After seeing Westminster, we took the tube on our furthest journey yet, to Canary Wharf in East London. Canary Wharf is a new business district and so we thought that it would be cheaper food than the tourist areas. We hit up the local Marks & Spencers, got some cheap+moderately healthy food, and found a bench to fill our stomachs (good thing it wasn’t noon yet). Nothing much to say here except it was much more modern than Central London and it was still raining.
Next stop was over the light rail system and onto Greenwich. You may recognize Greenwich from Maritime Greenwich. This is the place where time zones start from and is the home of the Prime Meridian. After a couple wrong turns, we finally found the proper place and climbed up the hill to the Old Royal Observatory. This was particularly tough because I was already tired (although not as tough as when I decided to climb Grouse Mountain), and it was still raining. We made it up the hill and found that we needed tickets to get in. Great. Fortunately, like most museums that we visited on the trip, the admission was free. Except at this place you had to go get a free ticket first. So we followed a bunch of school trips into the museum and saw some interesting ancient astronomical equipment and time keepers. Then we leap frogged past the kids, took some pictures and tried to tell the time on that clock to the left. After that we took a walk through the park since the rain had subsided momentarily and took a bus back to the tube.
We took the tube to Green Park station and walked to Buckingham Palace. Along the way, we passed the Canada Gate which had the shields of all nine provinces. Nine? Well when it was erected in the early 20th century, Newfoundland wasn’t yet a province; so later they added another pillar to the side with Newfoundland. Buckingham Palace was yet another place swarming with tourists, but I was able to get a picture of the Queen Victoria Memorial and the palace without too many people in the way.
We continued on our way and I was surprised to see the amount of security on the walls surrounding Buckingham, there was barbed wire, spikes, and cameras watching every section! We walked through the Wellington Arch, and headed towards Harrods. Once reaching there however, we decided to keep going and come back before it closed, so we continued walking past the Victoria and Alber Museum, and then to the Natural History Museum. It was there where we realized that we were going the wrong way. Oops!
Of course by this time, it was raining again so we ducked into the Natural History Museum and took a walk around. I was impressed by this building, it seemed very historic — much like Westminster but I think it was built to specifically to house the museum. Aside from that, there was a big dinosaur at the front, and it was much like the ROM.
We continued walking, this time the proper way, to Kensington Gardens and Kensington Palace. Upon arriving, we spotted a huge, golden memorial for Prince Albert and the grandiose Royal Albert Hall across the street. It now had begun raining again and I was really tired from all this walking. So we hiked through the park towards the palace. Along the way, we spoted The Orangery, neighboring Kensington Palace, which was a refuge from both rain and tiredness. We had English Tea but unfortunately lingered so long that the Princess Diana exhibit at Kensington Palace was closed.
It was all good I guess, as we were too tired anyways. We walked towards Nottinghill Gate tube station, and headed back to Harrods. Fortunatley for me, Harrods is right by the tube stop, so I didn’t have to trek very far. After browsing through some high priced items we finally headed back to the hotel for some rest! Afterwards, we headed to the Spaghetti House for some food and that was it for Day 2.
Hi! and welcome to the eclectic personal blog of Kevin Quan. Come in, stay awhile, peek into the nooks & crannies, and learn a bit about me and my interests.
