London, London

[elusivek]

This post has been long overdue… but hey, at least I am FINALLY posting.

Photos have been uploaded to my Flickr 2016.London album. I'll choose a couple to go with the post here ;-)

Under LJ-cuts so as not to clog up your feed :-)

Day 0
13-January

So it was my birthday the day before, and I went to work (I usually take my birthday off, but due to this trip, I decided to work yesterday)

My travel pal P brought me cake from Kafka Sweets and Gourmandises (a local new-ish posh café/cake shop) though! Lovely dear! Thank you for thinking of me :D

Nothing much, we boarded the ferry that goes direct to the Hong Kong International Airport, then boarded our plane. As usual, I make weird observations. I’ve got a question on in-flight toilet usage: I see a lot of people taking off their shoes, which I understand. But they go to the toilet barefoot or in their socks… erm…??? I can still understand when it’s in the beginning of the flight, as the toilets are still clean (to the naked eye), but mid-flight, or by the end of the 13-hour flight, it turns icky! Kids or men who can’t seem to aim, toothpaste, and any other icky stuff… and they still go in barefoot??

I take off my shoes in-flight, but I put them back on when I go to the toilet… it’s just… yucky *shivers*

Another stupid habit I have is – I don’t ever put my seat back. Which means that the person in front of me will always put their seat back, and when meals are served, they decide they don’t want to eat and don’t put the seat back upright, then I have no space to put the meal tray out. :-/ I don’t put the seat back because I know it’s going to inconvenience the person behind me. I guess I should stop being so considerate…

Day 1
14-January

HELLO LONDON! It’s not even 5am! Good Morning~~~!

The accommodations we got was an apartment at Maple Street, but check in doesn’t start until 2pm. So we have to kick the bags into storage. Kings Cross, hello! Hello Platform 9-and-3/4! Went hunting for breakfast at Kings Cross.

With our bellies full, we went out to get ourselves a UK SIM-card. Once done, I called the apartment place and managed to bring our check in time forward to 12 noon. Next on the list – British Museum! The reason for it is to witness the exhibit of Saint Young Men (a new favorite manga of P's). After spending a good part of the morning at the British Museum, we passed by the Cartoon museum and went in to have a look at the store only. As we were making our way out along Museum Street, we saw a Thomas FARTHING store. Oh my god, everything was so pretty in there. The prices were even prettier (but of course), but it was nice getting an eyeful :-D

Time was short so we had to rush back, but then The Atlantis Bookshop caught our eye (the thing is, we were still stuck on that street, LOL). Back to Kings Cross, pick up the bags, back to the Tube, stopped at Warren Street and got to the apartments.

We forgot about the possibility of a building not having elevators… and we got the top floor apartment! 5^th floor, thank you! We had a grand time lugging our almost 20KG luggage each!

So, after freshening up, off we went again! We went to Covent Gardens, it looked pretty much the same as 7 years ago… We were famished so we went to Laduree for their afternoon tea. After some really weird food-ordering process, we walked around for a bit more, then left for Brixton to see the David Bowie memorial wall thingie there. We just caught the wall before the sun set for the day, then we went to Tesco’s to see if we could get any food.

Nothing looked appealing, so we went back to Soho but… apparently we caught the Lumiere Festival thingie going on. It was packed!

We went to another Tesco’s and got something for dinner. We slept really well.

Day 2
15-January

We went to St. Paul’s, but upon seeing the 18GBP entry, we decided to just visit the shop. BUT the shop disappeared, or they were renovating, so we made our way to the Millennium Bridge, passed by The Globe, and went to Borough Market. Along the way there was the Southwark Cathedral where we decided to go in for a stroll (the entrance got changed from 7 years ago), and the priest there caught us for a chat. We tried to look for Doorkins Magnificat but we got no such luck. Bought some souvenirs, and went back out to Borough Market.

Food food food. Yum yum and yum. We bought quite a bit of stuff around there then sat down for lunch (forgot where, but I think it was the Whiskey Ginger or somewhere near that).

Hot Apple Juice in cold London = Lifesaver!

Next we walked back to the Tate Modern, visited the free exhibits (I'll never understand modern or contemporary art), then took the Tate Boat and went to Tate Britain. I think P bought something at the gift shop, then we left.

