30 Dec 07 - London Day 3

My last day in London and I knew that I had a lot to cover for the day so I had to really prioritize the attractions that I could not do without. My first choice was the Natural History Museum. Museum again, you may think, but this museum particularly drew my attention as it had one of the largest collections of dinosaur fossils in the world. True enough, I was far from being disappointed from my visit. I discovered many interesting facts about dinosaurs that I never knew before. For instance, I never knew that t-rex is a particular kind of tyrannosaurus. I always thought that they were totally different species. Also, T-rex’s hands were too short to even put food into their mouth.

L-R: Diplodocus; Triceratops

L-R: T-rex; Tasmanian Devil

This museum also housed the largest blue whale model in the world, spanning over 30 metres in a big exhibition hall. The use of taxidermy in this museum was widespread, judging from the large collection of various exotic animals. It also boasted the largest tree trunk in the world called Sequoia, which was over 3000 years old. Another section of the museum that left an impression on me was the exhibition on human evolution. With the help of different fossils, it was explained how the different fossils found were placed in the “evolution branch”. This was in line with what I had learnt earlier during the French intensive class. I was particularly happy to see the almost complete fossils of Lucy, a Neandertal which lived about 2 million years ago, not because I had direct ancestry with her, but because her name was constantly mentioned during my classes. After this exhibition, I was more convinced that men and apes share common ancestry.

L-R: blue whale; Chi-Chi

L-R: 6 antlers in 6 yrs life of a raindeer; starfishes

L-R: men use umbrella, monkeys use banana leaves; men and monkeys alike use a stick to reach for their stuff that dropped into the river. r u more convinced that we share the same ancestors now? =D

L-R: Sequioa; fossils of Lucy

I left the museum after 3 hours and I have never felt so enriched going out of a museum before. Perhaps it was because all the explanations were in English!

Afterwards I took the tube to London Tower. Anyway, I purchased the Oyster Card yesterday morning. Osyter card refers to the EZlink version of London. It gives as much reduction as 2.50 pounds per journey. Each underground journey in London cost 4 pounds with an individual ticket, but with Osyter card, I only had to pay 1.50 pounds. Anyone thinking of going to London should definitely get this card.

Back to London Tower. This was another UNESCO World Heritage site, supposedly a place where many famous prisoners and war criminals had been imprisoned in the past. I took a look at the entrance fee. 13 pounds, forget it. Probably I would not understand the history anyway. So I made my way to the nearby Tower Bridge, evidently the most famous landmark of London. Unlike its predecessor (London Bridge which looked really dull), this bridge stood tall and elegant. As I walked closer and closer to the bridge, I could not stop marveling at the beauty of the structure and was even more amazed later on when I learnt about the concept of the bridge.

at the Tower of London

I paid 4.50 euros for the entrance to the exhibition area of the bridge as well as the engine room. So what did I learn from my trip here? The idea behind the bridge was to provide another linkway between the two sides of Thames which were starting to get really busy back then, while allowing huge ships to pass under the bridge at the same time. Hence, the idea of a bridge with the middle platform which could be raised was proposed. The engineering principles behind the lifting of the bridge were pretty simple as well, but the machines employed were all humungous in size!! Other features of the bridge include a 42 m high walkway which linked the two towers of the bridge, serving as a pedestrian walkway when the bridge has to be lifted up for longer periods. The two ends of the bridge were simply made up of trusses and chains forming a suspension bridge. I liked my visit here because the mechanism used involved engineering concepts that I have learnt in my course!

the Tower Bridge

L-R: on the tower bridge; view from the tower bridge

L-R: 42 m high walkway; London Bridge

Satisfied, I walked along the Thames River in the direction of Saint Paul’s Cathedral. Too bad it was already 5 pm as I reached there and the cathedral was closed. It was not that impressive anyway, but it was the largest church in London. I took a quick break people-watching at the steps of the cathedral and moved on to Covent Garden.

St Paul's Cathedral

Covent Garden was again on my visit list as I wanted to see what the apple market was like. Two days ago when I reached Covent Garden, it was already quite late in the evening and the market was closed. However, later on I found out that the apple market consisted of just souvenirs, cloths and accessories. Nothing really noteworthy. I had quite a bit of time in my hand so I decided to stay and watch a few more street performances. There was a young man who could walk on a rope and juggle 3 pins at the same time. Coolness. This time round however, I could not escape from donating because while I was busy taking videos, another man walked around to collect “payment”. Haha.

rope walking

Located nearby was the SOHO neighbourhood, famous for its pubs and bars as well as prostitution. I walked around the area on the way to Oxford street, but there was as good as nothing happening there. I could only see signboards telling passers-by to go up to the upper floors to check some girls out. Oxford Street itself was just bustling with many fashion shops (many were on sale), but obviously I was not that interested. I walked for less than 1 km and decided to turn back to grab some dinner. I settled for a Thai buffet takeaway for 4.50 pounds. Actually in London, food can get really cheap if you know where to find them.

