The Last Day in London
And so it was my final day in UK, waking up early in the morning to get myself prepare to go out with my tour guide of the day, my cousin's lovely & helpful daughter. Our first stop was to Borough Market, which is the oldest British market that has existed for a long time. The lovely tour guide has something to do on that day morning, therefore I was alone for the first half of the day.
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| Borough Market |
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| Around Borough Market |
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| Borough Market with The Shard at the back |
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| Agriculture products |
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| Agriculture products |
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| Borough Market |
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| Borough Market |
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| The Shard, viewing from Borough Market |
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| Borough Market entrance |
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| Borough Market entrance building |
The market itself has a few sections. The products that were selling in the market during my visit was cheese product, fishes, fruits & vegetables, and herbs. There were stalls setup to sell food i.e. sausages, hams, cakes, drinks and wines. A lot of these stalls would offer food & drink tasting, of which I didn't try any of it because my stomach was not too well. So all I did was buying a piece of chocolate cake to eat, and I must say that the cake was very nice to eat. Well, in general the bakery stuff in UK are nice.
Next, I went to Canaray Wharf, the financial district. Now, in huge contrast to the old architecture in most part of Central London, the Canaray Wharf consists of modern design buildings. Most of these buildings belong to banks, like Citibank and HSBC.
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| Canaray Wharf |
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| Canary Wharf |
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| Garden in Canary Wharf |
Underneath the buildings are shopping complex, which is layout in quite a unique way. I say unique because even though the directory would show the available shops, some of them may be located underneath a different building, where you may have to walk out and walk in again. I thought I won't be doing any shopping over here because the goods sold here are not cheap stuff. However, I did able to pick up an item: an Adidas training shirt Olympic 2012 edition on offer, selling at 10 pounds (retail price was near to 30 pounds). So after finished walking around the shops, I went outside to sit in the garden to enjoy the sunshine before going to meet up with my tour guide.
Next, I met up with my tour guide at the Waterloo Underground station. The reason to stop by Waterloo station was to let me walk pass the London Eye. Frankly, I was not really interested in it because for me it was nothing more than another Ferris wheels. It all changed when I see it with my own eyes, and I couldn't believe it.
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| London Eye |
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| London Eye |
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| London Eye |
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| London Eye view from another direction |
The London Eye is so huge!!! The structure, the architecture, and the engineering aspect of it, to me, is truly amazing. I've never seen such a huge Ferris wheels in my life!!! Those capsules, I wonder how many people could fit into it. Anyway, it has been decided that if I'm able to visit London again, I'd definitely want to ride on it.
After that, we went to have some snacks in the form of cakes in a nearby bakery cafe. The cake was nice and really thankful for my tour guide for the treat. After we're done, we went to our next destination, the Westminster, where the Big Ben located.
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| Downing Street |
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| Downing Street |
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| Downing Street |
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| Outside Downing Street |
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| Big Ben |
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| Westminster |
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| Westminster |
Before we went to Westminster though, we went to Downing Street to see the place. Downing Street is where the prime minister of UK stays. It is guarded by armed officers and the entrance to the street is gated. There were a lot of tourists outside Downing Street, and some were even able to get inside.
To be precised, the whole area where we were at were full with tourists because you would have the Westminster and the Big Ben, then the Westminster Abbey, and Downing Street. Not to mention that Buckingham Palace is also not too far away from there.
Again, I was really amazed by the structure of the Westminster building. The Big Ben, according to my tour guide, has recently been refurbished (not sure if this is the right word), therefore the details on the tower looks very new.
We visited the Westminster Abbey as well, which is just round the corner. The Westminster Abbey is an old church, a big one, that usually public could at least take pictures of it outside the compound. However, on that day itself, there was an event going on, which cause us not able to enter into the compound. We were only able to see the main entrance, and again I was amazed with the architecture of the building. It was also here that I realized how illiterate I was with my camera because I could not take a good shot, and how powerful an iPhone that could take such a nice picture.
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| Westminster Abbey |
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| Westminster Abbey |
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| Westminster Abbey |
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| Taken with iPhone |
Now, after Westminster Abbey, we took the London Underground train to go to our next destination for ice-cream. The place where we were going is Harrod. Frankly I have no idea what Harrod is until my tour guide told me. After we reached our destination, I realized that if I walked further down the road on my 2nd day walking around in London, I'd have reach this place.
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| Harrod's building |
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| Princess Diana engagement ring |
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| Ice cream |
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| Ice cream |
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| Ice cream |
Harrod itself is like the Pavillion, StarHill Gallery, or The Garden in Mid Valley, where it's selling a lot of high end merchandise. There were a lot of people there, and I did noticed that there were a lot of Chinese shopping in that place. One of the section inside this building is designed to have the Egyptian theme, and it is here that the engagement ring of Princess Diana is on display for public viewing.
We went to the ice cream shop located inside Harrod because my tour guide recommended it. There were a lot of people there queuing up to wait to be served. We were blessed because we didn't have to wait for too long to be seated. The choices of ice cream over here is vast, and the serving is big. I wonder how the people over there could finish one big serving of ice cream by themselves. Oh well, if it's for me, I'd be able to do so too (I think...).
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| My last take out food in UK |
So after we had the ice cream, we have to rush to get to the train station to go back to my cousin's place. After we reached home, my cousin did a fried rice for me to take to the airport to eat as dinner. Then, her husband took me to the nearby train station where I could catch a train to go straight to Heathrow airport.
The check in process in the airport was smooth enough for me probably because I was there early. After everything settled, I finally able to sit down to enjoy my delicious dinner. And that, concluded my whole trip.
The Conclusion
Overall, the last day was tiring but fun because I was able to explore at least the main attraction in Central London. Really appreciate my lovely tour guide for the arrangement and her time. Of course, I'd like to thank God as well for the good weather and all the good timing throughout the day, that we were able to catch the train on schedule.
It was really a memorable trip. Really appreciate sis and bro-in-law, relatives and friend for the wonderful moment there in UK. After this trip, I will try to make an effort again to visit. Hopefully it will not be another long waiting year.
Trip concluded.
