Had a lunch appointment today with a friend (hi there! *wave*). After a long thinking process and YM discussions we finally agreed to eat at Ministry of Food at Marina Square.

Variety-wise it was quite limited, the choices were salad, sushi, bento, ramen and desserts. We ordered salmon cutlet maki and tan tan ramen for main course, unagi sushi and salmon sushi for side dish, macha imo for dessert.

Tan tan ramen was satisfyingly tasty. Salmon cutlet maki was good with generous sesame topping, but it was just like eating rice with fried salmon. the mini-sized sushi was so-so. the best was their macha imo, apparently the restaurant's must try.

According to the description that came along with the dessert, it is a marriage between hot fried sweet potato and cold hokkaido soft ice cream dessert. As hokkaido red bean was also included, the best way was then to scoop a little bit of the sweet potato, ice cream and red bean and indulge!

For drinks, the default was hot green tea for 80 cents. No questions asked, no choices given, everyone's served a cup of green tea once seated. Their ambience was alright, although it's quite cramped, with disturbing noises came out from the kitchen area once in a while. Service was good.

Their membership is $10 for 2 years which comes with 10% discounts and cheaper daily set meals. But I didn't sign up as I'd rather try out other makan places. There are so many japanese eateries out there!

Did some window shopping for a while before heading home. Nice to finally meet you! :)

an interesting quiz: a spelling bee for regular folks.

"some of these seemingly easy-to-spell words have even stumped national spelling bee contestants."

upon completion of the 2-day training, the south african instructor distributed the certifications by calling out our names one by one. he told us first that no one has taught him how to read chinese names. but he managed to call all names perfectly until... yep, until he came across my name.. hahaha.. I knew it. but to be fair I couldn't pronounce my name that was written there either, since the crucial letter was typed wrongly.

after a week full of meetings and trainings, it's time to rejuvenate with a free spa session! I guess I have a soft spot for free stuff, so I okay-ed the invitation, although I knew I'd be subjected to a sales talk.

it was actually a 30-min back massage, more towards balinese style. the sales person did try his best to make me purchase the package, but I could really tell that he's really sincere and I did feel bad to decline. then he brought with him his colleague who again tried to convince me.

he: "isn't that a bottega bag?" (pointing to my bag which I put on the chair, suggesting that if I could afford that bag, why did I say the package was expensive?)
me: "nope, it's a China bag."
:))
he: "but you still paid for it, right?"
me: "no, my sister bought it for me."
:))
he then quickly changed his tactic and asked me if I really never buy anything for myself.
:))

[Europe Trip] On visiting Venice

Arrived in Venezia Santa Lucia station late in the evening. Made our way to our hotel which was near the train station. This one was satisfying, with marble floor, comfy queen bed and spacious bedroom. Although we're using a shared bathroom and toilet, they were really clean.

Walked along the Grand Canal, and then navigated through the city's maze. Their roads were narrow passageways with limited lightings, it could be scary at night, and people could easily get lost.

Venice definitely had interesting city landscape. Its buildings were built close to one another with passageways in between, many of them were leading to dead-ends. The buildings were normally using bricks and some were not even painted. Some walls were painted in bright colors like yellow, orange or red. Most of them had green window panes that were opened in the middle and folded to the left and to the right, black metal bars under the window that hold small flower boxes. Pretty!

Breakfast was available at additional charge of €5, and it comprised of only hot drink, juice, bread rolls with jam and butter, and some biscuits. As we wanted to have more time exploring the city, we ate some bread at the table and carried the rest with us.

Dropped by S. Maria di Nazareth church which was located very near to the train station. It's a beautiful church, with delicately crafted marbles, statues and pillars for its altar and surrounding chapels.

Took the vaporetto (water bus) to Rialto station and then walked to Piazza San Marco. This place was packed with tourists. There were a lot of pigeons who were busy flocking into whoever had spare food to offer them. No bags were allowed, so we put our bags first in the designated area. The basilica looked depressing due to the bronze and black colors used for its altar and pillars. Entrance was free, but it's only to the main area (nave and small chapels). Additional charges were imposed for entry to the back of the altar, to the treasury and the upper level.

Next, we went to the basilica's bell tower. Elevator was provided to carry tourists to the top floor (10th level) to enjoy the sight of Venice city from high above.

From there we took vaporetto to a nearby church, S. Maria della Salute, but too bad it was closed at that time. We walked to Peggy Gugenheim museum, decided not to go in, walked further, bought 2 slices of pizza for lunch.

