No visit to London is complete without a ride on the London Eye, the world’s tallest cantilevered (anchored on one side only) wheel which takes you 135 meters above the ground and gives you a 360-degree view of the city.

But getting on the wheel is not easy. Lines run miles long especially during summers and school holidays. We left home early and were in the queue by half-past nine. Luckily we got our tickets within half an hour and were in the queue to get in the capsule for less than an hour.

Before getting on the wheel we watched the London Eye 4D movie, a multi-sensory, four-minute show which brings the city to life through video and special effects including bubbles and scents.

Opened in 2000, the London Eye was going to be a temporary attraction to mark the Millennium but was so successful that it was granted a permanent permit. A figure released in June 2008 revealed that thirty million people had ridden it since the day it was opened. More recently an estimated 3.75 million visitors ride it every year.

It took us less than half an hour to complete the circle. Although I am not scared of heights, going that high up in a glass capsule was still a big ask. My biggest worry was that the capsule will shake with the wind at the top. But it didn’t. It was fixed. The ride was even easier than some of the suspension bridges I have crossed which shook violently when I got in the middle. The ride was smooth and I was totally engrossed in the unfolding scenery around me particularly of the various bridges, Big Ben, the House of Parliament, St Paul’s Cathedral, Piccadilly Circus, and Buckingham Palace.

Sir Richard Rogers, the winner of the 2007 Pritzker Architecture Prize, wrote of the London Eye:

The Eye has done for London what the Eiffel Tower did for Paris, which is to give it a symbol and to let people climb above the city and look back down on it. Not just specialists or rich people, but everybody. That’s the beauty of it: it is public and accessible, and it is in a great position at the heart of London.

– Sir Richard Rogers

We walked the Jubilee Bridge to go to the Northbank. We could have taken the Westminster Bridge but on his last trip to London, Jubilee Bridge was the first one my husband walked across and really liked it and he wanted to walk across it again.

The Thames, London’s main river, has many bridges across it and you can get a good view of some of those from the London Eye. I found a very nice painting in a souvenir shop which gives an aerial view of at least ten of them.

Big Ben and the House of Parliament

We walked past the Whitehall gardens and got to Big Ben which was covered by scaffolding. Pity, it was going through renovations and we couldn’t see it in its full glory.

I was really surprised by how many London buildings have clocks on them. In the times when people didn’t have their own clocks and wristwatches, they used to drive people’s lives. Perhaps English punctuality can be attributed to them.

Crowds were moving towards Parliament Square, a small clear area surrounded by many important buildings, and we went with the flow. Once in the square, we sat down for a while to get our bearings. In front of us was an impressive Gothic building, once the Palace of Westminster and now the Parliament House. On the right was the Westminster Abbey and on the left were Government Offices of Great George Street.

The parliament square is where a number of protests are held. It has numerous statutes of politicians on its grounds, Churchill, Benjamin Disraeli, Sir Robert Peel, Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandala, and Gandhi to name a few. It is really a lovely place to sit and take in the surroundings.

After having something to eat we gathered our backpacks and jumped into the sea of tourists to have a closer look at the Palace of Westminster.

The initial royal palace was constructed in the 11th century and was the primary residence of the English monarchy since then. In 1512 it was destroyed by a fire. After that, since the 13th century, it served as the home of the Parliament of England and also as the seat of the Royal Courts of Justice. In 1834 an even greater fire ravaged the heavily rebuilt House of Parliament and the only significant medieval structures to survive were Westminster Hall. It has since been rebuilt.

We walked around the complex admiring the architecture of the buildings and mastery of the people who have skillfully carved almost every surface. It was breathtakingly beautiful. I regretted not pre-booking an inside tour. It is something I would like to do on my next visit.

Westminster Abbey was just next to the House of Parliament and was one of the most impressive buildings I have ever seen. It has a legendary status in the English monarchy. Founded by Edward the Confessor, it is the church where all the monarchs have been crowned since 1066. Not only that it has 3,300 tombs on its grounds including King Henry VII, Elizabeth I, and Isaacs Newton.

But most importantly it is the church for royal weddings, particularly of crown princes. Prince William and Kate Middleton got married here and so did Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Even the current Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip got married here. In fact, there have been 16 Royal weddings here, the first one being of King Henry I and Matilda of Scotland in 1100.

We returned to Parliament Square and we could hear music playing at some distance. Walking in that direction we reached Hyde Park where some very enthusiastic young musicians were playing African drums. A lot of people were gathered there listening to the energetic beats and enjoying the perfect day in the sun.