We made the walk along the Millbank then Abingdon Street to Westminster & Big Ben (I don’t remember where I read it, but apparently the bells at the Big Ben are made from the metal of canons from Macau – I haven’t verified the information either, so don’t take my word for it).

We ended up in Piccadilly Circus (again) and after meandering for a bit and eventually had dinner at one of the Wahacas. Then we made the slow walk back home to Maple Street.

Coming to think of it, we are a little crazy to have made it to so many places, aren’t we?

Day 3
16-January

So… we woke up and made breakfast then headed over to South Kensington to the Natural History Museum. It was a quick walk as both P and I have already been there; the new part for both of us was that big egg-like thing, the Darwin Centre. Then we crossed the road to V&A. Amazing exhibits. Next on we headed towards Harrods, and stopped by the Oratory Church of St. Philip Neri.

Harrods was… okay… It was packed. We bought 2 cakes for take out, then left to look for lunch. Found lunch at The Bunch of Grapes, and then sat on a public bench right across the street facing the V&A, and ate our cakes.

As if that wasn’t enough cakes, we went to have more cake at La Patisserie des Reves… and after that we still (again) went to Maitre Choux for more pastries, for take away.

Then we went to Ladbroke Groove to the Portobello Market, where I bought that 1932 copy of Black Beauty for 41 pounds… It was late already then so once we reached the end of the street we walked the way back. We passed by the Notting Hill Bookshop which my aunt had always said that I should go (since the last time I went to London, she’s been asking me if I’ve been there), she says it’s a very nice bookshop, and blah blah… but… I thought it a pretty normal bookshop?

We passed by a very nice very cute cookie store, Biscuiteers and OMG they had dog cookies! I may have gone overboard in shopping for my dogs and my friends’ dogs…

Eventually we met up with P’s friend, a designer/artist from Macau who relocated to London (who incidentally went to Uni with my sister, but she thought that was me, then I clarified and it was all laughs – Macau is indeed such a small place). She’s a very good artist, check out her pastry art Enya’s Art of Patisserie. We had dinner at Jamie’s Italian at Westfield, Shepherd’s Bush. Hm… honestly? Nothing special. Soon we left and went our own way back home.

Day 4
17-January

Aldgate East! In search of Brick Lane Market,  we had coffee at Nude Espresso. We didn’t shop at all, but it was nice seeing all those shops and their wares… and the street art too!

There was a Black Cab Coffee – cute idea! I had enough coffee for the day so I didn’t try their coffee, but P did.

In our quest to search for lunch, we went to Aladin Curry House. I don’t usually eat Indian food as I can’t eat spicy stuff, but we asked for less spicy and the food was delish! And the naan bread was great!

Eventually, we did some walking around and somehow ended up at Spitalfields Market. I managed to buy some nifty souvenirs here. Finally, we left via Liverpool station and went to Oxford Circus. By that time, shops were closing, and we had nothing else on the itinerary to do for the day, so we tried to get to a cinema to watch The Danish Girl. However, the first 2 cinemas we went to, we missed the entry time by 5 minutes, finally, we managed to get to a cinema (Picturehouse Central) where we got in just on time.

It was a little weird to watch a movie without Chinese subtitles. The screen is so clean! (because, no subtitles)

We had planned to skip dinner but then decided to try out Vapiano. It was an interesting concept where you talk to the chef while he cooks, but the whole table seating system is really abysmal. That would never work in China (with rude people who don’t care for the queue/rules/politeness/etc).

Day 5
18-January

First stop to Paddington Station to see Paddington Bear! (NOT!) Well, we did go see Paddington Bear, but just because we had time to kill. We went to Windsor to see the Windsor Castle. The Apartments were closed, so we visited the other things. The Dollhouse was cute.

Soon we returned to London, went to Westminster, and did my happy walk down St. James Park. My obsession with St. James Park is from Good Omens haha XD

This was an easy day – we walked down St. James Park to Buckingham Palace, did some touristy photo taking, walked all the way back but then turned in another road and somehow ended at the National Gallery, but it was closed by then. Stopped for a while at Notes Coffee, walked through Covent Gardens again, had dinner (forgot restaurant name), and visited the Moomin shop.

