McEnroe was very amusing.
St Pauls Cathedral was impressive with its domed roof, which we climbed a spiral staircase to reach. The exterior is perhaps not as eye catching as St Peters in Rome, but
Harrods
Not glass slippers... only chocolate the interior is more subtle and just as exquisite.
We had an interesting visit to The Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace. This is where they house all the horses, carriages and other means of transport for the Queen. We saw the carriage given to the Queen by the Australian public, it is refuted to be one of her favourites and more comfortable than other carriages.
Interwoven with periods of being a ’traveller’ was also; Trafalgar Square, Hyde Park, Royal Albert Hall, Wellington Arch, Kensington Palace, Houses Of Parliament, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey.
An attempt to watch the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace was dampened by the drizzle, and cancelled 15 minutes before the scheduled start. They may have a ’stiff upper lip’, but they like to keep it dry !!
All in all we have had a fantastic London experience, enhanced by great accommodation in close proximity to some of the wonderful parks of London.
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Black cab driver
non-member comment
good time
Glad you are having a good time , pity about the weather,if you have time visit the history musium, gets you out of the rain, and is free, I take my Grandchildren, love it