London - Day Three

It's our third day in London...May 16, 2010. Since it was Sunday, we decided to have a relaxing day of shopping. We took the bus and headed to the Camden Lock Market, which is an outdoor/indoor market. On the street going up to the market are full of interesting gothic stores, while the market had tons of clothing, arts & crafts, and food stalls.
And yes, that's a stall full of doughnuts! YUMMY! We looked more than shopped but our main focus somehow landed around the food stalls. I ended up getting a Turkish Chicken Shish wrap for lunch and a big brownie as dessert...but looking at the doughnut picture, I kinda of wish I got a doughnut instead. lol


Josette was the daredevil in the group...she got an order of the fried Mars bar candy.






Afterwards, we went to Harrods, the famous upscale department store. We window shopped but we always end up shopping for food. This time around I got Whoppie Pies...chocolate and red velvet flavors. We did come back later to get more Whoopie Pies and some souvenir shopping so I'm sure I'll more pictures to follow in another blog day.

We went home afterwards and decided to rest abit. It turned out to be the right decision since it started to rain...actually poured for most of the late afternoon. Joy and I found a sushi restaurant, Feng Sushi Restaurant, close by that offered free delivery service. I definitely got way too much sushi but it definitely all very yummy.

Unfortunately, I was so full that I didn't even get a chance to try my Whoopie Pie! That seems to be the theme for most of the trip. lol :D

London - Day Two

It's Day Two, Saturday, May 15, 2010. My first night in London was a sleepless one. Due to the warm weather, I left the window open. And I didn't realize it until a few days later...London is a city that never sleeps. There seems to be constant buzz, noise, or traffic coming through the windows. I guess, I should have brought my earplugs! lol

Anyway, that Saturday morning, Joy made us breakfast of eggs, sausage and toast. We planned to visit Windsor Castle today and took off to the Paddington Station to take the trains. Which reminds me...I feel dumb but I never made the connection with Paddington station and the literary bear named Paddington Bear until Joy pointed it out to us one day. Paddington Bear was first found at Paddington railway station in London. He was sitting on his suitcase with a note attached to his coat which read, "Please look after this bear. Thank you." There's a cute statue of him at the station and of course, Josette & I couldn't resist taking a picture with him.

As for Windsor Castle, it is the largest and oldest occupied castle in the world and is one of the 3 official residences of The Queen. The Castle was originally built by William the Conqueror, over 900 years ago, as a fortress. We walked around the grounds and were allowed to visit St. George's Chapel, King George IV's State Apartments, the Drawings Gallery, and Queen Mary's Dolls' House. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed inside any of these places. I would love to take a picture of Queen Mary's Dolls' House. It is one of the largest in the world...it is 3 ft tall with very detailed rooms and fully functional objects that were exact replicas of items found at Windsor Castle. There were also kid-size dolls with many fancy dresses, mink coats, and matching accessories. Every little girls' fantasy. :)
As for St. George's Chapel, not only is it a place of prayer, but is beautiful architecturally and rich with history as a burial site for many Kings & Queens. The most recent being Queen Elizabeth, the Queen's Mother who passed away in 2002.

Since the Queen does occupy the castle, there are also Queen's Guards at Windsor. We were able to catch the Changing of the Guards ceremony that takes place in the Lower Ward of the Castle. Unlike the crowds at Buckingham, we were able to watch the ceremony up close & personal. A band marches in followed by the New Guards. . The Captain of the Old Guard hands the keys to the Captain of the New Guard and any special orders are given at this time. The Old Guard marches back to barracks and the New Guard takes over. We were lucky enough to stand "guard" and take a quick picture with one (see pic at beginning of the blog).

After Windsor, we had lunch just outside the castle grounds at a cute little place called the Crooked House of Windsor. And yes, the house is built a bit crooked! I had a warm goat cheese sandwich which was quite tasty.
We decided to walk around Windsor and did some souvenir shopping. We also walked over the river toward Eton College, which is an all boys high school that was also attended by Prince William & Harry. Sorry no sightings of the princes!!!
We headed back toward London and decided to ride the London Eye right before sunset. It was originally built as part of London's millennium celebrations as a giant observation wheel. It was an eyesore with Londoners initially but has become a very popular tourist attraction...our wait to just get tickets took 45 minutes and then another wait to just get on. It is interesting that the wheel is actually still moving while you embark & depart the glass capsules. It actually takes the wheel to fully go around in about 30 minutes. I don't know if it was worth the wait and cost but the views were still very spectacular (less the construction cranes & scaffolding) as you get a 360 degree view over London. Here's one of my favorites shots of Big Ben & Parliament right along the Thames River.