I went back to the London Bridge before 20h. While waiting for the bridge to be lifted, I just sat down on a bench by the Thames, enjoying every minute of London which remained. And when the bridge was finally, it was a spectacular sight. Now I can boast to people that I have witnessed one of the greatest Victorian engineering masterpieces.

L-R: at night; the bridge being lifted

After 3 days, I realized that London was worthy of more days than that. It has been a pleasant 3 days, but it passed way too quickly. The weather has been on my side too. The temperature averaged between 5-7deg, and I considered this warm compared to Grenoble. In fact, I did not have to use my gloves at all.

Now, it is really a tough question if somebody asks me about my favourite city. London’s vibrancy, Amsterdam’s unique character or Barcelona’s warmth?

29 Dec 07 - London Day 2

Before I set off this morning, I bumped into Edgar, a hostel staff that checked me in and for the second time, he insisted that the best thing to do on a Saturday morning was to visit the market at Notting Hill. I was wondering why he rated it so highly, but when I reached there I understood immediately. This was the homeground of Portobello market, the largest antique market in the world. The antique shops are open everyday along the Portobello road, but the market only takes place once a week. The long road of Portobello was blocked; the atmosphere was relaxed on a sunny cheerful morning. Many of the antique products caught my eyes, notably the super old cameras and telescopes as well as the many ancient clocks and silverware. If you walk further down, you will find people selling vegetables and fruits as well as souvenir shops of course. I bought 5 t-shirts for my parents and 3 sisters because I felt they should share my traveling joy. =D Oh btw, the houses in the area were really nice (and of course, expensive). I notice that on one side of a stretch of houses, all the facades of the houses were painted in different colours. Not even one has the same colour; they will have different shades at the very least!

the antique stuff at Portobello market

this guy is sure flexible!

antique cameras and telescopes

I settled for a lunch at Portobello road in a Lebanese restaurant which offered buffet for 3 pounds. However, the idea of a buffet was pretty different from the ones in Singapore. For 3 pounds, I was given a tupperware-like plate in which I can dump as much food as I want in one single serving. Well, it was not too bad; I’d rather spend 3 pounds on this than on sandwiches.

L-R: Lebanese buffet; Notting Hill houses

After lunch, I made my way to Madame Tussaud’s wax museum. This museum houses the largest collection of wax statues of various celebrities as well as many important sports, art or political figures. To my horror, when I reached, the queue was quite long. In the queue, I asked one of the guys for the average waiting time and he told me he was guessing that today will be 2.5 hours!! I was like WTH… But since I was already there, I thought I might as well wait as it would probably be just an over-estimation. After 30 minutes, I was nearing the door so I thought the guy was giving me false estimate. To my further aghast, when I stepped in, I saw winding queue inside the building, winding up to the 2nd floor where the ticket booths can be found. OMG. It took me another 60 minutes before I could finally purchase my ticket.

The museum was so packed that it was almost impossible to walk around without bumping into other people. In fact, everyone was frantically taking photos with their favourite celebrities. I had to be thick-skinned and ask different people to help me take and in the process I wasted a lot of time because by the time I managed to get someone to help me take, the statues have already had new companies on their sides.

don't they just look real?

Most, if not all, of the wax statues were very delicately made, I daresay. The details of the wrinkles, the smile, the hair, the skin colour were all taken into account. On top of the statues, they also had many interesting entertainment, such as the the Spirit of London trail which took us through a trail of the different periods of English history. Also, there was a Chamber of Horror Live, where I had to go through this haunted house where real actors would scare us and come really close to us without touching. In another chamber, they had a short simulation of how guillotine was performed during the French revolution, not forgetting the wax head of Marie Antoinette and other royal heads.

more wax statues

and more...

Even Bollywood star is here...

left: the wax heads of the royal figures (rightmost belongs to Marie Antoinette)

and moree..

On hindsight, the only drawback for the whopping 26 pounds I paid for this attraction was the long queue and the poor crowd traffic control inside the museum. Anybody wishing to visit the museum should purchase a timed ticket online in advance, which allows one to get an instant access to the museum through a separate door.

I spent about 3 hrs inside Mme Tussaud’s and when I got out, it was already pitch dark. I walked towards Hyde Park where a Winter Wonderland was being held temporarily there until mid-January. The wonderland was a combination of a theme park and Christmas market. I took my dinner there (just simple german sausages) and walked around a little more around the park. Notably there were a lot of simulators in the theme park, such as the honey bee and snowman simulator. They also had a really cool haunted house and of course, an ice rink (which, in fact, can be found almost anywhere in London).

attractions in Winter Wonderland

Back in my room, I was invited by my 3 roommates who came from Bordeaux, France for tea/coffee. The chat was interesting and light as I had no stress of having to speak good French with them. The reason was because they were majoring in English so they understood my plight and when we could not understand each other, we could switch to our own preferred language to explain something.

3 roomies from Bordeaux