Took vaporetto again to Gardinia station, and walked around the garden. Not that impressed as there were not many flowers around. After further walk, stumbled upon many dead-ends, we finally found S. Pietro di Castello church. Entrance was not free and we had a brief peek (payment was to be made inside the church) and thought that it did not look that great so we didn't go in.

Next, we went to Lido area, curious to see the beach but didn't manage to find it as the map that we had was not sufficient. It's a free map, with a lot of advertisements that covered some places in the map. They have real roads with cars and buses and bicycles in Lido. We took route A bus for a loop around the island but didn't find the beach. That place didn't feel like Venice, it's just like other 'normal' cities.

We went to Dorsoduro area and had dinner at Pier-Dickens Inn Restorante. We ordered Sausage & Mushroom Risotto, it's superb! Risotto was quite troublesome to prepare, I guess, that's why most restaurants served it only when it's ordered by a minimum of 2 guests. It's expensive, though, and despite the big plate it was only in one thin layer. But it's really good, buttery cheesy sauced rice with pieces of meat and mushroom. Yum!

A useful advice that I got from the internet: when you see anything that you like in Venice, you better just buy it. Do not think that you can always buy it the next time you pass by that shop, as you probably never will.

Three words for Venice: unique, charming, romantic

ooops.. I've been tagged by lair of eilrig since 21 May and only found out about it today.. hehe.. sorry! haven't done much blog-walking these days due to the thousands holiday photos I've finally managed to sort and rename and select. uploading still in progress, though, as I've reached this month's upload limit already.

rules:
1. link back to the person who tagged you
2. post this rules on your blog
3. share six unimportant things about yourself
4. tag six people at the end of the entry

alright. the six unimportant things about myself:
- I don't eat pineapple as it is because of its weird aftertaste, except roasted pineapple served in brazilian churrascaria :)
- I once swallowed 2 bubblegums at one go
- I'm a tea person, not a coffee person
- I don't enjoy clubbing
- I like asking sales people whether they themselves buy and use whatever products/services they're trying to sell to me
- I always wear pants to office simply because it'd be too cold to wear a skirt

I'd like to tag: purpletulips, poormummy, vmchan and pat

[Europe Trip] On visiting Munich and Füssen

Left Amsterdam Centraal station at 8.32pm on a night train sleepers carriage. The room was super small and compact, measuring about 1.5 x 2 metres. It fitted 2 bunk beds, a wash basin with mirror, a ladder, a folded table and some space to put our bags. But they had quite a big toilet with shower too.

Early in the morning we were woken up by a central alarm. Soon afterwards, breakfast was distributed in boxes - coffee/tea, butter croissant, baguette with butter and jam. Managed to gulp down our food and packed our stuff just before the train reached Munchen HBF at 7.20am.

We walked to our next hostel, somewhere along the street opposite the train station. Left our backpacks there and immediately went out for a walk. Munich was freezing cold in the morning. Too bad we didn't have termometer with us, I believed it was below 10 degrees celcius.

Walked around HBF area while waiting for a train to Füssen. The public spaces in Munich was filled with big flower pots with various beautiful flowers. Here and there we could find fresh fruit sellers, they normally sold strawberries and asparagus. I loved the strawberries, they're fresh, ripe and tasted great.

Train to Füssen departed on 8.52am. Somehow it didn't occur to us that we could use our Eurail pass for this journey. And we didn't know that the day pass sold separately (Bayern card) was much cheaper than the normal train ticket too. We bought train ticket for Munich-Füssen trip on a machine. When inspected, the conductor gave us a strange look. I was thinking, oh no, we'll get fined! But he said 'no good, no good'.. then he gave us a brochure about the Bayern card which costs half as expensive as the ticket we bought. Wah! And then afterwards we realized that we could have used our Eurail pass with no extra costs! *bang heads against the wall*

Journey to Füssen took 2 hours. Upon arrival we took bus that connects the train station to the village. From there we bought tickets to the Neuschwanstein castle. We gave Hohenschwangau castle a miss too, as what other tourists normally did, as we didn't think we'd have enough time. Furthermore, a castle was normally better to be admired from outside, although the inside could be no less admirable.