Day 6
19-January

We went to a cemetery on this day. So we headed to Highgate, had a delightfully delicious breakfast (Eggs benedict!) at Bistro Laz, and they had really interesting decors, then walked a long long way to Highgate Cemetery. We paid the entry fee, and we were like the only 2 people visiting. Eventually we see another 2 Chinese people, but we each did our own thing. We saw the Karl Marx tomb, and when we left, the 2 Chinese stood there taking lots of photos.

So we walked all along the whole thing, and, because the Karl Marx tomb was just a later-built thing, we went hunting for the original Karl Marx grave or tombstone. We found it, walked around more, saw 2 little foxes in a mating dance (yes, inside the cemetery), and eventually made our way back out… and the 2 Chinese tourists were still taking photos of the Karl Marx tomb… how many angles do you need to take of it?? And we never thought the Chinese would so idolize Karl Marx? I shall refrain from contemplating further.

Next stop to The Strand. There was a helpful info guy that suggested a route to us. I suspect it was because this guy sort of startled me when he approached us that I lost my Oyster Card :-(

So we walked around Seven Dials, then headed down to the Savoy for the Thames Foyer Afternoon Tea. It was DELICIOUS!!!!! The service was FABULOUS!!! By the end of this trip, I would come to the conclusion that the Savoy served the best afternoon tea, never mind the price.

After that, we went to the National Gallery, after seeing all the exhibits, but not finding the one exhibit I wanted to see again, we had to sit down so that I could search for the information. I even went to the exact same room, but apparently they’ve moved the exhibits around. I was looking for the Execution of Lady Jane Grey by Paul Delaroche. It doesn’t show on the computer screen, but seeing the painting for real and the light reflecting from that dress… amazing!

We made a dash to Kingly Court as P wanted to buy some stuff from It’s Something Hell’s,  and then we had to make the mad dash to Queen’s Theatre for our show of Les Miserables. It was great!

Day 7
20-January

We wanted to go to Camden Town, but I had to grit my teeth and buy a new Oyster card *sniff* I really liked the tourist version Oyster card because of the card face, not to mention I had just topped it up with 20pounds… So I had to put in money again to get a new Oyster card.

Camden Market was interesting, we arrived a little too early so we walked along the road and found a café. I didn’t write down the name but after scrutinizing the map, it’s The Bowery. After having our morning coffee, but no bagels, we went back to Camden Market. I think it’s a little changed as I remember there was a HUGE horse head… so that was gone, many of the horse sculptures were gone too.



So after making the requisite walk-around Camden Lock Market (I think that was it), we went out to the docks to hunt for some food. After that, browsing at the bookshop, where the owner talked to us for quite a long, long, long, long, *yawn* looooonnggg time, we went our merry way.

The British Library! We went to the Alice store and the Alice exhibits. While I waited for my friend (I went through all the exhibits with ease – I followed the flow haha), I went to snoop around the stamps collection and they do have a Macau collection of stamps. I wanted to wander up into the shelves and such, but I would have had to register and settle some formalities, so I figured, maybe next time.

Next stop, Sanderson for the Sanderson’s Mad Hatters Afternoon Tea. It was all very cute, and nice, but Savoy had a better service and the food tasted better.

By this time of my trip, I had noticed that everyone is always somehow reading something. I saw a fat guy walking 1 dog on the leash, and 1 dog off the leash, and then he was holding a book and reading while he walked slowly. Reading level = 100.

Finally headed to Her Majesty’s Theatre for the Phantom Of The Opera show. Honestly, I never really liked Phantom… I basically only like 2 tracks: the actual theme Phantom Of The Opera, and Masquerade. I actually liked the Les Mis show better :-)

Day 8
21-January

We had a particular place in mind to get our breakfast. The Attendant, and the particular one we went to was the one on Fitzrovia. Apparently it was a former Victorian Public Toilet.

