Day 2 - London in Morning followed by Eurostar

I can't help but feel that Joyce and I are pretty resilient. After an eventful and unlucky spate of events that took place on Day 1, we still managed to pull ourselves outta bed for breakfast at ard 7plus am!! Haha, bobian, we wanted to cover as many sights of London as possible before we had to check into the train terminal at around 3 p.m.

These are the carvings found at the base of the monument. Somehow, we like the carvings. There is a serious lack of such art and culture in Singapore.










Anyway, if you can squint and read this, it gives a pretty good and detailed description why the monument was built. London city experienced a great fire which burned for 3 days in 1666. The height of this monument is the distance the fire had destroyed. We decided to climb to the top to take in the sights.







Check out the height. We had to climb 311 steps of spiral staircase in order to reach the top. Taut butts again!


















Hei, 377 as shown on Joyce's hands. Somehow, it felt like a jail up there due to the many railings for safety reason. It was pretty cramped too.











I had to give the V sign. Oh man, now the climb down. It was really dizzy as the staircase is spiral.










Keke, the obsession with this unmistakable trademark of London.

















We also do have an obsession with road signs. Serious lack in our hometown or is it because there is simply nothing to see back at home. What about food signs?









Behind Joyce is St. Paul's Cathedral. The dome is the 2nd largest in the world. Again, the cathedral was renovated and rebuilt due to the Great Fire.

















The front view. We do luv the columns and the clock tower. Unfortunately, we decided to give the inside a miss due to high admission px. It cost 8 pounds.










Another thing we luv too..the fountains. But this fountain not working leh.












This is the Tower of London. For the past 900 years, it has served as a palace, prison, royal mint and living museum. Anyway, it was also the place where many beheadings were conducted. Again, we did not go in as suggested by the guidebook. " While the Tower of London is perennially popular and is probably the most bang for your buck of the big-name sights, paying 13.50 pounds is absolutely absurd."





It seems all ancient palaces came with a moat. The moat over here has dried up. Remember the huge moat at Ang Kor Wat? Nowadays, machine guns for security more practical. But terrorist nowadays use planes leh.









Check out London Bridge!













See the bridge across the river. That's the real London Bridge. I was cheated for so many years! Dio pian!!










I always thought the bridge behind Joyce was London Bridge! If you used to be like me, then wake up! It is called Tower Bridge. We were clearly misled by the movies!! Duh









London Bridge will not fall down. It cannot fall now cos I am standing in the middle of it. Oh and this is not London Bridge.

It is difficult to relate the magnificent history of London Bridge. Joyce and I actually willingly paid for the admission to go through this learning journey, whereby we went to the top of the bridge, crossed the top linkway (you will notice from the pics that there is a blue linkway linking from 1 tower to the other) and in the process learnt about the history. It is a marvel of engineering and the steam-powered lifting mechanism remained in use till 1973. Simply breath-taking. How did these nuts come up with the complex theory in the 1800s? Btw, the bridge is still lifted about 100o times a year.

Time was running short. We actually made it to Buckingham palace in time to view the changing of guards ceremony and managed to snapped these trademarks again in their super furry hats!

How can we miss a picture with the guards as our backdrop? Joyce must thank me for the snappy shot which made her look pretty good.

There is this golden statue in the middle of the palace which is iconic and distinctive! The palace is not opened for public viewing except for a few sections. We had no time and no interest. Skip!

Buckingham is our last stop and we had to rush back to hotel, check out and lugged our luggage to take a bus ride back to the train station to catch our Eurostar to Paris!

Signs of exhaustion. But it is an experience to take Eurostar. It's almost equivalent to an airplane ride. You have stewardess and steward to serve you. They have power sockets for you to charge your laptop, mp3 and so on.

Seats are really comfy too.

The view of the train.

Check out the food! They serve decent meals and there's even a selection of wines for you to choose. Indulgence!

More to come with Paris at night. Let us Zzzz and catch up on the sleep before we are hit by the summer heatwave in Paris ;)