It has been a perfect morning so far. We walked from there passing the Churchill’s War Rooms and Horse Guards Parade which is a large parade ground for annual ceremonies. It was being prepared for the Trooping the Colour ceremony. We went to Trafalgar Square where we had lunch and prepared ourselves to tackle the National Portrait Gallery which I will write about in my next post.

What has been your experience of the London Eye? Have you been inside the House of Parliament or Westminster Abbey? 

Have you got any stories to share about today’s post? I would like to hear them. 

Drop me a line through the comment section.

The next post — Windsor Castle, Bath, and the Stonehenge

What is common between Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, and the National Gallery?

Answer: Crowds.

Alright, there were crowds everywhere I have been so far. At the London Tower, at  Borough Markets, and at St Paul’s Cathedral. But they were nothing compared to what I saw at the Buckingham Palace grounds.

Buckingham Palace

The weather was perfect, the sun was out, and we were in time to see the famous Changing the Guards ceremony.

Except we didn’t.

After waiting for a long time, a policeman told me that Changing the Guards was not happening today. Instead, there was Trooping the Colour ceremony.

I had no idea what Trooping the Colour was. So I did what a curious woman of my age and times does. I googled it.

Trooping the Colour marks the official birthday of the British monarch. A 260-years old tradition. Over 1400 soldiers, 200 horses, and 400 musicians come together each June in a great display of military precision, horsemanship, and fanfare to mark The Queen’s official birthday.

My husband and I watched the first dress rehearsal of Trooping the Colour. That trumped the Changing the Guards.

And it explained the extraordinarily large crowds too.

Here are five interesting things I found about Buckingham Palace:

• When it was first built in 1703, Buckingham Palace was not a palace but a townhouse. It was built for the Duke of Buckingham.
• King George III bought it in 1761 as a private residence for Queen Charlotte, and it became to be known as The Queen’s House.
• During the 19th century, three wings were added to it around a central courtyard to enlarge it. In 1837, Queen Victoria became the first monarch to take it up as royal residence.
• In around 1610, James I planted 10,000 mulberry trees on a site that forms the northwest corner of Buckingham Palace gardens, to set up a silk industry in England. The project failed because he planted the wrong mulberry trees.
• Buckingham Palace is open to the public three months a year, usually in summer. During these months, you can walk through 19 of the magnificent State Rooms and explore the Palace’s Gardens.

Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square is within walking distance of Buckingham palace, but it was hard to get there because of barricades.

The Square was bustling with tourists, activists, and street artists. But something was missing.

No pigeons.

Apparently, former Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, banned feeding the pigeons. People caught feeding the birds face possible prosecution and a 50 pound fine under the new law. He even brought a hawk periodically to scare pigeons away. Consequently, there no pigeons left in the square.

This area was previously called Charing Cross. It was named Trafalgar Square to commemorate the Battle of Trafalgar, a British naval victory in the Napoleonic Wars over France and Spain in 1805 at the coast of Cape Trafalgar.

The column in front of the National Gallery is called Nelson Column. Nelson died at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1815. 

There is a story about that. 

To preserve his body on the long passage from Spain to Southampton, it was submerged in a barrel of rum. Upon opening the barrel, the rum had gone. Nelson’s men had attached a tap and emptied the barrel, taking ‘stiff drinks, throughout the voyage home.

National Art Gallery

I was mesmerized by the National Gallery building, both its exterior and as well as interior.

Founded in 1824, it houses over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900.

The building was an object of public ridicule before it was even completed. Its infamous “pepperpot” elevation appeared on the frontispiece of Contrasts (1836). Even King William IV (in his last recorded utterance) called it a “nasty little pokey hole.”

In 1840, during the landscaping of Trafalgar Square, a north terrace was added, which made the building look raised. It makes it look much better. I don’t know what the fuss was about. I liked the building anyway. I think it is very impressive, particularly from the inside.

Fortnum and Mason

While walking through Piccadilly Street, my daughter spotted the Fortnum and Mason departmental store and took us in. “You got to see this,” she said, “this is where Londoners buy gifts.”

Fortnum and Mason cater to high-end shoppers. It was established in 1707 by William Fortnum and Hugh Mason. Starting as a grocery store, it built its reputation on supplying quality food throughout the Victorian era. Later it developed into a department store and focused on stocking various exotic, specialty, and also ‘basic’ provisions.

It caters to royalty and aristocracy. Many of the items on display didn’t even have price tags. Perhaps it works on the principle, “If you need to know the price, you can’t afford it.”

As the story goes, William Fortnum was a footman in the household of Queen Anne. The royal family’s insistence on having new candles every night resulted in large amounts of half-used wax, which Fortnum promptly resold for a tidy profit. The enterprising Fortnum also had a sideline business as a grocer. He convinced his landlord, Hugh Mason, to be his associate, and they founded the first Fortnum & Mason store in Mason’s small shop in St James’s Market in 1707.