From the ticket office we had 3 options to reach the castle: by bus, by horse carriage or on foot. We took the bus up to Marienbrucke (Mary's bridge). The bridge was built for her as a birthday gift from the Bavaria King, as she enjoyed hiking but couldn't cross to the other end without a bridge. From the bridge, the spectacular view of Neuschwanstein castle and its surrounding areas could be captured and admired. It was indeed magnificent! No wonder that the castle is the most photographed building in Germany, inspired and appeared in lots of fairytale movies.

From Marienbrucke it was another 15 min on foot to the castle's entrance. When ticket was bought, a time slot was allocated, at which visitor can enter the castle. In the entrance, digital display announced the serial number which allowed only certain group of tourists to enter at each specific time.

The castle itself was incomplete, so the tour was quite fast as it was conducted only in the completed rooms: the living room, bedroom, throne hall, singers' hall. My favorite part was the grotto, it looked so real with water and small garden inside. Too bad phototaking was not allowed. The singers' hall was still used upto now for performances. Our tour guide said that it carried voices so well they can be heard throughout the castle. One of the tourists took the advice and tried singing Amazing Grace, haha..

All in all I was really impressed, it's an amazing castle with beautiful paintings and detailed carvings, complete with stunning view of the alps, lakes, pine trees, waterfalls and the neighbouring Hohenschwangau castle.

But it has a tragic story. King Ludwig II who built the castle only stayed there for half a year before he was declared insane and found dead together with his psychiatrist. The exact circumstances were still a mystery. Then the castle was taken over by Americans during World War II. The family sold a lot of its valuables, which explained the "empty" look.

Satisfied with our phototakings, we then had lunch at a restaurant in the castle vicinity. Ordered sausages and mashed potato. Took train back to Munich in the afternoon and went out for a walk. Visited Karlsplatz, Frauenkirche (Cathedral of our Blessed Lady), Marienplatz and Viktualienmarkt.

The architecture of the buildings that surrounded Marienplatz gave the place a grand look during the day, but a scary and gloomy look at night. We had dinner at Viktualienmarkt. Everyone there was drinking beer by the litre. I couldn't believe how big their mugs were.. they're HUGE! I couldn't imagine how busy the city would be during Octoberfest.

Three words for Munich: safe, pretty.. and what else? beery? hehe..

[Europe Trip] On visiting Amsterdam

Arrived at Amsterdam Centraal station at 5.10pm. Went to the tourist information center to purchase city map and a 24 hr transport pass for trams and busses.

Managed to find tram no.25 after following a number of confusing road signs, and made our way to the hostel. The place was a real hostel, with bunk beds, shared shower, shared toilet, lockers and internet available for rental. Ours was a private room for 2, it's spacious and clean, with big windows. Bedsheets were provided but we needed to make our own bed. And finally I saw a square pillow, haha.. it did look abnormal, although it still served its purpose.

The weather here was much friendlier compared to London. The city's more colorful too!

We headed out, walked across a few canals and took the tram to Vondelpark area. Had dinner at Bojo (weird name, means 'spouse' in Javanese), a night Indonesian restaurant. We got its name and address from a promotion coupon provided in the hostel. It was quite expensive but we didn't regret it, their food was superb! It's amazingly tasty!

We ordered 'soto ajam', 'nasi goreng speciaal' and 'es cendol'. The soto ajam was bursting with flavour, with generous portion of chicken bits and condiments. Their nasi goreng speciaal was equally satisfying, with a right doze of chilli, served with chicken satay, acar, beef rendang and kerupuk. Es cendol didn't look like es cendol to me, it lacked the coconut milk taste, but it was good as well, my only complaint was the small portion. We got 2 free slices of banana fritters, served with icing sugar, nice!

Recharged (didn't have proper lunch due to the rush in Brussels), we strolled along Vondelpark. It's a big garden with rivers, bridges, benches and greenery. Locals wandered around for jogging, cycling and other activities. My favorite part was a gazebo on a lake, surrounded by beautiful, colorful flowers... I just couldn't get enough of the sight!

Strolled along the red district as well, for curiousity sake. It's basically full of girls showing off their assets by posing behind glass doors. There were also shops and show houses, and cafes as well.

On the next day, we had breakfast at the hostel. It was served buffet style - various bread, cheese and ham. Cereal with milk, tea, coffee, juice and multivitamin which tasted weird. Some took the liberty to pack some sandwiches for their lunch. There was this one guy who took a stack of bread and ham and cheese.. I was like.. wow, how's he going to finish that at one go? But the tissue papers explained all.

