London

Are you prepared for a long post? Breath in, breath out!

We had some free time during Christmas Holiday so we decided to visit London. We stayed 4 days, having enough time to visit some of the main touristic objectives: Buckingham Palace, Westminster Palace, Westminster Abey, London Eye, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral, Tate Modern, British Museum and Natural History Museum. We wished that we could visit more, but the daily schedule of all these finished usually at 5:30 and it was very cold outside making any more visits difficult.

We were hosted at Pembury Hotel, close to Arsenal FC (Finsbury Park) . The employees were nice but the en-suite rooms are very small and for the Continental Breakfast you could choose a combination of ... bread, butter, cheese and jam. Additional tea, juice and cold milk and cereals of course... It looked so much with a Romanian Communist old cantine!!! You know that style... NEXT! HURRY! WE DON'T HAVE TIME! Views with people looking disappointed at their plates were not a surprise...The doors were blocked at 5 minutes to ten so there were people begging for that breakfast but they weren't let in. :) It was a funny moment when a Spanish guy staying at a table inside noticing that no personnel was close, opened the blocked door for another couple, making the Breakfast Nazis angry. A true hero that guy! All my respect for him!

We found near our hotel a Turkish kebab house and a Portuguese restaurant, so we were happy with some good, tasty chicken & lamb kebabs and Portuguese's dishes and our favourites Pasteis de Nata, of course!

Transportation is very easy using the tube, which is the fastest way of traveling inside London. It's £ 5.30 a pass for all day (zones I and II, where the touristic attractions are).

So... let's begin:

The first famous place seen was Buckingham Palace. Being the period between Christmas and New Year's Eve, the square in front of it was full of tourists. Despite the low temperatures, I think they were hoping that the Queen will get out for a jog or something, cause many were looking like hypnotised in the palace's direction.

Buckingham Palace

Westminster Abey and Westminster Palace (where Big Ben is incorporated). Unfortunately it was already a big queue, so if you wanted to step inside, first you had to froze outside...

Westminster Abey

Big Ben and Big Ovidiu

London Eye
(I'm looking like an icon, don't I?)

Tower Bridge

Tower of London

Inside Tower of London we found the British Arsenal, how the Saxon Castles were built and some stories. The fortress walls were designed first to impress rather to be efficient.

The White Tower

Here's what you can find in the White Tower: weapons and armours from different times. The structure was build with pipes in the walls, so from that castle there was no smoke, all the smoke from the chimneys was going through pipes up and down, heating the building.

Guns

Rifles

Gun Powder Barrels

The guide said that they had so many gun powder barrels that one day the ceiling collapsed...

Fancy Armour

Take a look at this armour! :) So now, after you noticed the middle part, you have to know that this armour wasn't designed for battles, it was more for ceremonies, the "penis protection" was according to the fashion of that ages. We don't know for sure it that was the real size... but for sure impressed.

The Garderobe

This is the garderobe, or the royal toilet with double function: the toilet had normal use, like a latrine, not with water system, but with gravity system instead. What was surprising is that they used this small room also to keep their clothes. Sounds hilarious but it was true! They thought that the ammonium in the urine is killing the parasite insects living in their clothes.

The Tower of London is also famous for the executions inside it. The nobles condemned to death (especially the ladies) had the privilege to be executed inside the walls, not in public. Since the convicts were also prisons in the Tower, many of them saw the platforms built for their own execution. For Anne Boleyn they brought a professional executioner from France since she preferred to be beheaded in the French way.

Madame Tussauds

It was a good experience, a real show inside. Totally worth it! Here are some pictures with some important figures:

J-Lo recognizing fresh meat

My sticky friend

Over there John, I saw some Indians!

4-3-1-2... Chivu in the left side! What do you think?

C'mon! Show me your best move!

My Princesses

Good party girl! hi5!

C'mon mate, let's drink a vodka!

I say: Let's impale them!

Madame Tussauds and I

Trafalgar Square, Lord Nelson upstairs

Covent Garden, lot of social life here

Be careful! If you take the underground to get here, don't take the stairs to the surface, take the elevators! There are 136 steps! There are more than you think! We made that small mistake...

inside Tate Modern, a kind of giant spider

If you like modern art, lot of patience and a guide it's worth it! Otherwise, not really!

St. Paul's Cathedral

The British Museum

The British Museum, inside

There are all kind of everything, some of the pieces are unique!

Easter Island statue

Rosetta Stone (ancient translations of Egiptian Hieroglyphs)

Sumerian Statues & Fresques

Egyptian Sarcophagus

Egiptian Mummies

Oxus Treasure

The Nereid Monument

The Natural History Museum

Inside, we found the dinosaurus! I want to tell you that since I had the Dino Album I was dreaming to see someday dinosaurus bones and relicts! It tooked me several months to complete that album, in the 6th grade and I was so happy now to see them for real!

Dinosaurus Fosil

Tyranosaurus Rex & Suciulicus Rex

London left me a good impression overall, for a multicultural city of its size. If you want knowledge, that's the place! I just have the feeling that we will return! :)