Covent Garden

Covent Garden has long been associated with entertainment and shopping. Street entertainment at Covent Garden was noted in Samuel Pepys‘s diary in May 1662, when he recorded the first mention of a Punch and Judy show in Britain. In the eighteenth century, a local celebrity William Cussans gave impromptu performances here.  

Covent Garden is licensed for street entertainment, and performers audition for timetabled slots in several venues around the market, including the North Hall, West Piazza, and South Hall Courtyard. 

The courtyard space is dedicated to classical music only. It has 13 theatres, over 60 pubs and bars, and hundreds of shopping carts.

The street performances happen every day of the year, except on Christmas Day. Shows run throughout the day and are about 30 minutes in length. 

Street artists have to qualify to perform, so the quality of entertainment is outstanding.

What are your experiences of these places? Would you like to share them. Drop me a line please.

Next post is on London Eye and Westminster Abbey. Stay put.

The first few days in a new place are fascinating. You are enchanted by everything – a bookstore, a flower shop, a street sign, a tree, a flower – anything slightly different, and you are mesmerized. A writer’s curiosity takes over, and you want to know more. Writing helps to document all the interesting things you discover during your travels. Give it a few days, and novelty becomes the norm.

The trees lining the streets of London (the one which gives Hay Fever to the friendly taxi driver I wrote about in yesterday’s post) are called the London plane (Platanus x hispanica). It was brought here from Spain in the 17th century and was planted for its ability to thrive in urban conditions (thanks to its bark, which sheds in large flakes, preventing the tree from suffocating under sulphurous grime). It has ball-shaped male and female flowers on the same tree, which get pollinated by wind (hence the hay fever) and develop into bristly fruits.

It was a perfect sunny day today, and we decided to use the weather to see the darkest place in London – the Tower of London.

Tower of London

The Tower has more history and stories associated with it than perhaps any other place in London.

Its construction began in 1070 during the reign of William the Conqueror. The Tower is, in fact, a castle containing 22 towers, a palace, a mint, and living quarters which are still inhabited by the guards of the tower known as Yeoman Warders.

Constructed originally as a palace, it became a prison and execution ground for some of the most famous controversial executions in the history of the English monarchy. Some of the famous people beheaded here were – two wives of King Henry VIII (Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard), sixteen-year-old Lady Jane Grey (queen for nine days), and Robert Dudley (lover of Queen Elizabeth I).

The entry tickets include a free tour run by a 65-year-old Yeoman Warder, Bill Callaghan, who began the tour by introducing himself as follows, “Ladies, please take notice, I live in a castle, in central London, with free parking. And I am single.”

You can watch a glimpse of him in action in this YouTube video.

Yeoman Warder continued to crack jokes all through the tour while giving information. “You are standing near the Bloody Tower. There is nothing bloody about it. It was pure marketing,” he said. 

The Tower of London also houses crown jewels including the Kohinoor and the 530 carat Star of Africa, the largest clear diamond ever found. It originally weighed 3106 carats, massive 621.2 grams. It was later cut into two large pieces, 530 carats and 317 carats, and several smaller ones.

The main building is the White Tower, a comfortable palace at one stage but later turned into prison because of its wet and dark basement. It is now England’s national museum of arms and armor since 1985.

The ruthless King William intended his mighty ‘White Tower’ to dominate the skyline of London and the minds of subjugated Londoners. He succeeded beyond his wildest dreams; nearly a thousand years later, the Tower holds everyone enthralled.

Tower Bridge

From the Tower, we walked on the Tower Bridge, the second most iconic landmark of London after Buckingham Palace. The bridge was constructed between 1886 and 1894. It is a combined bascule and suspension bridge with two spectacular towers that house an exhibition about the bridge. The bridge’s hydraulic system, to lift it to let a ship pass through from underneath, is still operational.

Borough Markets

A must-see market for London’s culinary display was in the vicinity. So we went there to have lunch. There couldn’t be more choices in food and drinks. Catering for the high end of the customers, it had a great ambiance. We managed to find a table and had a mixed kabab box with salad and rice. It was utterly delicious. Topping it with a mango and orange juice, I was ready to explore Cannon Street.

London Bridge

We crossed the river again, this time by London Bridge, the most boring bridge of all. London bridge has quite a history. There were several preceding London bridges before the current concrete and steel structure which opened in 1973. Before it, there was a 19th-century stone-arched bridge, which superseded a 600-year-old stone-built medieval structure. Yet before those, there was a succession of timber bridges, the first of which was built by the Roman founders of London.