Took tram no.2 until the end of its route, to visit Molen van Sloten located on the outskirts of Amsterdam. From tram station, we walked for another 15 minutes through the charming Sloten village. Its wonderful streets were filled with pretty houses decorated with small private gardens, benches and it's flowers, flowers and flowers everywhere! My favourites are the dandelions, they're found at the grass field near the tram stop.

Molen van Sloten was one of the remaining 500 operational windmills in Netherlands, of a total of 1000 mills. It was the only windmill that can be used for wedding ceremony, performed in the wedding room in its first attic. There was a wedding when we were in the midst of our tour!

An interesting note: the position of the mill's blades when it stops communicates its mood. At certain position, it means celebratory mood, and another, means sorrowful mood. During the wedding the mill was stopped at the celebratory mood position.

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Once the ceremony's over, it started spinning again. The tour guide brought us to the top attic where they had the brake to stop or start the blades. He brought us there as it was stopped due to the ceremony going on, but when we were inspecting the place, it started spinning again! There was also a mechanism to alert people when the spin is too fast. Interesting.

One day every year, they have a celebration in the mill. They allowed people to be strapped on one of the mill's blade and then spinned it! We saw a video when the attraction took place. haha.. I'd rather ride a roller coaster than being strapped into a mill!

Molen van Sloten was actually used to pump water, as the city location is below sea level. Initially there were 3 mills working together to take care of the water level. Even Schipol airport was built on a lake's site, amazing! That's how Netherlands name was given, as Netherlands mean waterland. Nowadays they don't really rely on windmills anymore, they use electric pumps instead.


Molen van Sloten also housed Coopery Museum which showcases coopery crafts, handicrafts and workshop with its tools. It also had 'Rembrandt in the Attic', where an audio visual presentation was given about the life and work of Rembrandt that took place mostly in Amsterdam. It had some life-size sculptures as well, modelled after Rembrandt's paintings.

We stopped by a nearby cafe for snacks: croquette and fries, eaten while basking under Holland's sun :) Here the croquettes were unique. Aside from the standard ragout type filling, they also create other types filled with noodles or rice. The one with noodles was called 'bami', I guess that's why noodle = bakmi in Indonesian :)

I also noticed some proofs of the effect of Dutch colonial rule in Indonesia from the words displayed on some signages: kap salon, post kantoor, handoek katoen.

Next, we visited Albert Cuyp market, Dappermarkt and Waterlooplein flea market. Bought a lavender soap bar, some orange juice, liquid soap and moisturizing lip balm - it's proven to be my savior from the irritating chapped lips during the trip.

I always loved to admire the flower shops at those market, they're all so pretty! They also sell cheese in bulk, so bulky it didn't look like cheese anymore. Bought some tasty roasted macadamia nuts too..

Amsterdam was a nice city with pretty buildings and scenic canals. Traffic was a bit messy, though, with a lot of bicycles and trams fighting for ways with pedestrians. But the atmosphere was a bit relaxed so it's not that big of a problem. Generally they gave ways to others.

Three words for Amsterdam: scenic, lively, tasty (I mean the food)

[Europe Trip] On visiting Brussels

On the 5th day of our trip, we left London and travelled further down to Brussels by Eurostar train. We checked out from the hotel early, made the payment, and headed to St.Pancras International station. We arrived even before the gate was opened. Boarding time was at 7.35am GMT. During the wait and inside the train, we were surrounded by a group of Korean tourists with their constant chattering. Wah, it almost didn't feel like being in europe, I had to remind myself.. haha..

We had only a total of 3 hours in Brussels. Initially we wanted to spend a night in this city, but abandoned the thought as people told us there's almost nothing to see in Brussels. So instead we spared 3 hours, in between train arrival from London and departure to Amsterdam.

Arrived at Bruxelles Midi station at 11am (GMT+1). Spent the first half an hour for finding a locker to rent, and looking for exact coins to rent the lockers. It just didn't occur to us that we would need exact coins for lockers, and there was no machine nearby to exchange our notes to coins. How troublesome. In the end we bought some postcards and chocolates to get some change and asked another tourists to exchange our €2 coin to €1s.


