London Day 4 - Eggstatic

A late start this morning, as my sister slept in (not surprised) and we headed out a bit after 9am to go to Buckingham Palace.  We were dressed up in our nice dresses and shoes because we had High Tea at the Ritz at 1330.  However, since we had hours to kill, we thought we should do some sightseeing first.  Changing of the guard was at 11am, and we turned up at 10am.  According to my sister's GPS, it would take us 12 minutes to walk to Parliament, so we decided to go do that.

She took a detour, and I asked her where we were going.  And in a few minutes some gorgeous buildings came into view.  "What's that?" I asked, excitedly.  "Westminster Abbey," she grinned.

And just around the corner from Westminster Abbey?  Big Ben and Parliament :)  So that was exciting and touristy!

Then we did some shopping on New and Old Bond street.  We walked into all the fancy stores - Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci, Tiffany&Co, Georg Jensen, Cartier... and I walked out with a whole heap of impulse buys.  Louis Vuitton purses, Prada shoes...

Time for High Tea at the Ritz!  Dress code was dressy - nice shoes and clothes for girls, and coat and tie for boys.

So this is what we were having to eat for High Tea.

The scones are not on the table yet, they wanted to bring them out after sandwiches were done.

Mmmm, sweets!

OMG more sweets!

High tea took a while, and by the time we were done, it was almost 3pm.  I said to my sister we should go to the Transport Museum, since we could wipe that off in an hour.  So off we went to Covent Garden... and...

ALL THE EGGS WERE AT COVENT GARDEN!!!  My sister and I went nuts taking pictures of all the eggs there.  Here are some of my favourites... but you can look at the rest here.

Aren't they gorgeous?  I realised the time, and I headed into the transport museum to look at all the old trains and trams and cars.

We rushed around collecting stamps and then headed back outside to do some more shopping.  We were really drawn by the Egg shop at Covent Garden (where the Egg Hospital was as well).  Not only were there some awesome eggs in the shop, but the shop also had limited edition miniatures of the big eggs (done by the artists themselves) on display.  I decided that the ULTIMATE souvenir would be one those eggs, and I chose the Alpha Egg by Joanne Holbrook.

I thought this egg was the perfect souvenir because

1. The Egg Hunt was special to my visit in London
2. I was really excited about the eggs
3. This egg is all about London, and displays icons of sights I saw and was excited about eg. Gherkin, Big Ben

Then I wanted to buy one for my sister so we could both have an egg as a memory of my trip here and something we both enjoyed, but we couldn't decide which other egg... UNTIL the people manning the store (one of whom was the sister-in-law of Joanne Holbrook) said they had a second one downstairs!  So I walked out of there with 2 miniatures of the Alpha Egg!  Ms Holbrook has a blog all about the Alpha Egg and the mini Alphas and written a post about the creation of the mini eggs and their fates.  I was so thrilled with the purchase!  And OMG the original Alpha was up to 5k quid bid!

So we made our way home, carefully cradling our purchase, wondering how I was going to get these 2 babies safely home.

London Day 3 - Visiting the Icons

My sister and I had a big day of walking planned, and so we put on our walking shoes and left the house just after peak hour.  We started out at the Royal Exchange, which looks so impressive with its big columns.  I would have taken some pictures inside the building, which is full of boutique stores.  However, I was informed by the guard that we couldn't take pictures.  My sister told me the reason was because someone broke into the place and stole all the fancy jewellery some years ago.

Then we headed off to the Tower of London, and gosh, you could spend ages lost in there.  I love those old buildings!  Can you see the pretend archer off the top of the turret?  And look at the outer wall!  It's just like something from the movies!

And the armory was impressive.  But my goodness, look at the codpiece on that right suit!  Those things look so bulky and unwieldly, how did people fight in them?

I think I've been watching too many movies, because I always imagined that torture and imprisonment was rife in the Tower of London.  However they said that it was very rare and excecutions and beheadings were also quite rare.

After Tower of London, we walked across the Tower Bridge.  I made the mistake that Tower Bridge was London Bridge!  But Tower bridge is such an iconic London icon, walking across it was really cool.

