Hugh and I had quite a big day today exploring inner London. We used our Oysters and caught the bus #15 - and yes, it was a double-Decker red bus - into Trafalgar Square for Breakfast. On a Sunday, nothing besides the ever-present Pret-A-Manger was open in Monument.
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So this is their court house....Australia you need to step it up a little. At the very least crims deserve pretty architecture
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We walked into Caffe Concerto, which I think is a chain of cafes much like our Coffee Club, and I had some sort of high tea style continental breakfast that came with lots of carby options for me to start my long day off with.
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| High Breakfast |
Across the road from the Cafe was the National Gallery, so we immediately headed here after breakfast. The Gallery was free entry, which was definitely to our liking! It was quite big, and in the hour and a half we spent there, we probably only got through a quarter of it. I think I much preferred the National Gallery to Uffizi. The artworks were more varied and interesting and held my attention for longer.
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| Water Lilies - Monet |
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| 'The Mall' |
When we got weary of looking at artworks we headed back across the road and walked down the daffodil lined 'Mall' to Buckingham Palace. The sky was lovely and blue so it was a nice day to walk down to the Palace. There wasn't much going on at the Buckingham; just some bored looking guards in the gigantic fluffy black helmets. I don't know how much that job pays, but I think I'm glad its not my job. The lack of doing anything constructive at all would drive me nuts.
Our morning was turning into a bit of an extended walking tour. When we left from Buckingham we walked down to see Big Ben (and some red telephone boxes!). From near Big Ben we were able to board bus #24 to the British Museum, which was again, free.
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| View from St James' Park |
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| Phonebooth & Big Ben |
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| Big Ben! |
The museum was pretty fun. I learnt alot of things about history (that I have since forgotten) and I was super excited to see the Egyptian collection. Another item off my bucket list. Hugh was quite happy about seeing the Rosetta stone. It wasn't hard to miss, all we had to do was find the most crowded area of the museum. It probably took a good 5 minutes to make our way to the front of the crowd for a close-up look, but it was worth it. It was so interesting that they were able to translate so much hieroglyphs when there was only a small section of hieroglyphs compared to the Demotic and Ancient Greek scripts. To think it was used as building material is remarkable.
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| Mummified remains in the British museum |
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| From the Egypt collection |
By the time we made it out of the museum (again, without seeing it all. This place definitely needs a dedicated day just to itself) it was getting late in the afternoon. We knew we would have to think about finding dinner soon, and decided on dinner back near Trafalgar area. We walked from the museum to Leicester Square and then onto Covent Garden. On our wander through we came across the Apple Market. It seemed like a good place to get some British souvenirs, including a cute little bib with the English flag with a bulldog on it for my nephew-to-be. Hugh of course found the British lolly shop, so we stopped in here and I bought a bag full to take home with me to share. I was happy to find an old-fashioned toy shop, 'Benjamin Pollocks Toy Shop' and bought a book of paper dolls to take home with me.
With purchases in hand, Hugh and I headed towards a craft beer pub he had read about (it was still craft beer week) for dinner. I saw a special advertised for pork pies so we both decided to order these, with some sweet potato fries to share.
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| Cold Pork Pies |
I don't think I will ever understand why, but apparently in England they eat pork pies cold. I feel like the menu should have an explanation for tourists because a cold pie was not what I was thinking of when I ordered. They do realise that the weather is ridiculously cold, right? I forced myself to eat about a quarter of the half-pie I was served before I gave up on trying to stop myself from gagging and just ate the fries instead. Hugh did a little better and got through half of his plate.
To make up for our dismal dinner, we stopped into somewhere called the 'Chocolate Hotel' on our way to the tube and got some yummy hot chocolates and pieces of hand-made chocolate to eat as we walked.
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| Inside Sky Garden |
I had previously booked (tickets need to be booked about a month in advance) us some free (again) tickets to Sky Garden for 8pm. Sky Garden was only one street away from our hotel at 20 Fenchurch st, so we went straight to there from the tube. To gain access to the Sky Garden, you have to arrive before your booking slot to go through security procedures, and up the lifts to level 35.
Sky Garden was kept mostly dark, with low-toned mood lighting scattered around the sitting area and amongst the trees. The views to London were beautiful at that time of night. We ventured out onto the deck to look across the river Thames. It was very high up for someone who doesn't like heights. So long as I looked across and not down, I was ok, but I felt much better when we left the deck to stroll through the garden inside. It was a really romantic space. Hugh and I found a bench among the trees to steal an uninterrupted kiss and to sit and enjoy the ambiance.
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| The view of The Shard from Sky Garden |
All too soon our hour was up and we walked the short distance back to our hotel.
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