On July 12th, after a light sleep because of the "emergency evacuation drill" and jet lag, we woke up early to go sightseeing.
Correction; I made my hubby wake up because I wanted to go sightseeing!
"Common, baby! Today is the first and last day when we can fully use our day to go sightseeing in London!!"
"Seriously? We can sleep more..."
"No way! London is a BIG city!! We have many many places to go to!!"
Rubbing his sleepy eyes, my hubby guided me to Buckingham Palace. (Because basically, I have no sense of direction;)
During summer, the palace guards are changed every morning in a musical military cerem
ony. It is supposed to be one of the highlights of London's sightseeing!! We went there 30 minutes before the ceremony...but in fact, there were soooo many people(tourists!) I took pictures of marching guards, but actually, I didn't see them. I stretched my arms as much as I could, and took many pictures! This picture is even a successful one, you know...
Guards of the Buckingham Palace have protected the British Queen, Elizabeth Ⅱ. When she is in the palace, the British flag is displayed. When she is away, the Royal flag is shown. When we went there...here it was! The British flag! I was excited to see that because I watched the movie, "The Queen." I was impressed how Queen Elizabeth had influenced the British!! Oh, she is there! Your Majesty, here I am! I talked to the queen inside me.
While the majority of the tourists were going back to a station, we entered the Guards Museum. Correction: a souvenir shop of the museum.
We supposed the British people love guards! Look at those miniature guard dolls!!
After 10 minutes walk, the Westminster Abbey appeared in front of us. Wow! It's marvelous!! I was reminded of the movie, "The Da Vinci Code." Ah hah! This is the place where Teabing was caught!! We entered the Abbey. Correction;a souvenir shop of the Abbey...
As a traveler MISER Keiko, I should mention this. Before we flew to London, I made lists of places I would like to go & their entrance fees. The sum was...also, SKY-HIGH!! In each famous sightseeing place, we needed around ￡10- 15 to enter it. I calculated, then I found...We needed ￡64 per person if we entered EVERY place where I wanted to go!! It meant, we had to pay almost $300 dollars for the two of us!! It's ridiculous!!
Therefore, we decided not to enter them, but to enjoy their appearance & SOUVENIR shops... Oh, don't worry! We "entered" many famous places in Paris and Brussels☆
Our itinerary of the day was like the "standard London sightseeing tour." After we left the Westminster Abbey, we visited (I mean, we "saw") the House of Parliament. I looked up at the big building & famous Big Ben. Oh, ar
e MPs(Members of Parliament) here right now? The very new prime minister, Mr. Gordon Brown is speaking here? It was fun to imagine that! Across the fence, we found many cars. Maybe...MPs' cars?
But... Hah! Most of them had old common cars...not gorgeous ones. Probably it's because of the high prices in London?? We guessed so...
We went across the River Thames by taking Westminster Bridge. Have you noticed something in London's pictures? Yes! It was really cloudy!! It is often said "in London, it is rare to have sunny days." It WAS true!! We felt chilly even though it was the middle of July. Actually, some Londoners wore winter coats! We regretted not having warmer clothes. However...later, we found it was REALLY hot in Paris!!
We walked around the gorgeous, Marriot Hotel. There are some places for street performers. We enjoyed watching them, and I also enjoyed watching British school boys& girls! In America, most schools don't have uniforms. But British students wore uniforms! They looked exclusive & cute to me.
Beside the Marriot Hotel, "London Eye", the big ferris wheels, were there. Each wheel of the London Eye was so huge that
25 people could ride in one compartment! We didn't ride in it because...it cost ￡25 for the two of us!! But the real reason was... we just watched the movie, "The Fantastic Four 2." In the movie, the big Ferris wheels were about to fall down!! We were acrophobes...
Finally, we took the tube (After Buckingham Palace, we had been walking!), and went to St. Paul's Cathedral, which is the wedding place of a former British princess, Diana!! When we exited the tube, we had no idea where we were. Then, I found a small nice church, so I asked a girl who coincidentally walked up to me.
"Excuse me! Is it St. Paul's Cathedral?" The girl frowned,
"What? No way!! St. Paul's Cathedral is over there! Turn right there, and walk
for awhile. You'll find it!"
We did what she said, then... We found it! Oh my God! It's huge!! I understand why the girl said, "No way!" Diana's wedding place must not be such a small church!! The girl must have thought I was a stupid tourist...
After this "standard London sightseeing tour," I think we did the "custom-made tour!" because we went to a golf shop in Liverpool☆
The golf shop looked the same as American golf shops. But this is Great Britain, the motherland of golf!
