Being an experienced Londoner, today it was Amir's job to map out a route to cover off most of the inner city landmarks. We started off at Trafalgar Square which is a large square as the name suggests, a couple of museums at one end and the road down to Downing Street opposite. Nothing to see at Downing Street though, as it's all blocked off by security, all you get the see if the street sign and the stupid English post code that accompanies it.
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| Trafalgar Square. |
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| Also Trafalgar Square. |
Heading further in that direction was the bridge to the London Eye wheel, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. The Houses of Parliament was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. Next stop was the Westminster Abbey church, I know it by name but wouldn't have recognised it if I walked past it, I believe it's the one in the shape of a cross on the inside, which would explain why there was a big entrance way at both the front and the side of the building. Finally to the most famous landmark, Buckingham Palace via St James Park. There was some kind of demonstration happening at Buckingham Palace, so there was lots of people around and the streets were blocked off so you couldn't walk around everywhere or get up too close.
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| Downing Street. |
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| London Big Wheel. |
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| London big clock. |
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| Westminster Abbey. |
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| Lots of people waiting for the Queen to show up. |
Walked towards the west end of London next to stop by Harrod's, after Amir managed to get lost, pretty disappointing. Not very impressive, it's just one big department store like a Myer only the price is about three times as much. To Hyde Park Corner next, didn't explore the whole park as that would probably take a half day in itself. The intersection around Hyde Park is ridiculously busy though. Marble Arch was nearby, at the top end of Oxford Street. Despite the clue given from the name, Amir was convinced there wasn't actually a marble arch there, so I won that one. Some other monuments there too, like a big horses head and some jellybean men.
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| The not-so-great Harrod's store, apparently it has a good food court... |
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| The Marble Arch really exists! |
Walked down Oxford Street, which is supposedly the world's busiest street, or shopping street, or something, and I guess it does have a look of shops (and people walking slowly). Turned off at Regent Street after Bond Street, to head down to Picadilly Circus, where there is still more shops, some theatres and other stuff. I think Amir was out of energy after that, and since the halal shops were closed for rashomon I took the train by myself up to Wembley Central, to check out the famous Wembley Stadium. Not a big fan of the arch that goes over the top, but the rest of the stadium seemed alright from the outside.
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| Regent Street. |
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| The new Wembley Stadium. |
I've also been getting my first chance to experience English television. There are more channels than in Australia, but some of them are more dedicated to certain topics. For example, there's a channel that shows almost nothing but Top Gear, there's a brilliant "challenge" channel which shows old game shows like The Krypton Factor and Takeshi's Castle and so on. There didn't seem to be quite so much US television programs on, which was a little surprising.
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