Europe By Rail Day 2 : London Part 4 – Camden Town, Piccadilly Circus, The West End
This morning, we checked out of easyHotel. We left our bags at the hotel @ £5 for 2 items.
We had a quick breakfast from Sainsbury for £2.99. We thought it was an okay deal till we realised that Marks & Spencer’s had a similar breakfast deal for only £2.
After breakfast, we set on for Camden. There was a large crowd waiting to get to Victoria line. Only a smalla small group of passengers were allowed to pass through the ticket gates at a time. After waiting for a bit, we decided to take an alternative route to Camden.
Camden Town
We got to Camden a bit too early as most shops weren’t open yet. You can find the usual tourist souvenirs such as magnets and t-shirts quite cheaply here. We walk through some of the stalls at the market but did not find anything that caught our fancy. It is also probably too early punk heads to hang out there as we only saw one.
Piccadilly Circus
After that we went to Piccadilly Circus. Piccadilly Circus is a road junction which connects the the major shopping street of Piccadilly, Regent Street, theatres on Shaftesbury Avenue, as well as Haymarket, Coventry Street (onwards to Leicester Square), and Glasshouse Street. It is also the place where you’d see the neon and animated LED advertisements for Coca-Cola, TDK, Sanyo, McDonald’s and Samsung, among others. I’ve heard Piccadilly Circus being referred to as the “TDK-Sanyo junction” once. ^_^
There were a lot of loud Barcelona Football Club fans singing and showing their FC banners at the circus (there’s a match between Barca and Arsenal later tonight). A couple of cars that passed by these Spaniard started blasting their car horns, rolled their windows down and started chanting their own football anthems. These were the Arsenal fans.
There are lots of food options in the West End — including Italian, Chinese and halal kebab shops. We used the public toilet, which was clean and free, a fact that has to be stated because generally in Europe, you have to pay anything from 30c to 2 euros to use the loo. -_-”
There were a lot of people just laying on the slightly damp grass in the park. The grass is needle-like but soft and inviting as opposed to the larger, rougher warm season centipede grass in the parks in most of Southeast Asia. Now we know why people would just sit on the lawn in a park. It’s the grass! I fell asleep on the bench while Dari went to take some pictures around the area.
We took an impromptu shortcut through some building and got a picture opp with of guard. There were also guards on horses outside. The horses needed to move a few steps periodically. The area stank really bad cos the shelter was full of horse piss and crap. We continued walking till we got to side of the River that was directly across the London Eye for a couple more pictures. After that we made our way back to Victoria Station to retrieve all our bags from the hotel. We’re going to take a ferry to the Netherlands tonight.
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Europe By Rail Day 1 : London Part 2 – Buckingham Palace, Changing the Guard, Trafalgar Square, National Gallery
It was cold and wet as we navigated our way to easyHotel Victoria. We deposited our bags at the hotel and then it was off to Buckingham Palace. Thankfully, the weather took a turn for the better and it got nice and sunny when we arrived at Buck Palace.
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace is the official London residence of The Queen. We took a leisurely 15 minute to the palace from our hotel which was close to Victoria station. Buckingham Palace is located adjacent to St James’s Park and The Green Park, near Hyde Park. Tube stops close to Buckingham Palace are Victoria, St. James’s Park, Green Park and Hyde Park Corner. For £17, you can check out the State Rooms at Her Majesty’s crib (The Royal Collection).
Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace
Changing of the Guard or Guard Mounting is one of the most familiar ceremonies associated with Buckingham Palace. In this ceremony a new guard handovers duty with the old guard accompanied by the music played by a Guards band. At Buckingham Palace, Guard Mounting takes place at 11.30 am. It is held daily from May to July, and on alternate dates throughout the rest of the year. (Buckingham Palace Changing of Guard days). There is no Guard Mounting in very wet weather.
A large crowd had gathered at the palace surrounds when we got there at about 11.15. Bobbies wearing helmets and fluorescent jackets were going “Move along..move along” to the crowd ala an Obi-Wan Kenobi-ed Stormtrooper. Although on the official website states that the guard change happens at 11.30am, there was quite a bit happening before that.
We managed to find a spot to get a view of the ceremony at Victoria Memorial, a marble and gold sculpture directly in front of the palace gates. There was marching, men on horses and a military band performance.
After the Guard Mounting we took a walk to St. James’s Park which looked beautiful in its colorful spring splendor.
We passed by a guard post at Stable Yard Road and got a close up look at a couple of guards in action. There wasn’t much action going on though because they were a bit guarded in their actions. *joke* ^_^
Caught off-guard - a Queen's Guard wearing a bearskin helmet glancing at the crowd snapping pictures. The sentry was in the middle of a guard change.
Deciding that we were in need of a London map and we proceeded to find the tourist information office. We got into what we thought was a London Tourist Office, except it was really a bus tour operator. We got an attractions map (not a proper map) from them which helped a bit in navigation, but only a bit.
Trafalgar Square, The National Gallery
The National Gallery at Trafalgar Square houses collections of more than 2300 Western European paintings from the 13th to the 19th centuries. It is on show 361 days a year, free of charge. Some notable works of art showcased there include: Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers, Bathers at Asnières by Georges-Pierre Seurat and Johannes Vermeer’s Lady Standing at a Virginal. Opening hours: daily 10am–6pm, Fridays 10am–9pm (closed on 1 January and 24-26 December). Nearest tube: Charing Cross on Northern and Bakerloo Lines, Leicester Square on Northern and Piccadilly Lines How to get to the National Gallery.
Our First Meal
Our first meal in London consisted of sandwiches from Pret A Manger which we ate surreptitiously at Trafalgar Square with the backdrop of the imposing National Gallery playing host to a flock of pigeons at her footsteps.
There are many Pret a Manger and Eat sandwich shops all over central London, providing an affordable and convenient meal option. I had the Posh Cheese sandwich (£2.99), which consisted of mature cheddar and pickle on a baguette and it was surprisingly good!
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