London Love

I was so looking forward to London.

Finally a English speaking city and to meet my aunt & uncle, who have offered much help and of course have been very generous.

Did you know that I had a chance to visit London 10 years ago?

I was asked to accompany my grandma to attend my aunt's wedding but I thought it's no fun to travel with grandma and gave up the chance.

I have since not stopped hating myself for doing so.

Anyway, there was a little drama + panic attack from Paris to London.

We were taking the 910am Eurostar train and were required to check in at least 30mins before boarding. I had said to leave at 8am but SOMEONE dilly dallied a little and we only checked out at 815am. Because there were no cabs outside the hotel, we had the receptionist call one for us. And it took another 15mins! My heart was beating so fast because I didn't want to miss the train. I was also pissed at SOMEONE for having bad time management.

When we finally reached the train station, we couldn't find the gate. Imagine us running around the station with our luggages + 2 hand carried - I hate the feeling because I almost missed a flight once. I was so nervous I couldn't answer the question posed by the officer at the check-in counter properly. He asked where I'm going after London and I told him what I'm doing in London. Ya, so duh...

After the little drama and panic attack, we embarked on 2ish hours journey to London, only to receive news that London tube is having a strike when we were reaching. Luckily Uncle Bruce & Auntie Audrey were there to pick us up. We wanted to take a cab but the queue was crazy. We took the tube instead and again, we were lucky the stations on strike didn't affect us.

But poor Mr. Grumpy gotta carry the two luggages as there are no escalators in the tube. It didn't help that the older folks were walking so fast it was almost difficult to catch up and the tubes were packed. We hardly have any time to catch our breath, to admire London and was quickly whisked away from point to point, until we reached the hotel.

Uncle Bruce (who got us Moulin Rouge tickets) paid for accommodation in London too and had us stay at Thistle Marble Arch for 4 nights.

We checked the rates and it's about S$200+ per night.

That's a lot of savings!

The room is kinda old but who's complaining when SHOPPING is just downstairs!

new look is just opposite! I discovered it in Singapore some time ago and am a member so you can imagine how happy I was.

Dorothy Perkins, Selfridge and some other local brands are just downstairs or around the corner.

Look at the busy street.

This was taken after a day of rushing, exploring the neighbourhood and shopping at Oxford & Bond Streets.

First stop was at new look and surprisingly, Mr. Grumpy bought more than I did.

I also bought my Mulberry and the Long Champs for our mothers on that day :)

Sure, lots of shopping can be done in London but a lot of on-sale items are winter wear which are of no use to me. The non-sale items are not any cheaper as compared to Singapore's and most of the brands are available here.

I think the most popular store is Primark because almost every shopper was seen carrying at least 1 bag of their stuff. I popped by for a while (because someone was getting bored) and bought a shirt at 8 pounds and a jacket at 10/12 pounds I think. The store is huge and I'm sure I wouldn't leave with just two items if I had stayed longer.

So there, day 1 in London was merely getting familiar with the area and shopping which was good enough. And it was even better when you came back to the hotel to channel surf, not because you are bored but because there are simply too many English channels to choose from. I managed to catch one of the episodes of Desperate Housewives' latest season and reruns of Friends!

We woke up to a rather sunny London - yes, we were very lucky - and I decided to wear my shorts with leggings!

Day 2 was meant for city tour and we chose to walk. Totally regretted doing so at the end of the day....

Marble Arch.

Seeing this made me happy because it means we were near hotel.

Hype Park.

I've never walked a park that huge!

I think we walked for an hour or so to reach Buckingham Palace.

Only to learn that changing of guard was not happening that day.

WTF right? We couldn't make it 'tomorrow' because we would be in Liverpool.

We stayed past 1130am hoping they changed their mind or someone made a mistake.

No, that didn't happen.
And so we made our way (by foot) to the Big Ben & London Eye.

Another park which I think is Green Park.

Need I say more? Big Ben & London Eye.

We got 'cheated' of 5 pounds there by a group of Russians (I think) who asked us to donate money for some children's charity. Beware and don't fall for it like we did.

Parliament House.

And then we started to find our way to Harrods.

Passing by....

A guard with his horse.

I was prepared to run if the horse decided to go crazy but I doubt I would react fast enough.

The horse was very nice though.

Another park which I cannot remember what.

Wellington Arch.

By then, I couldn't feel my legs... yet we gotta find Harrods.

Then we finally found it after getting a little lost.

I wondered why we wasted so much effort and time.

To me, things are too expensive and there's nothing much to see or buy.

We spent more than half a day walking to these places and guess what? We had to do it again for the return trip! We had wanted to take the tube but a single trip costs 4 pounds and we didn't want to pay for that. We or more so, I, wanted to give up during the return journey and take the bus but we couldn't get tickets at the bus stops - only some bus stops have ticketing machine. So I struggled and eventually made it back to the hotel with very sore feet. We should have heeded Auntie Audrey's advise to get the full day ticket but there isn't any if only in life isn't it?

After resting a bit, Auntie Audrey came to get us for dinner. We were supposed to meet Uncle Bruce at their favourite Italian restaurant near Chelsea and we got on the London bus for the first time.

My gu-gu (Auntie Audrey) and Uncle Bruce.

Poor Uncle Bruce had a bad fall at home a few days before we arrived and got himself 16 stitches! See the big bandage on his forehead?

Dinner at their favourite Italian restaurant wasn't as good as I expected but the magician there was the highlight of the day. He impressed me greatly like he did with the kids.

It was freezing by the time we finished dinner (remember me and my shorts - totally asking for it) and we took the bus back on our own. After walking the entire day, a bus ride is like the best thing ever.

So, day 2 in London was spent touring the city, conquering 3 huge parks by foot (to and fro no less!) and dinner with the folks.