From there, we walked to Marble Arch, eventually reaching Hyde Park, saw the Reformer’s Tree Mosaic, made a lot of swan friends, one pesky not-quite-yet-adult swan tried to eat my knee (meh, see the grey one above, that's Bruce). Made our way to the Serpentine Gallery, onwards to Kensington Gardens, killed some time looking at people walking their dogs and a guy feeding squirrels (or chipmunks… what’s the difference, really?)…

For our lunch/tea we went to Sketch, which was pretty nifty. The grilled cheese sandwich was heavenly. The most interesting thing at Sketch was the toilets though.

Took the Tube and went all the way to Bermondsey to walk along the other side of the river (Thames?), visited the Design Museum. By the time we left, it was night and dark, so we walked onwards towards Tower Bridge, and crossed it, walked past Tower of London, and after trying to investigate a bit of the public bus system, decided to just go onwards to Tower Hill station and make it an early night home.

Day 9
22-January

Rainy day is rainy, and we went to the London Dungeon. After investigating the combo passes, we decided to get a 2-entry pass for the London Dungeon and Madame Tussaud’s. It was, surprisingly, really fun at the Dungeon! There were corridors that smelled of cat piss, but then we figured maybe at some point in time some people did get scared sh*tless, so yeah… I think my favorite part of the Dungeon was the Judge Room (you’re guilty of everything haha) which was more funny than scary, as for the scary part, I’d say it’s at the bar where the waitress would disappear and some knife wielding shadow would pop out in-between the lightning flashes. A family group that actually sat at the table got the biggest fright. Poor kid must have gotten scarred for life.

When it was all said and done, we left, and the rain started to pick up. To hide from the rain, we ran across to St. Thomas Hospital and decided to kill some time at the Florence Nightingale Museum. It was nice. A lot of kids milling around… we persevered. At the museum shop, P found a book that she noted the name of and later bought it through Amazon… I was itching to get it too but in the end, I need shelf space, so maybe in the future… The book, and here comes all our weird tastes come out for your scrutinizing… Beyond the Dark Veil, it’s a post-mortem photography book.

Next on the list of afternoon teas was at Fortnum and Mason. Let me just say, I love Earl Grey Tea, but the Fortnum & Mason line of Smokey Earl Grey is terrible. The afternoon tea itself had a sweet menu and a savory menu – the savory is terrible (some kind of seafood or something scone just doesn’t make it).

This is also where I dropped my camera and busted the lens. Oh, I didn’t cry, despite being really upset. But crying wouldn’t help anyway, so I just suck it all up and well, enjoyed the rest of the trip. Behold, the last photo my camera took... (luckily, it was just the lens that busted, I've bought a new lens by now, so I can use it again)

Strolling through Hatchard’s significantly improved my mood and turned me into a mercilessly happy Kat, but yet again I didn’t buy any books. But bookshops, or bookshops that look so traditional and old and musty (one part of it) can just make my life better. Then we passed by Waterstones, supposedly with 3 or 4 stories of books… but we were in a hurry to have dinner with P’s friend (another girl) at one of the Vietnamese Kitchen (now I forgot which one of them). Candy’s a really sweet girl, she was a barista in Macau and now decided to study patisserie in London.

Fun night, good food, and soon we had to go home…

Day 10
23-January

If you think lugging your luggage going up 3 or 4 flights of stairs is difficult, try lugging it back down, with all the extra weight in shopping and souvenirs. Christ. It was brutal. Again we put the luggage away at Kings Cross, this time the Harry Potter store had an Alan Rickman memorial thing outside. Can’t believe he died while I was in London…

Madame Tussauds. I suspect P wasn’t exactly too happy to visit this (now that I think back, I think she wanted the combo ticket to be for the Dungeon and the London Eye). We had our fun. (Side note, checking the website now they have a Sherlock Holmes Experience and I WANT TO GOOOOOOOOOO! WHHHHYYYYYY????) *sniff*

P may have started to get a bit short with me but I insisted to walk along Baker Street and eventually ended up at the Sherlock Holmes Museum. I said I don’t need to see the museum as I’ve been to already, before Sherlock Holmes turned back into A Thing (thanks, BBC Sherlock), but I wanted to see what kind of merchandise they carried now at the shop. Which was a good thing too, as the interior is very nicely decorated (I suppose victorian-esque?) and P seemed to love it. I bought a Sherlock Teddy (cute!) but ever since BBC Sherlock, I now like John Watson more than Sherlock himself John Watson (because of Martin Freeman), so I bought this Sherlock Homes’ Elementary Puzzles supposedly written by John Watson (of course I’m not that gullible, but let me have my fangirl moment). So now I have a John Watson something and I have a Sherlock Teddy.