Joy mentioned her favorite Sichuanese restaurant, Barshu, in the Soho/Chinatown area. We headed off to the restaurant but there was a wait so we decided to walk around Chinatown, Soho area, Leicester Square, and Picadilly Circle. There were many bars, restaurants and clubs in that area and tons of people just milling about.










By the time we got back to the restaurant, we were starving from all the walking. We got a little cozy room all to ourselves in the lower level of the restaurant.

We had Minced Chicken with Preserved Mustard Greens served with lettuce leaf wraps,
Pock-Marked Old Woman's Beancurd (or also known as Ma Po Tofu),

Fragrant Chicken in a PILE of Chili (did I say a PILE of Chili),

Water Boiled Pork in a spicy sauce, and Stir-fried Water Spinach. All very tasty but definitely very spicy.











It was getting late so we took our first London taxi ride home...very exciting considering we almost got hit by another vehicle. But we got home safe & sound and went right to sleep.

London - Day One

It's been 2 weeks since coming back from London/Paris and it's given me enough time to reflect on the trip. It definitely was amazing visiting all the sites that I've only seen in pictures or read about in books. Of course, there's always regrets of not being able to visit all of the sites or not taking enough pictures or not getting as much souvenirs as my luggage will fit. But this time no regrets. I've decided to simply enjoy the memories of the spectacular & beautiful sites, the crazy unexpected hot weather, the crowds & queques, my sore feet, the French Open (esp. the male tennis players), and the hope, someday, that I will get a chance to come back again.
So the trip started on Thursday, May 13th...Josette & I arrived at SFO and was excited for the trip to start. Unfortunately, the arrival of the Virgin airplane was late so we were delayed in departing...ugh! But when we finally got seated, the excitement returned especially it being my first Virgin flight. It was so much fun to be able to choose your entertainment in your very own monitor...whether it be a movie, tv, music or games. I started a bunch of movies and only finished one movie, The Blind Side. I also tried to sleep but it wasn't easy. Also, the neighbor on my left, from Wales, was not very nice to the passenger in front of him. Being a big guy, he was a bit cramped and did not like the lady putting her seat back. I guess, I'm glad I wasn't sitting in front of him.

We finally arrived at LHR at noon, May 14th...we were about an hour late and headed off to Heathrow Express to go directly to Paddington Station.
We were greeted by Joy at the station and headed off to her place (10 minute walk) with a slight detour at a bank to get GBPs. Oh, which reminds me, I still can't believe I had such a hard time figuring out the difference between the pound & pences coins. And it was funny how many time I got corrected when I'll say dollars & cents. So sad...
As for the weather, it was actually a bit warm...much warmer than I expected for London. It was even hotter in Joy's place...I was sweating a storm carrying my luggage up two flights of stairs to one of her spare bedrooms.
As we got situated in Joy's place, we decided to get a late lunch. We walked through Kensington Park...which houses the Princess Diana children playground,
a beautiful garden with lovely purple tulips, and Kensington Palace, the former residence of Princess Diana.


We had lunch at the Orangery (built in 1705 by Queen Anne) but by the time we got seated, they only offered afternoon high tea...tea sandwiches, scone, little dessert sampling and orange tea. Still all very yummy.

After tea, we decided to go to the Borrough Market but since it was late Friday afternoon during commute hours, the metro trains were full and busy. It took us about an hour to get to the Market...unfortunately, they were busy closing up by the time we got there. It was too bad we never made it back to visit...I would love to check out some of the local foods.

From the market, we walked along the Thames River on the south side. We visited the Tate Modern Museum and viewed the many floors of modern and a few classic art pieces.

From the museum, you get a great view of St. Paul's Cathedral and the Millenium bridge...the same bridge that was destroyed in the beginning scenes of Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince. Very cool!

Along the way, we came upon all these decorated elephants that will be going up for auction to save the habitats of endangered Asian elephants. They were definitely very creative. We had dinner at
Wagarama restaurant. I got fried rice...probably should have stuck with their specialty, ramen noodles. By this time, jetlag was catching up with us...as you can see...




But we continued marching along the Thames...and then the 3 big sites came upon us: the London Eye, Big Ben & Parliament building. Despite the construction all around Big Ben, it was still magnificient to look at it.
Now I really felt like I'm in London. It was spectacular seeing all there in front of me. And luckily, we were there at 9pm and heard the ringing of Big Ben. I tried taping it but a police car just came by at that exact moment. Just my luck.
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