After that we walked all the way to St Paul's Cathedral, across the Millenium bridge.  That pedestrian bridge connects right to St Paul's cathedral and because it's made of metal, it was shining bright and white as we walked across it.  The Cathedral loomed in front of us, and when all of it was in view it was beautiful.  I was telling my sister that the Cathedral was designed by Sir Christopher Wren, who was laid to rest in the Cathedral somewhere but I didn't see his tomb/plaque.  The dome of the cathedral is 365 feet tall - purposely built like that to match a year.

View of the Dome and Paternoster Column from Paternoster Square

 We decided to go up in the dome to the The Whispering Gallery, Stone Gallery, and the Golden gallery (see above picture of the dome - you can see people walking on the Stone and Golden galleries).  It was a lot of steps - 257 steps to the Whispering Gallery, another 119 steps to the Stone gallery and another 154 steps to the Golden gallery.  In the Whispering Gallery you can sit on opposite sides of the room and whisper one another and hear - but we didn't try that, there were so many people I could hardly hear my sister talking next to me anyway!  It was a good tiring climb to get to the Stone Gallery, where I finally could take some pictures.  The bottom left picture shows Millenium bridge with the "Razor" building in the background - you can see the 3 turbines in the top of the building which generates 8% of its energy needs.

We wandered in the crypt after that, and sat down for some home made iced tea and a lavendar shortbread.  We headed to do a bit of shopping after that and our twin friends A and K came over to watch the first episode of Season 2 of Game of Thrones which premiered last night here.  We had takeaway peking duck, pulled pork and ribs.  Yum!  Then my sister and I veged out watching TV shows until 1am!

London Day 2 - The Nerd Trail

I woke up at the ridiculous hour of 330am - I blame going to sleep early at 11pm. So I spent hours on the computer, editing pictures and blogging, and even spent some time online as well. I also did some research on some dorky things I'd like to do whilst in London. I came across a movies in London website and saw a few spots where movies were filmed. Harry Potter was one of the ones which was easy to find. Kings Cross station was high on my list, so when my sister woke up, I told her we needed to head out and see Platform 9 and 3/4. There is actually a photo opportunity there, in the form of a trolley stuck to the wall. My sister had never heard of it so she was thrilled to see it. 

I took a photo of this lady with her baby because I thought it was a funny pic... how is her baby going to relate to the pushing the trolley like Harry Potter, I'm not sure. I wanted to offer to take a pic for her but she left quickly. What I thought was funny was the book store next to the trolley in the wall, displaying Harry potter books in the window. Then my sister and I went to the actual platform to look for the wall they run into, but there weren't any arches that looked like the movie, so we went over to platform 5 to get our pictures.

Then I went around collecting my dorky photos for my Monopoly project.

We had lunch at Trinity, a restaurant close to my sister's place.  It was written up as a really good place ot have lunch, and after sampling the cuisine, I'd have to agree!

Rhubarb and Salmon Mousse

Trotters, Sourdough, Gribiche and Crackling

White Asparagus and yolk truffle

Terrine of Chicken Foie Gras and Artichokes

Roast Duck comfit and capers, parsnip and pear puree

Aberdeen Angus Sirloin and Yorkshire Pudding

Toasted Marshmallow and Apple sorbet

Cheesecake

After lunch my ssiter and I went to a chocolate festival at Southbank.  We both had a hot chocolate there, and we also discovered a few eggs there!  My sister was excited, and I took a few pictures of the nicer eggs we came across in our massive trek today.

We stopped by a pub near Piccadilly and I thought I'd try a pint.  Nice try... I think I got through one third of it.  My brother in law turned up soon after and finished my drink for me.  We went for a walk afterwards and passed by a whole heap of cool shops, including some quirky nik naks and alternative lifestyle books.  We went by a Japanese restaurant and had some Okonomiyaki for dinner.  Yum!

Relaxed the rest of the night watching movies and TV shows.  I had to remind my sister and her husband that I can't watch scary things.  They laughed at me for screaming all the way through an episode of Supernatural.