Woke up early to a rather cold morning and we were warned it was going to rain that day.

It was Liverpool day and it would be colder there.

Saw this in the train :)

The big Liverpool fan was very excited.

At Liverpool Lime Street Station after a 3hrs journey.

Got some brochures, hoping they would tell us how to walk there.

Yes, we had no map, no idea what to do beside the stadium tour and because it was much colder in Liverpool, we cabbed to the stadium.

First London cab ride in London.

The fan shopped at the store.

The excited fan again.

Custom made carpet.

Luckily he didn't suggest that for our new place.

The stadium. Very cool! Even for a non Liverpool fan, yours truly.

The press room.

Changing room.

I like their tagline: You'll Never Walk Alone

If I remember correctly, this is for good luck if you can touch it and also to intimidate the opponents when they are going through the door to the field.

I got goosebumps when they played the Liverpool song.

Imagine we were watching a real match!

Too bad the timing didn't work for us.

Before we booked our trip, Mr. Grumpy checked that the Chelsea vs Liverpool match was on 6 Nov, Sat so we decided to leave on the 7th. A few months later, we learnt that the match was rescheduled to 7th instead. Then a week before our trip, he checked that there's a match on Thursday but train tickets and stadium tour were purchased for the Friday and we couldn't change anything. It was just not meant to be. Then again, it's not like tickets were that easily available.

After the 1hr guided stadium tour, it was the museum tour.

I thought we would spend quite a bit of time there but we left within half an hour.

With a lot of time to kill, we had wanted to tour Liverpool. But without a map and with the rain, we cabbed to one of their malls instead. It was nothing but boring!

We had lunch at one of the pubs - Tess Rileys and I had the best vegeterian lasagna ever!
The locals are very friendly and an old man (who looked drunk) chatted with us while some guys offered us free beer.

After lunch, we had about 5hrs to kill and we went to one of the malls' internet cafe.

It was so much cheaper as compared to the hotel's but we were chased out of the mall at 530pm because it was closing. Bummer.

And we spent the next 2ish hours bumming at the station's cafe.

We tried to get on the earlier train but couldn't because ours is the e-ticket.

We wasted a good 5 hours in cold and rainy Liverpool but I bet Mr. Grumpy felt that it was worth it.

Day 4 in London was Camden Market, London Bridge and fireworks at night.

We learnt our lesson and bought ourselves full day tickets.

Travelling was a breeze.

It's like chatuchak but in pounds.

Camden is like the punks' heaven.

Not really my type but worth checking out.

London bridge is NOT falling down...

So much so for singing the song since young, I finally saw it in person.

We only managed Camden & London Bridge before we called it a day as we were meeting Auntie Audrey at 430pm. And it was Day 12 of the trip, you can't blame us for being tired from all those travelling and walking.

On the way back to the hotel, I found bird shit on my jacket. Then jeans and then bag.

Don't ask me how, where, when because I was clueless. It was just disgusting and thank goodness it was the second last day. I changed the jeans but not the jacket because it's the thickest among all. Don't judge! I washed it ok.

Having experienced how cold London's nights were, I wore 4 layers that night.

Auntie Audrey learnt that we did not visit some of the must-go places and decided to give us an hour private tour. It was a Saturday night - tubes were crowded and changing of lines takes up time although it's just a few stations away. But, we managed 3 places in an hour.

Covent Garden.

Chinatown.

Trafalgar Square.

It was mad rush to touch and go but she's right, at least we can say we have been to these places. After the 1hr private tour, we settled for dinner at another favourite Chinese restaurant of theirs. Second Chinese meal in the 2 weeks trip :)

Then we walked for 20 to 30mins? (did so much walking I cannot really remember) to Uncle Bruce's friend's apartment at Chelsea to watch the fireworks!

We were celebrating Bonfire Night - a night to commemorate the capture of Guy Fawkes who failed to burn the Parliament House. Ya, what a reason to celebrate huh?

The fireworks were spectacular.

But getting back to the hotel was a pain.

There were so many people and each bus who came by were packed.

We had to walk (again) to the bus stop further down and surprisingly, there was an empty bus waiting there. We had the entire bus to ourselves.

And that's how we ended our last night in London.

Uncle Bruce came by at 10am to send us to the airport the next morning and again, we did a city tour in his car. We only reached the airport at 12pm and we should check in for our 150pm flight but guess what? I had to get my tax refund and the queue was long. Those in front of me had stacks of receipts while I only had four. I saw the clock ticking away and was panicking (again) we would be late to check in. I was finally done at 1245pm and it was more queuing and waiting after that.

Gotta queue to get into the waiting area, gotta wait for boarding and gotta wait further for plane to take off because the flight was full and there were some screw ups with the seats - some mothers were separated from their kids and they insisted on changing seats, blah blah blah... 'Lucky' us, those kids were sitting beside and near us. But I survived the London to Dubai flight without a wink of sleep.

Because of the flight delay, our 1hr plus transit time was greatly reduced and again, we were rushing for the connecting flight back to Singapore. The flight was equally packed and we were seated between two old men. I didn't go to the toilet at all because they were sleeping so soundly I couldn't bear to wake them up. I didn't eat because it made me sick and I tried to sleep a bit and of course, I survived that 7hrs journey too.

Reached Singapore to have my mum welcome us :)

Very relieved I brought ourselves and the four precious bags home safely - it's scary to hear of stolen or lost bags.

We also brought back wonderful memories and experiences that I'm sure we will not forget.

We particularly love Paris for the things we get to see and shopping (for me) and London for how it made us feel safe and comfortable and shopping too (for me).

We certainly don't mind a second time and that includes Rome too.

So there, I'm done with our Europe trip updates and I wonder when's the next...