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