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.