Day 2 in London

Phew… finally uploaded all the pictures Johnny and I took today….

Now is the time to write about it~ haha…

My first day (23/6/08) trip in london started at 9.00 am. Lynn wei and her cousin, Shirlyn brought us a supermarket to withdraw our money from the atm machine.

We came out from lynn wei’s aunt’s house…

Opposite her house is a small garden…

The flowers in the garden…

We walk down the street to a shopping mall to withdraw the money….

On the way, we passed by this classic old church…

In the shopping mall now…. see the maroon colored plant? According to lynn wei’s aunt, those plants are the pink colored “mei hua” which will only blossom during winter like those in China….

After we withdrew our money, we stop by this supermarket called Tesco metro…this is an international supermarket with all the cheap grocery….

After that we separated into 2 groups… lynn wei and shirlyn, her cousin, went to other places..while us, Johnny, Adeline, Khian Lu, Bryan and I, went to the Buckingham palace…

This is the metro map, here, the metro is known as Underground or Tube…
We are living in Ealing Broadway (the red circle), and now we are going to Victoria….

Look through this map during the way to the Victoria metro….

This will be the places we are going today…

This is the route we walk…. SO, we started from the Victoria Metro…and walk till the Buckingham palace to see the changing of the guard….

Came out from the Victoria, we saw this tourism booth…. Took a map from there…. and continue our walk to the palace…

Passed by this Ruben’s hotel… opposite this hotel is the Royal mews…

The royal mews… walk pass this place, headed to the Buckingham palace…

Almost there now…just walk straight then turn left… follow the crowd, and you will reach there….
SO many people!

This is the Buckingham Palace…. Click on it for more information about it….

Picture in front of Queen Victoria memorial…

Soooooo many people..haha…

After waited for 10-15 minutes…till 11.30 am.. the marching of guard started…. a troop of band passing by… there were 3 troops of guard… this only one of them… more picture in johnny’s blog….

All the guards marched into the palace…and the 2 bands will perform a few songs..until 12 pm…they marched out from the palace …

After that, the gate were closed and that’s the end… everyone leave the place as well…
Went there just to watch the marching… once in a life time is enough …..haha…
The changing of the guard is on everyday at 11.30 am in summer but in winter time, only certain days…
We waited there for so long, under the hot sun just to watch the marching……
Lynn wei said..last time during winter, when she went there, it was so freezingly cold…. But that time, there wasn’t so many people as summer…

Cute small girl taking her photo..haha….

Took a map of the place… next destination will be the St Jame’s park…. A very nice, green and beautiful park.. also, there were a lot of people…

The blue bridge crossed to the other side of the park…

From the bridge, you can see the London Eye....

Walk along the lake….

Along it, you may see a lot of ducks and big white bird species… don’t what is it called…

There is a board here about the species of the bird present in the lake…. So check it out yourself..ahaha

Taking picture with ducks… people behind me were busy feeding the ducks with the bread crumps…

There are different sizes of ducks…

I picked up some of the dropped bread crump and try to feed the duck too….haha…

Way exit form the park..The flowers are very pretty…. The gardeners must have done their very good job to maintain the all the plants…

At the exit of the park, there’s a memorial, commemorates all those members of the household division who died in the second world war and in the service of their country since 1918…

After the st james park, we headed to the house of parliaments…

ON the way to the parliaments, passed by this memorial wall, with a big ball in front..this wall was in front of the Churchhill museum. We didn’t enter the museum cause it is not free…haha… 9.30 pounds for student ticket… adult will be 12 pound… quite expensive…so we just continue on to the parliaments..

Took a few photos along the way to parliaments… first one is the taxi…using the ancient car…
Second one..u guess what is it? Haha…it is the policeman’s horses’ feces…. Very smelly ah!! Haha..

A very nicely built scratch out of the buildings in front of you…which is the parliaments, Westminster abbey and with other buildings….

There are many these red colored telephone booth on the way to the Parliaments… a lot of people taking picture with the telephone…so do i…haha…

A clock with the name BIG BEN…..is a part of the houses of parliaments….you can see ..it was 1 pm that time…haha….