Made our way out from the station and successfully navigated the streets to the city's trademark Manneken Pis, by asking some passers-by and consulting the city maps displayed on the road sides (how thoughtful of the government!) I'd known that the pissing boy statue was small so it was no surprise to me when seeing him for real. The surprise was the number of tourists that were actually there to stare at him! Someone once said that it's much more amusing to gawk at the tourists' reactions upon seeing the boy than seeing the boy itself. That day he was standing proudly naked without any costumes.

Bought a Belgian waffle, we didn't really like it, it's too dry and not chewy. Some friends advised me beforehand to buy leonidas chocolates from Brussels, but I couldn't find any stores selling them. apparently the brand was only sold in certain stores and we couldn't be bothered to locate the stores.

Went further to Grand'Place. It was basically a square field surrounded by hotels, museums and cafes. It looked grand, due to the surrounding buildings' architecture and style, just like in storybooks and movies, especially the cobblestoned streets.

Satisfied that we'd seen Manneken Pis and Grand'Place, we went further to locate Jeanneke Pis. It's a modern statue of a girl pissing, newly built to complement the pissing boy. It complements the boy geographically, by being about the same distance away on the other side of Grand'Place. It was a challenge to find her, as she was much less known. When we were just about to give up, we finally found her, squatting on a small fountain in a secluded dead-end alley, far from the bustling crowd. And she was enclosed in a small grotto, covered almost fully by a metal fence. That was what we called gender inequality.

30 minutes prior to train departure, we rushed back to Bruxelles-Midi on foot. Reached the station just in time to collect our backpacks and ran to the platform to board the train. According to the rules, by right we should validate our railpass prior to using it for the first time. Due to the rush, if we validated it we'd miss the train, so we were prepared to just pay the fine of €20. But when the conductor inspected our pass, he didn't impose any fine.. *sigh of relief*

During our brief visit in Brussels, the presence of Tintin could be felt from the poster displayed in Brussels-Midi station, Tintin's head put up on top of a building, as well as some graffiti on the walls. If I had more time I'd love to visit the Belgian Comic Strip Centre.

Three words for Brussels: medieval, chocolatey, rustic

[Europe Trip] On visiting Bath

Our train from London Paddington to the city of Bath was delayed for 40 minutes due to fatalities at Ealing Broadway. Left Paddington at 9.40am and reached Bath at 11 plus. Walked for 10 minutes under the drizzle to get to Roman Baths.

Roman Baths was a 2000 years old bath complex built and used by the Romans, originally consisted of the Great Bath, Roman temple, and a sacred spring. The hot springs were sacred to the Celtic goddess Sulis, whom the Romans later identified with the goddess Minerva.

Visit was started in the Victorian reception hall, where tickets were sold and audio guide handed in with no extra charge. We got the first glance at the Great Bath from the terrace, which overlooked the Great Bath and was lined with statues.

The Sacred Spring was the central of the site. Hot water at 46 degrees Celcius has been rising here at the rate of 1,170,000 litres daily for thousands of years. Objects were thrown into the Sacred Spring as offerings to the goddess, such as Roman coins and curses - rolled up sheets of lead or pewter with messages inscribed in them.

The Roman Bath landmark was built on the site where the ruins remained - it was rediscovered in the 18th century, The ruins were preserved as much as possible while adding in modern facilities like toilets, reception area, signages, posters and banners.

Roman bath ritual consisted of soaking themselves in hot water until it reached optimum temperature, then they were massaged by the servants to remove all dirts, and finally they returned to the rooms with descending order of heat and plunged themselves into the cold water. The circular bath on the site had this film of life-sized male bathers projected into the walls, as if they're preparing for a plunge. Interesting.

Each visitor was entitled to one glass of Bath water, served from the fountain at the restaurant. Actually water was available in a lot of places in the vicinity, but we're warned that water was not treated and might contains all sorts of bacteria. They said the Bath water contained 43 minerals. The water from the fountain, served in a glass, had no color, no smell, but it did taste weird. There was a strong hint of iron, to me it tasted like drinking normal water after you bit your lip until it bled.

We also managed to visit the Bath Abbey, its actual name is Church of St. Peter and Paul. It's a majestic historical building with 56 scenes of Jesus' life imprinted at the East-end window above the altar.

We bought sandwiches, swedish meatball wrap and caramel chocolate cheesecake from Pret A Manger for our lunch on board the train.

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Three words for Bath: rustic, charming, unique

[Europe Trip] On visiting Cambridge

Journey from London King's Cross station to Cambridge took only 45 minutes, and it felt faster due to the tasty food we brought along: one big puffy pastry filled with basil, tomato and cheese from upper crust, pasta & chicken salad, strawberry trifle and berry smoothies from Marks & Spencer.

