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Published: October 2nd 2017
Ancient History cars
They were zooming about when we came.Geo: 51.5142, -0.0931
"I got this," as I boarded SQ222 from Sydney to Singapore then onward to London. 9 hours Sydney to Singapore, then 13 or 14 hours from Singapore to London. Piece of cake, I thought. Unfortunately I rather underestimated my staying power. It's one hell of a marathon. To Singapore was fine. I couldn't get to sleep as usual but I kept myself entertained with movies so the the trip to Singapore was fine. We had a layover of about 2 hours in Singapore before our next flight. How bad could it be, really? It's only about 4-5 hours longer than the trip to Singapore. Then came the longest 13.5 hours. Just when I thought I'd slept 4-5 hours, it's only been 20 minutes. Movies were fine...but the same selection. Sleep, eat, watch movie became the pattern and eventually we made it to London. Finally. Landing at 5.30am.
London Heathrow was quite good actually. We didn't feel rushed into getting our luggage and the airport itself was clean. Going through customs, we were asked a number of questions as per usual, purpose of trip, how long in London, where we from etc...but it was quick. We grabbed our luggage and
Lion
Some lion looking over the Bridge with nothing to declare from landing to getting out took about an hour. We hailed one of London's famous black cabs and we were at our hotel within an hour. I was impressed with the taxi driver. He was polite and knew his route. He did seem very proud to be a taxi driver which is more than what you can say about Sydney taxi drivers. Once we checked into our hotel, we went out sightseeing.
First stop: Westminster. We made our way across Westminster Bridge. On the way we saw Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. I have seen them on the television before but once I saw them with my own eyes in real life, they were truly impressive. It was surreal seeing those in real life and it felt like being in a London-based movie or television series, like Sherlock. We also made our way to Westminster Abbey. I thought St Marys was impressive, well seeing Westminster Abbey, I was even more impressed. The amount of detail that was in the architecture of the building, wow, just wow. By then because it's winter in London, Winnie was a bit cold and so we went back to the
Big Ben and Houses of Parliament
Big Ben and Houses of Parliament from Westminster Bridge hotel to get more clothes for her. As for me, I'm loving this weather - cold (I think tops was 8C today) but fine by me.
Next stop was Abbey Rd crossing. Winnie wanted to see the crossing where the Beatles did that famous walk across the pedestrian crossing. I expected not very many people there but when we got there, I was surprised quite a lot of people were there and re-enacing the Beatles. Yes we did it as well however there is an element of danger - quite a few cars use that road and you got to be careful crossing it. The cars do use common sense though and wait but you never know.
Once we had our fun, we made our way to London Bridge station. From there, we made our way on the wharf and had some magnificent views of the Tower Bridge. The Tower Bridge is often mistaken for London Bridge but it was a magnificent sight. To me, the closer I got to it, the more impressive it became. We crossed it and we had some really nice views of the Thames river.
From Tower of London, we caught a double decker bus to Trafalgar
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey - truly impressive Square. Funny incident - a couple of people were trying to sell us private bus tickets but having replied in pretty much perfect English, one of them said "You're not tourists! You're Londoners!" What's even funnier - Winnie said "We'll be using our Opal card" - In London, it's an Oyster card.
From there, ,It was time to catch up with my cousin and I haven't seen her in about 16 years!
We hopped on the bus and made our way to the pub where she'd made a reservation. We were just about to cross the road to the pub when she surprised me from behind. At first I didn't recognise her as her skin complexion was exactly the same as an ex-workmate. Then I realised, it's her! I can't remember the menu item but I had a sample of their pies which came with 3 sample beers in little glasses. Funny incident 2 - everyone had ordered their drinks and the waitress was waiting on me. She didn't realise that my meal came with drinks already! So I told her, I'll see how I go with those 3 beers first! She said "Oh that's right. You have drinks already".
Tower of London
Tower of London - view from other side We spent a good couple of hours catching up - it's always good to catch up with family.
Afterwards, when we got out of the pub, the weather had turned! From a bright sunny morning to a grey cold afternoon! We took a couple of photos in Trafalgar Square and thanks to the cold weather, we made our way to M&Ms world in Leicester Square. That was actually quite fun. All sorts of M&Ms merchandise was there - keyrings, mugs, fridge magnets. Of course, all you could smell was chocolate! We were feeling really tired by then so that smell kept us going.
From there, we made our way back to the hotel from Leicester Square to Westminster and into our hotel. Westminster Bridge was packed with tourists! So packed that I was glad I was there early to take pictures!
So currently, I'm finishing this blog off at 6.06pm. My body and mind still think it is 5.06am Sydney time the next day. It's like having spent a sleepless night. Before I sign off, it was strange at first here and here's why. I watch a lot of Premier League football so I hear a lot of the English accent. Like
Tower Bridge
Tower Bridge - truly impressive I told my cousin and her husband, it was strange that everyone here speaks the same way as the Premier League commentators!
Until tomorrow!
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