We found some good products☆
Since we left our hotel, we hadn't had lunch!! It was about 2:00pm. I suggested, "How about having "afternoon tea" at the most gorgeous department store...Harrods!!" I planned it as a climax of our London tour indeed!!
Harrods is the (maybe) most popular & one of the LARGEST departments in the world. It has over one million square feet (six million square meters) of selling space in over 330 departments!! Harrods brand products like clothes, character goods, or even food, are sophisticated & elegant because this department had many honors from the British royal families!!
Many people all over the world love their products too, so even in Japan, even in my hometown Sapporo, there are some Harrods' shops!
We (maybe just me?) were excited to visit Harrods, and also nervous. Because they want to keep their "elegant" atmosphere, the doormen check the visitors' fashions, we heard. If the doormen judged the visitor is inappropriate for the department, they would deny the visitors to enter the store!!
In fact, we "saw" the actual "denial" scene.
There were a group of American( we can recognized them by their accents) tourists beside us. The group was from young boys to middle-aged women. They wore T-shirts, short pants, and had backpacks. When they were about to enter Harrods, a doorman stopped them.
Door man: "Sorry, but you can't enter."
Woman in the group:"What??"
Doorman: "I said, you can't enter."
Woman: "What!? Why!? "
Doorman: " TOURISTS can not enter our department. "
People in the group: "＃〇！＄★и☆？Φ..."
It was the first "quarrel of the American versus European..." Actually, we saw the other one in Paris!!
Anyway, looking at the screaming Americans out of the corner of our eyes, we slipped into Harrods. Sorry about that! We are also TOURISTS, but... We were allowed to enter? or the doorman was too busy to check us. Safe!!
Harrods was truly MAGNIFICENT!! The first area we saw was the famous food halls with gorgeous Edwardian tiles!!
I am sorry I didn't take pictures of the hall! I wanted to show you, but I heard some guards said something to tourists with cameras. I was a coward! But I took the food picture in a second☆
Slashing through the crowd, (There were soooo many people in Harrods!!) we took an elevator to go to the Georgian restaurant.
Finally we could have seats and have lunch.... Correction; afternoon tea. "Afternoon tea" means a light meal between breakfast and dinner.
In the 19th century, the British had just two meals a day. The British aristocrats
enjoyed "afternoon tea" between two meals.
Now, this light meal is famous as a British speciality!! Look at the picture!!
The afternoon tea tray has three tiered plates. The lowest is sandwiches. The middle is scones with jam & butter. The upper is sweets! Also, of course we had veeery fine tea☆ We were satisfied, but we made fun of the "price" again.
Hubby: "It cost ￡20 per person... So, how many yen is this?"
Keiko: "Probably... about ￥10,000??"
Hubby: "Correct! Tea for ￥10,000!! Enjoy the FINE tea☆"
Yeah, right...
After the rest, we (maybe, just "I" ) was absorbed in looking at MAGNIFICENT Harrods products: sport goods, interior goods, clothes, shoes, stationary, food, cosmetic, brand name goods... Everything looked interesting to me!
At the book store, I found the former Princess Diana's magazine. Coincidentally , it was the 10th commemoration year of Diana's death.
I suddenly remembered the relationship between Diana and
Harrods. When she died in a car crash, she was with Dodi Al Fayed, the son of the Harrods' owner. Diana and Dodi were romantically related at that time. After the accident, the British royal family honors for Harrods were rescinded. Can you see the picture of the Harrods' appearance? Ten years ago, they displayed many "royal flags." However, after the tragedy,this long standing store hasn't been allowed to do that.
Hmmmm... I was excited about Harrods like a "craze." But the elegant store has such a long history in London!! I understood.
After we looked at all floors, I came to myself. Wow! It's already 7:00pm!! We spent 5 hours to look around the department store!!
I said, "Well, it's good! If we came here in a tour, we couldn't have had enough time to look everything!!"
But my hubby said, " I guess you may need a tour guide who can manage time... I couldn't stop you!!"
Uh-oh. Maybe I was so excited that I didn't notice my honey was exhausted!!
Oh, my God! Because we took too much time to look around a golf shop & mostly Harrods, we forgot to visit the London Tower & London Bridge which are the highlight sightseeing spots in London!!
"Maybe, on the next trip?" When I asked him, he drooped, "NO WAY!!!"
Gosh! My writing is getting longer & longer! I can imagine as I write each day in my travel journal, it will become longer!!