From Cambridge train station, we took a bus to the city center, then strolled along the bustling street filled with students and tourists. We could see that the city housed people from different races and nationalities.

We encountered this street musician having a strange idea of performing in the trash bin! He was playing guitar and singing at the same time, so from outside we could only see his hand and part of the guitar. some passers-by looked baffled as they could hear the music but didn't know where it came from. But the puzzle solved itself due to the number of people watching in front of the trash bin. What an amusing sight.


River Cam was jam packed with wooden boats bumping into each other during their punting journey. We took the guided tour, although self-hire was also available. There were 9 passengers on the boat, with one guide doubled up as the punter who stood at the rear and propelled the boat using the long pole.

The punting took 45 minutes, passing by Queen's College, Clare College, Trinity College, St. Johns College and a few bridges. The famous one was mathematical bridge: "the myth goes that it was designed by Isaac Newton without the use of pins, screws, nuts or bolts, but when disassembled, the fellows and students couldn't figure out how to put it back together again." (taken from wikipedia) - this is merely a myth, as Newton died 22 years before the bridge was constructed.

It was exam period when we visited, therefore some colleges were closed. We were planning to visit King's College Chapel but we were too late, so we went in to Clare College instead. It was the second oldest among 31 Cambridge colleges. We visited its charming gardens, bridge, courtyard and chapel. I could imagine the stories of Mallory Towers and the like happened in this kind of colleges. Fascinating.

Three words for Cambridge: peaceful, idyllic, pedestrian-friendly (these adjectives are my own personal opinion as visitor. I don't think they're applicable for those students studying or worrying for exams, though)

[Europe Trip] On visiting Brighton

Brigthon was a pretty, small town located on the south coast of England. We went there by train from London Victoria station. The most famous landmarks of Brigthon are the Royal Pavilion and Brighton Pier.

Royal Pavilion was an amazing, lavish place, built by King George IV. It was distinguishable for its Indian architecture and Oriental interior design, even though the King himself never visited China. He first went to Brighton as he was told that the seawater was good for his health.

The first room we entered was the Octagon room, followed by long gallery of antiques. The most stunning of all was the banquet room, with its intricate design - the long table, chandeliers, carvings, paintings on the ceilings, and details such as carpet, wallpaper, cutleries, tablewares. Behind the banquet hall, they built a huge kitchen which allowed sophisticated cooking techniques and preparation of upto 100 dishes to be carried out for the 30 seated guests. There was also a special smaller room in between the kitchen and banquet hall, dedicated for the chef to give his dishes the final touch before they were presented to the guests.

The supper room was where the lady guests could touch up their make up after dinner, while the gentlemen were still smoking and socializing in the banquet hall. The ladies were using bee wax at that time, and when it was too hot it would melt. That was apparently how the term 'long face' was invented. There was also a music room, a dancing hall with pipe organ, and the saloon.

On the second floor they built the king's apartment - his bedroom (with secret door leading to bathroom), library, maid room, etc. The last person who inherited the palace was Queen Victoria. She felt overwhelmed by the place and finally sold it to the town. Too bad no phototaking was allowed inside the palace, thus the absence of photos.

We took a brief look at Brighton Museum as well, as entrance was free, but were not really interested to continue the tour, so we proceeded to the Brighton Pier. It's a calm, picturesque pier on a pretty beach with big pebbles instead of sand. The long pier had food stalls at its entrance, benches, and game room cum casino in the middle of it. We enjoyed a big portion of fish and chips on the bench facing the sea.


For the journey back to London, we had already booked the bus tickets. But the station which we were supposed to depart from was under renovation. After making a few queries and running here and there, we finally saw the big bus at a bus stop near the pier *wipe sweat*.

Three words for Brighton: laid-back, touristy and panoramic.

[Europe Trip] On visiting London

Wednesday, 30 April 2008 evening, I dashed out from office on the dot, ran to catch the bus home. Took shower and did last minute packing, and then rushed to Changi. Boarding time was at 10.05pm. The Qantas flight that we took was so full we didn't even get to choose window or aisle seats, and we were squashed in the middle seats of the middle row. It was troublesome for a long flight as we need to disturb our neighbours in order to visit the lavatory. What I did was, I followed my neighbour's lavatory schedule, when she went, I went with her so I only needed to disturb her once when going in to my seat (haha.. not an important point to post, I know).