St Paul’s Cathedral

We started walking on Cannon street but had no idea where it would take us. Even though we had a copy of ‘London Walks’ (an excellent book to explore London on foot), we kept walking on a whim rather than by the book.

I spotted an interesting-looking building at a distance with a grey dome. At the same time, my husband spotted yet another bridge and wanted to walk across it. We agreed to check out the building first.

The building turned out to be St Paul’s Cathedral. Built on huge grounds, it was an imposing building, too big to be caught on a mobile phone camera.

Built in the 17th century, it is the seat of the Bishop of London. Tickets to go inside were too expensive (20 pounds per person), although you can go for free at the time of morning mass at 7:30 am or evening choir at 5:00 pm.

Millennium Bridge

We crossed the river Thames a third time, this time through the footbridge called Millennium Bridge. The newest of the bridges, it is a suspension bridge which was given the name the “Wobbly Bridge” when it was opened in June 2000. Around 80,000 people crossed the bridge on its opening day, around 2,000 on the bridge at any one time.

It was closed after two days for almost two years while modifications were made to eliminate the motion. It reopened again in February 2002.

It is quite a unique bridge because it was the first new bridge to be built over the Thames in London for more than 100 years. Usually, all new bridges across the Thames require an Act of Parliament to be passed.

There are around 400 tiny works of art on the Millennium Bridge, including the work of street artist The Chewing Gum Man (real name, Ben Wilson). These minuscule masterpieces are painted onto a unique canvas; the chewing gum dropped by other people. Wilson paints tiny scenes, shapes, and figures on the bits of trodden-down gum, using layers of acrylic paint to build up brightly colored, jewel-like blobs on the urban landscape.

The millennium must be a time to build bridges. London’s Millennium Bridge was one of several Y2K projects. There are six other Millennium Bridges in the UK alone: Gateshead, Lancaster, Glasgow, Salford, Stockton-on-Tees, and York, and many around the world.

Fiddler on the Roof

We ended the perfect day by going to the theatre and watching Fiddler on the Roof. A haunting and resonant portrait of the Jewish diaspora from Russia at the beginning of the last century, the show had gone better with time. It had some raving reviews.

Tomorrow, Buckingham Palace and the National Gallery. Stay tuned.

After a twelve-hour flight from Singapore, I got my first glimpse of London from the oval window of the plane. I liked what I saw. The beautiful coastline, rectangular pastures, ships entering the open mouth of a river, rows of houses, lines of trees, snaking roads almost clogged with traffic.

Yay! I was in London.

Our plane was on time, but it had to wait for fifteen minutes in the sky queue for its turn to land at Heathrow.

Once inside the terminal, my husband and I raced the older people (the younger one didn’t care) to get to the immigration line. We were duly rewarded by securing one of the earlier spots behind a mile-long line for an immigration check. 

We snaked through the barricades nine times to get to eGates. Heathrow was making history that day. eGates opening today on the very same day as self-service immigration checkouts. We were out in twenty minutes. Impressive.

We collected our luggage and raced again to catch the Heathrow Express to Paddington station. The train was already at the platform when we got there. Equipped with WiFi, live TV, and very civilized passengers, it deposited us at Paddington station in fifteen minutes. Impressive again.

Paddington station was almost as majestic as I had seen in photographs. The arched glass ceiling covered several platforms giving it a look of a giant hanger. It must be a great engineering feat when it was built.

Railway staff was efficiently exiting the passengers from the shortest possible route. For us, they choose the longest possible one — via lifts.

Dragging our suitcases, we reached the lifts, where my highly held impression of English politeness came crashing down when a massive (English) man with a massive duffle bag and equally massive backpack pushed his way through in an already full lift, cutting a lady before him and squashing all those inside.

Once out of the lift and the Paddington station we queued for taxis. What looked like 1950s models, shiny black cars with no boot were picking the passengers at a snail’s pace. It took half an hour for our turn. 

We found the reason for the slow service pretty soon. Our taxi driver informed us that the famous London Tube wasn’t working. “You see all these people on the pavement; they are walking to their work.”

After a while, I stopped watching people and started watching the old buildings. They were a visual feast.

The taxi driver needed to talk. After the first usual exchange about the weather, flight, and ‘where are you from,’ we got on to the economy. He told us that he was looking to work in Australia as a truck driver in the mining industry at one stage.

“If you could spell ‘mine’ and had a license, they would have taken you straight in.”

“Yeah, now you need a special license to drive a truck,” he said, “which is not a big deal, I would have got it, but I didn’t pursue.”