Somebody stops me!!!
Correction; I made my hubby wake up because I wanted to go sightseeing!
"Common, baby! Today is the first and last day when we can fully use our day to go sightseeing in London!!"
"Seriously? We can sleep more..."
"No way! London is a BIG city!! We have many many places to go to!!"
Rubbing his sleepy eyes, my hubby guided me to Buckingham Palace. (Because basically, I have no sense of direction;)
During summer, the palace guards are changed every morning in a musical military cerem
ony. It is supposed to be one of the highlights of London's sightseeing!! We went there 30 minutes before the ceremony...but in fact, there were soooo many people(tourists!) I took pictures of marching guards, but actually, I didn't see them. I stretched my arms as much as I could, and took many pictures! This picture is even a successful one, you know...Guards of the Buckingham Palace have protected the British Queen, Elizabeth Ⅱ. When she is in the palace, the British flag is displayed. When she is away, the Royal flag is shown. When we went there...here it was! The British flag! I was excited to see that because I watched the movie, "The Queen." I was impressed how Queen Elizabeth had influenced the British!! Oh, she is there! Your Majesty, here I am! I talked to the queen inside me.
While the majority of the tourists were going back to a station, we entered the Guards Museum. Correction: a souvenir shop of the museum.
We supposed the British people love guards! Look at those miniature guard dolls!!
After 10 minutes walk, the Westminster Abbey appeared in front of us. Wow! It's marvelous!! I was reminded of the movie, "The Da Vinci Code." Ah hah! This is the place where Teabing was caught!! We entered the Abbey. Correction;a souvenir shop of the Abbey...
As a traveler MISER Keiko, I should mention this. Before we flew to London, I made lists of places I would like to go & their entrance fees. The sum was...also, SKY-HIGH!! In each famous sightseeing place, we needed around ￡10- 15 to enter it. I calculated, then I found...We needed ￡64 per person if we entered EVERY place where I wanted to go!! It meant, we had to pay almost $300 dollars for the two of us!! It's ridiculous!!Therefore, we decided not to enter them, but to enjoy their appearance & SOUVENIR shops... Oh, don't worry! We "entered" many famous places in Paris and Brussels☆
Our itinerary of the day was like the "standard London sightseeing tour." After we left the Westminster Abbey, we visited (I mean, we "saw") the House of Parliament. I looked up at the big building & famous Big Ben. Oh, ar
e MPs(Members of Parliament) here right now? The very new prime minister, Mr. Gordon Brown is speaking here? It was fun to imagine that! Across the fence, we found many cars. Maybe...MPs' cars?But... Hah! Most of them had old common cars...not gorgeous ones. Probably it's because of the high prices in London?? We guessed so...
We went across the River Thames by taking Westminster Bridge. Have you noticed something in London's pictures? Yes! It was really cloudy!! It is often said "in London, it is rare to have sunny days." It WAS true!! We felt chilly even though it was the middle of July. Actually, some Londoners wore winter coats! We regretted not having warmer clothes. However...later, we found it was REALLY hot in Paris!!
We walked around the gorgeous, Marriot Hotel. There are some places for street performers. We enjoyed watching them, and I also enjoyed watching British school boys& girls! In America, most schools don't have uniforms. But British students wore uniforms! They looked exclusive & cute to me.Beside the Marriot Hotel, "London Eye", the big ferris wheels, were there. Each wheel of the London Eye was so huge that
25 people could ride in one compartment! We didn't ride in it because...it cost ￡25 for the two of us!! But the real reason was... we just watched the movie, "The Fantastic Four 2." In the movie, the big Ferris wheels were about to fall down!! We were acrophobes...Finally, we took the tube (After Buckingham Palace, we had been walking!), and went to St. Paul's Cathedral, which is the wedding place of a former British princess, Diana!! When we exited the tube, we had no idea where we were. Then, I found a small nice church, so I asked a girl who coincidentally walked up to me.
"Excuse me! Is it St. Paul's Cathedral?" The girl frowned,
"What? No way!! St. Paul's Cathedral is over there! Turn right there, and walk
for awhile. You'll find it!"We did what she said, then... We found it! Oh my God! It's huge!! I understand why the girl said, "No way!" Diana's wedding place must not be such a small church!! The girl must have thought I was a stupid tourist...
After this "standard London sightseeing tour," I think we did the "custom-made tour!" because we went to a golf shop in Liverpool☆
The golf shop looked the same as American golf shops. But this is Great Britain, the motherland of golf!