For dinner, we were served Thai salad, bread and butter, fish with black bean sauce and fruit cocktail. Soon afterwards, snacks were distributed in a goodie bag, so everyone got the same share: a bottle of evian water, an apple, a packet of oreo biscuits, small toblerone and 3
mentos sweets.

We didn't get a good sleep, with the cramped seats and strong aircon and the regular public announcements. The regular reset of the entertainment system didn't help, either. I managed to watch The Mist, and The Bucket List. Woke up at 2.30am GMT for hot breakfast: omelette, ham, croissant and butter, fruit, tea and orange juice.

Finally landed in London Heathrow Terminal 4 at 5.25am GMT. Heathrow airport surprisingly didn't look good. It's small and basic. We took Heathrow Connect train to King's Cross station (super expensive). Upon arrival we took quite some time to find the street where our hotel was at. Surprisingly none of the passers-by whom we asked knew of its existence. I guess that's what happened when staying at a budget hotel.. :)

Left our luggages at the hotel and then we went to Madame Tussauds. It was still early so we visited Regent Park first which was nearby. Pretty garden with colorful flowers (mostly tulips), lake, benches, ducks, willow trees along the river, greedy squirels and doves. Some people were there just to feed them.

Came back to Madame Tussauds entrance 10 minutes before it opened and the queue was already long. Every group spoke in different languages. It was really crowded once we got inside, especially in Blush, the first display room just after the entrance, where the celebrity waxworks were displayed: Leonardo di Caprio, Nicole Kidman, Orlando Bloom, Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and the likes. There's a section called Premiere Night, displaying Marilyn Monroe, Shrek, John Wayne, Nicholas Cage, Whoopi Goldberg, Jim Carrey, Terminator, etc. They have Royal Zone as well (the Queen, Prince Charles and wife, Lady Diana); Culture Zone (Einstein, Newton, Darwin); Sports Zone (Tiger Woods, Pele, Mohammed Ali); Music Zone (Freddie Mercury, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears); World Leaders zone.

In Chamber of Horror, visitors were divided into groups and went into dark tunnels filled with scary sound effect and staff dressed in scary costumes. We were always the first to get into the tunnels, not because we're kiasu, but because the rest didn't want to go ahead although we'd asked them too. But it's good, as the staff waited for the whole group to assemble before they started to scare us off. haha..

In Spirit of London ride, visitors were seated in a taxi-like mini trains for a journey through the history of London. It started in Tudor times, with Sir Francis Drake and Shakespeare, and then rushed through a London haunted by plague and fire, then saw the city being built, the Victorian era, industrial revolution, and war times.

Overall, I was not that impressed with the museum. It's as good as what I've expected, but nothing more.

On second day in London, we had our own city tour. After breakfast at hotel (buffet of toast, cereal, sausages, ham, tomatoes, eggs and baked beans), we took the tube to Marble Arch. Then we walked to Hyde Park. I'd wanted to see this park that's often referred to in UK-based novels. This park was huge! Lake, various ducks, mesmerizing flowers, green grass, statues. We walked further to Buckingham Palace to just take a peek from the fence. The guards were wearing the red-colored shirt, black pants and big tall rounded black hats - their uniform reminded me of a tin of biscuits.. ;)

Outside the Buckingham Palace there's the Victoria Memorial, then further down was The Mall, then we crossed over to cut through St.James Park, before reaching Westminster Abbey. Westminster Abbey was magnificent with lots of tombs of the 'immortal'. Too bad phototaking wasn't allowed, and entrance was expensive. For that price, audio guide wasn't even included, additional fee had to be paid, ridiculous.

Strolled along Westminster bridge, eyes feasting on the sights of London Eye, Big Ben, Houses of Parliaments, River Thames. Finally our feet complained and so we took the tube from Embankment to Temple Hill station, followed by lunch of spaghetti bolognese at a cafe beside
the tube station.

It was drizzling on our way to Temple Church so I had to put on my plastic poncho. Temple Church was distinguishable from other churches by the 3D tombs of the knight carved on the floor. This was one of the churches referred to in the famous The Da Vinci Code book by Dan Brown. Entrance was free and phototaking was allowed.