We were this near to having fish and chips at Holmes Fish and Chips but then seeing the dingy shop front and empty shop interior, we decided the safe bet was to go next door to Bill’s just next door. Probably the best snap-second-decision EVER! The brownie cake was delicious!

After that we walk around Marylebone, passed by Daunt Books, another bookshop that made me really happy (Google maps say this time it’s Edwardian), had more cake at the Patisserie des Reves cake shop there in Marylebone, and then, finally, went back to Kings Cross to pick up our luggage, and made our way to Heathrow………………………

The flight back was uneventful. Apparently we returned to Hong Kong the day it hailed. It was actually colder in Hong Kong on that day than our days in London. Luckily, ferry services weren't interrupted, and we managed to return to Macau without incident.

And that, my friends, was my 10 days in London.

Comments

[loveshanny.livejournal.com]

WOW!!! What an adventure!!! I loved reading your trip with the pictures!

Kings Cross. I would be in a dream to see that! Was it just like the HP books? I was so sad to hear when Alan Rickman died I feel like it just happened but it was in January. Time goes by so fast.

How neat a Sherlock Homes Museum. I'm way jealous!

Loved this post! Thanks for sharing!

[notte0.livejournal.com]

I didn't post it here (coz the photo is on the mobile phone camera, and I couldn't find it now) but it's just a blank wall with a trolley, half-going through the wall. The Harry Potter shop is interesting with all the goodies. However I got to see some of the actual products and thought the production a bit inferior or cheap. Say for example, I've heard about the Harry Potter chess-set, and I had contemplated that, but then when I saw the actual product, it's just mostly cardboard paper material only so....

I would have gone to see the museum again if I were alone, but my friend was getting short with me and there was a queue. Ah... 6 years ago, before BBC Sherlock, there was no queue at all... I wonder if they've put some new exhibits in view of the new Sherlock series.

[loveshanny.livejournal.com]

The items might have been a bit cheaper so that they can sell more items. But I know what you mean. Why spend money on something that looks cheap. You want it to represent the HP series it better look good.

I went to Universal HP in Orlando and I bought some items but I got a lanyard, some stamps, a nice glass, and some candy but that was it because some of the items just weren't great quality like you stated.

I find the lore of Sherlock to be interesting. Yeah I'm sure the show made it so it had long lines! :/

Still I'm totally JEALOUS!!

[katemacetak.livejournal.com]

It looks like a lovely trip! So much good food and interesting sights.
I'm sad that I didn't make it to the Sherlock Holmes museum when I was there. Next time!

And ew, I would never go in an airplane bathroom without shoes. Would they go barefoot in a store bathroom? Because it's the same level of publicness.

[notte0.livejournal.com]

yes! Next time! Madame Tussauds will have a permanent Sherlock Holmes thing starting June, then there's also some night-time only detective game thing (but I'm not sure if that will be permanent or not)

London, keep that in mind, I'LL BE BACK!

[magic-treehouse.livejournal.com]

Blimey! Your trip basically covers what I've managed to do in ten years of visiting London! In my defence I've never been for a ten day stretch.

That exhibit about Saint Young Men is really interesting. The British Museum tend to do stuff like and I feel like I should check more often. A few years ago there was a specially commissioned manga set in the Museum itself. They had a good exhibit about the making of it and I bought a copy while I was there.

I'm going to London on June so I'm hoping to fill in a few of the things on my list that I've still not managed to do.

[notte0.livejournal.com]

enjoy your trip in june :-)

[carriea31.livejournal.com]

I do not understand going in to the restroom of an airplane with no shoes on AT ALL. That seems like just asking to catch some type of disease. Yuck.

[notte0.livejournal.com]

I agree with the yuckiness factor. I just don't get it...

[sayuri2023.livejournal.com]

Awesome pictures, thanks for sharing!! Glad you had fun on this trip :)

[notte0.livejournal.com]

thanks! I guess next time I should cut the whole thing and not cut it by days, it's still awfully long!