We found some good products☆
Since we left our hotel, we hadn't had lunch!! It was about 2:00pm. I suggested, "How about having "afternoon tea" at the most gorgeous department store...Harrods!!" I planned it as a climax of our London tour indeed!!
Harrods is the (maybe) most popular & one of the LARGEST departments in the world. It has over one million square feet (six million square meters) of selling space in over 330 departments!! Harrods brand products like clothes, character goods, or even food, are sophisticated & elegant because this department had many honors from the British royal families!!Many people all over the world love their products too, so even in Japan, even in my hometown Sapporo, there are some Harrods' shops!
We (maybe just me?) were excited to visit Harrods, and also nervous. Because they want to keep their "elegant" atmosphere, the doormen check the visitors' fashions, we heard. If the doormen judged the visitor is inappropriate for the department, they would deny the visitors to enter the store!!
In fact, we "saw" the actual "denial" scene.
There were a group of American( we can recognized them by their accents) tourists beside us. The group was from young boys to middle-aged women. They wore T-shirts, short pants, and had backpacks. When they were about to enter Harrods, a doorman stopped them.
Door man: "Sorry, but you can't enter."
Woman in the group:"What??"
Doorman: "I said, you can't enter."
Woman: "What!? Why!? "
Doorman: " TOURISTS can not enter our department. "
People in the group: "＃〇！＄★и☆？Φ..."
It was the first "quarrel of the American versus European..." Actually, we saw the other one in Paris!!
Anyway, looking at the screaming Americans out of the corner of our eyes, we slipped into Harrods. Sorry about that! We are also TOURISTS, but... We were allowed to enter? or the doorman was too busy to check us. Safe!!
Harrods was truly MAGNIFICENT!! The first area we saw was the famous food halls with gorgeous Edwardian tiles!!
I am sorry I didn't take pictures of the hall! I wanted to show you, but I heard some guards said something to tourists with cameras. I was a coward! But I took the food picture in a second☆
Slashing through the crowd, (There were soooo many people in Harrods!!) we took an elevator to go to the Georgian restaurant.
Finally we could have seats and have lunch.... Correction; afternoon tea. "Afternoon tea" means a light meal between breakfast and dinner.
In the 19th century, the British had just two meals a day. The British aristocrats
enjoyed "afternoon tea" between two meals.Now, this light meal is famous as a British speciality!! Look at the picture!!
The afternoon tea tray has three tiered plates. The lowest is sandwiches. The middle is scones with jam & butter. The upper is sweets! Also, of course we had veeery fine tea☆ We were satisfied, but we made fun of the "price" again.
Hubby: "It cost ￡20 per person... So, how many yen is this?"
Keiko: "Probably... about ￥10,000??"
Hubby: "Correct! Tea for ￥10,000!! Enjoy the FINE tea☆"
Yeah, right...
After the rest, we (maybe, just "I" ) was absorbed in looking at MAGNIFICENT Harrods products: sport goods, interior goods, clothes, shoes, stationary, food, cosmetic, brand name goods... Everything looked interesting to me!
At the book store, I found the former Princess Diana's magazine. Coincidentally , it was the 10th commemoration year of Diana's death.
I suddenly remembered the relationship between Diana and
Harrods. When she died in a car crash, she was with Dodi Al Fayed, the son of the Harrods' owner. Diana and Dodi were romantically related at that time. After the accident, the British royal family honors for Harrods were rescinded. Can you see the picture of the Harrods' appearance? Ten years ago, they displayed many "royal flags." However, after the tragedy,this long standing store hasn't been allowed to do that.Hmmmm... I was excited about Harrods like a "craze." But the elegant store has such a long history in London!! I understood.
After we looked at all floors, I came to myself. Wow! It's already 7:00pm!! We spent 5 hours to look around the department store!!
I said, "Well, it's good! If we came here in a tour, we couldn't have had enough time to look everything!!"
But my hubby said, " I guess you may need a tour guide who can manage time... I couldn't stop you!!"
Uh-oh. Maybe I was so excited that I didn't notice my honey was exhausted!!
Oh, my God! Because we took too much time to look around a golf shop & mostly Harrods, we forgot to visit the London Tower & London Bridge which are the highlight sightseeing spots in London!!
"Maybe, on the next trip?" When I asked him, he drooped, "NO WAY!!!"
Gosh! My writing is getting longer & longer! I can imagine as I write each day in my travel journal, it will become longer!!
Somebody stops me!!!
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