Then we walked to St.Paul's Cathedral. It's magnificent with awesome dome, paintings, relief, mosaics, and carvings. We climbed all the way up from the cathedral floor to whispering gallery - it's 30.2 metres high and it's 259 steps up from the ground level. The name was given as whispers against its walls were audible on the opposite side. Then climbed up some more to Stone Gallery - it encircled the outside of the cathedral's dome, 53.4 metres from ground level and could be reached in 378 steps. This gallery was big enough to accomodate the crowd.

The climb to the upper most gallery, Golden Gallery, was not that smooth, though. This was due to the large number of visitors and the small space of the gallery. We started queueing while climbing the stairs. Golden Gallery was the smallest, stood at 85.4 metres, 530 steps from ground level. The view of the city from this gallery was stunning, despite the cramped space.

Next landmark we visited was the Tower of London. We had limited time there but we still managed to visit the White Tower (army stuff, weaponry, etc) and Jewel House which showcased the kingdom's stunning jewellery collection like gold and diamond crown, gold dining set, corronation accessories.

Walked along the Tower Bridge, and took the tube to Queen's Theatre in Piccadilly Circus area. It's time to watch the longest-running West End musical Les Miserables. Queen's Theatre was a small, old theatre, the seats were cramped with little leg room, people had to stand up to let others pass. During intermission, staff went around selling haagen-dazs ice cream in small tubes and bottled water!

Act 1 was wrapped up at 9pm plus and the whole musical ended at 10.30pm. It was beautiful, much better than the one I watched in dvd some time back. All casts acted and sang perfectly, but especially strong was the lady acting as Eponine. In London, where price of food is about £5 in average, we can't say watching a musical in front row for £50 as expensive. Compare that with Singapore, where average price of food is S$3 and front row seats of such world-class musicals costs about S$120!

Piccadilly Circus area was so happening at night, with people strolling by, bars and cafes opened until late, all bustling with activities. Too bad we were too tired to explore the area. We took cab back to the hotel, as there was no more tube service at that time. The cab driver had never heard of the street where our hotel was located. He couldn't believe it himself as he has been driving the cab for 20 years and thanked us for directing him there. To think that it was situated just opposite the ever-so-crowded king's cross - st.pancras station.. haha..

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Had a chance to visit British Museum and London Eye too. British Museum was huge and entrance was free. We visited the Ancient Egypt, Middle East, Greek, and South East Asian collections. I found London Eye is a bit overrated, but I didn't regret doing it, at least I'd done it :) The 25 minutes ride was not boring at all as we got a great view of the city below. Inside the capsule, we're busy looking for the perfect spots to snap pictures and to spot some famous landmarks through our binoculars. In fact I felt the ride was too fast.

On our last day in London, we walked to Trafalgar square, went to National Gallery for a quick browsing of their paintings, and took the tube to National History Museum just to find out that they're closed.

Celebrated mass at Westminster Cathedral. Seated at the 6th pew from the altar, we had a good, unobstructed view. The church looked grand with domes, but too bad they're blank, no paintings at all. They had hanging chandeliers. The altar had a gazebo-like structure with 4 pillars on its left and right side. A huge cross was hung just before the altar. The church was really big, so big that visitors could just visit the surrounding chapels without disturbing the mass conducted at the nave.

When we were at King's Cross station, we purposely looked for the fictional platform 9 3/4, in which the Hogwarts Express train was located to carry students between London and Hogwarts (in Harry Potter books). Based on the story, the platform was invisible to Muggle (i.e. lay people) eyes and can be reached by walking through the barrier between platform 9 and 10. To our surprise, it was really there! There's a blank wall just beside platform 9, with a sign board 'Platform 9 3/4' and a trolley pushed halfway through the wall. What a nice touch! Of course we didn't miss the photo opportunity and some other people quickly followed our steps to put some luggage onto the trolley and acted as if we're pushing it into the wall.. :)

The behaviour of Londoners were so typical of people in busy cities. Everyone looked busy, rushing and minding their own business. I guess it won't be that difficult for Singaporeans to adapt to their lifestyle.

London is a gloomy city, because of its cloudy sky and intermittent drizzle. And it's also cold. Most people wore dark-colored jackets, adding to that gloomy look. A friend gave me the advice that a poncho would come in handy in London as rain was a permanent feature. I did bring my poncho, and it was sufficient to handle the drizzle. But using an umberella would be faster, although it's more bulky for the handbag. Better still, use a water-resistant jacket that comes with head cover.

Three words for London: bustling, gloomy, expensive