Parts of the houses of parliaments…

This is the Westminster abbey, just beside the houses of parliament..

You can see from the map that, all these buildings are surrounded with the busy roads….

Pedestrian cross with the reminder, turn left and turn right…
Alright, now, we did we go? Look at the map above.....haha..

Here it is, the Lambeth bridge…

St Thomas’ Hospital beside the lambeth bridge

Took a picture from the bridge…. To get the parliaments background with the London eye…

Another picture with Khian lu…the river is called as River Thames…

After we cross the bridge, we walk along the river front….

Walk and walk, till we reach another bridge called, Westminster bridge….

A souvenir booth at end of the bridge….

There is no pedestrian cross on the bridge…so in order to cross the road, we have to take the underground route…

There are some cruises sailing in the river…

After crossing the road, we continue our river front walk till the London Eye….

Sat down at the river front for a small break…and replied the tourists’ waves in the duck boat…
Why is it duck boat? Duck, because the boat can drive on land, and sail in the water..just like a duck… didn’t manage to see it on land…haha..

Here is the London Eye…. A lot of people too….one of the MUST DO THINGS in london…
You have to buy the ticket to ride inside the small oval shaped thingy called CAPSULE…
Johnny wanted to ride in it, but sadly, nobody want to accompany him….. haha…so at last, he didn’t get into the capsule…

Before you enter the capsule, you got to go through a human-scanned and then join the long queue to enter the capsule…
Anyway, we didn’t get to join the queue, so we continue our river front walk…. The walk from London Eye was every interesting because there are many people selling-arts…

Is this a real human or a statue? How do u think? Haha..it is a real man painted with silver color and put on with the silver colored costum…

The invisible man…ahhaha….. there are many more people selling arts..but I don’t have the picture here..so please visit johnny’s blog…
After the ‘art’ walk from London eye, we reached another bridge with the name, Hungerlord foot bridge…

Took a group picture with the London Eye background….

Scenery from the Hungerlord foot bridge. We across the bridge and headed to Trafalgar square..

Double Decker tour bus…

Free news papers are distributed everywhere…

The newspaper I got today…..

This is the Trafalgar square…. Behind it is the National gallery..

National gallery with a big fountain in front..The national gallery entrance is free of charge, so we decided to have a few glance of the gallery…. The gallery is very big, u have to search for the sign board all the time, if not, you wont know where is the exit. Inside, the arts are divided according to years of their production. From 1500-1600 till 1800-1900. A lot of people inside too…

Look down from the national gallery… saw the flags on the top of those buildings in front…those building surroundings are the embassies of different countries..

What are these people doing in front of the gallery? I think they were promoting the London zoo…

The wall of the gallery at the entrance…. Wonder why they put the metal net in front of those statue?

Big german shepherd dog

This is the Charing cross street heading to the Oxford street… heard the stuffies in Oxford street are cheap… there are lots of sale, but when u convert it to Rm, it become very expensive..ahaha…so only window shopping…

This is the Oxford street…lots of transports and people…After the oxford street, we went straight till the Oxford circus metro…to take a metro back to Ealing broadway, the place we living.

Metro heading to Ealing broadway, coming in 1 min..

After we reached Ealing broadway, we went back to the TEsco supermarket to shop for our dinner, tomorrow breakfast and lunch…..

This is the self-service counter in Tesco… SELF service… never knw supermarket also can be self service…. Haha…

This is what I bought…Bread- 37pence, fresh milk-1.56pd, sun lotion-4.99pd, mineral water-77pence, cheese spreads 2 for 1.50 pd.. and another maltloaf which I had already eaten, for 20 pence…

After everyone finished buying all their stuffies, we walk back to lw’s aunt’s home…..
Back at home at around 7pm……

Today expenses…
Grocery-9.85 pounds
Hp credit- 5 pounds
Oyster card (metro card)-13 pounds..

Tomorrow we are going to the London bridge…..
Today was so tiring… Got to rest liao…. Stay tune for tomorrow..hahaha….