“It is very hard now. All big companies BHP, Rio Tinto, etc., are using ‘driverless’ trucks,” my husband said.

“Bloody robots! They keep bringing those. I ask them what people will do? How will they feed their families? I tell you, in fifteen years there will be so many unemployed people. Those big companies are there to make money,” he ranted.

“All these ‘driverless’ things I tell you, you won’t get me in any of those things. What will happen if the computer goes berserk.” he continued.

“It does. Not so long ago, BHP had to derail one of the trains which had gone rogue. It cost them millions of dollars to repair the damage,” said my husband.

Our driver was born and bred in London but was not living there anymore. “London is too expensive. I live in Thailand now, near Bangkok. I work here for eight to nine weeks and then go home for a few months. I have a young son; he is going to be six in August. It is getting harder and harder, leaving him back. I thought it would get easier, but it is not. But what can you do? You got to feed your family.”

My heart went for him — a Londoner who can’t afford to live in his own city.

The three Rs of London

I was dying to see the three Rs of London — the red phone booth, the red letterbox, and the red double-decker bus. 

I didn’t have to wait long.

I spotted them in the first ten minutes of walking the streets. There were many in each street. Buses were fine but I couldn’t understand why phone booths and letterboxes were still there. Everyone has a mobile phone and nobody writes letters anymore. 

But the buses were amazing. There was one passing every two seconds. Sometimes a whole row of them. London’s transport system is very efficient, better than many metropolitan cities (except when Tube breaks down).

Trees

I fell in love with massive trees lining the streets of Islington. There was one was right outside the window of my daughter’s unit where we were staying. 

“They are everywhere in London,” told our taxi driver, “They cause Hay Fever. Everybody is allergic to them.”

Markets

In about twenty minutes walk from Islington, we came across two multicultural food markets that were open every day. The Leather Lane food market was more crowded and had mile-long queues in front of the popular stalls. 

It seems Londoners love queues. 

They will wait as if they have all the time in the world. 

We thought maybe it was because one particular food stall was better was than the other, but when we bought chicken wrap from one with no queue, it was equally good.

Berries were in season. 

Strawberries, blackberries, blueberries all were one pound a punnet. 

I bought each kind, and they were all delicious. 

So were the tomatoes. I have never seen such red and delicious tomatoes anywhere.

All in all, great first impression. 

Next article, Tower of London and St Paul’s Cathedral.

 

As soon as I stepped inside the Canberra airport I was in a different mindset. Airports are big cheery buildings when you are going on holidays, not so much when you are travelling for work. They could be quite annoying when travelling for work. 

First thing  that strikes you at airports is that every second shop is a food shop. How come? How much you need to eat before you step in a plane where you are going to be fed anyway (let’s not talk about the quality of the food but you are certainly not going to go hungry)? Besides, for next whatever number of hours, your main activity is going to be to keep your arms and legs to yourself, that surely doesn’t take up too much energy. So why  load up calories? 

It is quiet possible that all the stress of packing, getting to the airport and ensuring that your luggage is within allowance (sometimes up to the second decimal space) makes you hungry as soon as the check-in is complete. 

It doesn’t matter how many times you have been to airports, each time you notice something different. Here is a list of things, in no particular order, which I noticed during my thirty hours travel to London.

Screens 

They are everywhere. Flight information,  advertisement, TV, computer, iPad, mobile phones. A family of four in front of me is all engrossed on their individual devices, from Nana to four year old.

High end shops 

From Swarovski to Tiffany, from Burberry to  Bvlgari, each one competing for tourist dollars. I find the great way to shop there is through their windows.

People watching

Airport are great place for people watching. You can really see people in their elements. From high heels to brand new joggers. From rushing ones to dazed and very sleepy. From wide-eyed to very bored ones.

Snooze lounges

The best invention in the last decade. Carefully scattered at Changi Airport, they are life savers between long flights.

Artwork 

Some wired some nice. Recent trend, the motion art, like the one below at Singapore airport. It was mesmerizing to watch.

No smoking signs

When the airlines are going to get rid of them? Do they really think that anyone would dare to smoke in a flight, with the real chance of getting killed by the fellow passenger. 

Inflight movies

Too many to choose from, only a few worth your time. Then get to watch them again on your way back.

Inflight Magazines

The best source of pictures for decoupage or scrapbooking. No one cares if you tear pages from it.   

Clouds

A pretty amazing sight when the clouds are below you.

Carousel

Have you ever noticed that the first piece of luggage never belongs to anyone? 

What are your experiences of airports and airplanes? Any funny stories? Or painful ones? Want to share with others?

Drop me a line in the comments section below.