Despite being very exhausted the night before, I still woke up at the ungodly hour of 7am. I blame the weather. It was light and shining at 4.30am in the morning. Can you believe it? I actually thought that I had overslept when I first opened my eyes and realized that it was only 6am in the morning... from there on, it was really very hard to fall asleep. I already had plans to do a free walking tour at 11am. But since I was wide awake, I decided to do some walking around London (quite a bad idea, since my feet really ached after that), but anyhow, I walked to Kensington gardens and Hyde park and had a look around before going for the free tour. Incidentally, that very same day was the London Marathon, so I managed to catch some action as well. I ended off the day with a visit to the British museum... so pictures are below..
Walking around the park
Theatre Hall from opposite the park
Where to go?
Queen Victoria statue in front of Kensington Palace
Kensington Palace grounds
The Sepertine...
Princess Diana Memorial Fountain
Gate to Hyde Park
Statue of Duke Wellington
Another WWII memorial: I think it's for the Indian soldiers.
Wellington Arch: Start of the FREE TOUR!!!
WWII Australian Memorial
WWII New Zealand Memorial
Buckingham Palace! During the free tour, I almost laughed out at how many people have managed to break into the palace and have a "chat" with the queen. So much for having top security.
Tralfalgar Square with the Lord Nelson Memorial. It is also where the National Gallery and National Portrait gallery is. Both of which are free. The National Gallery has the famous Van Gogh Sunflower painting in it. I personally like the National Portrait Gallery better as it houses the portraits of most famous english personalities, think king and queens/ politicians/ royal families (E.g: Elizabeth 1/Margaret Thatcher/Queen Elizabeth II). Nice to put a face to the name..
Nose on the wall: Supposed to be Napoleon's nose
Guard's house
Can you imagine having to sit on a horse and having to deal with tourists taking pictures of you ALL THE TIME.... poor guys... really..
WWII bunker
Group picture of pple who came for the free tour!!!!! And that's only half of the total, coz there were like 2 english guides
Winston Churchill war museum.... WC used this basement as his military headquarters during WWII. 10 pounds for entry... but the guide said that it's not really worth it...
The London Marathon.... the atmosphere was really great here... heaps of people coming on to cheers their family members and friends who were running in the marathon. It did create a real pain for us tourists though, having to take detours everywhere and finding it really hard to cross the road if you so happened to end up on the other side of the road. But overrall, it was kinda cool to just stand around and watch.... made me feel like cheering someone on too!
British Museum: Outside. Best part about museums in London, they are free. And the British museums are one of the best museums to go to, since there are so many famous collections housed there, such as the Egyptian collection, it is truly enormous, and the pictures that I have here are only a few...
British Museum: Interior: Reading Room. Has numerous manuscripts from around the world...
Glass Roof of British Museum
Artifacts "brought" back from Egypt by the British Expedition in the 19th Century. They really have a massive collection of mummies and famous artefacts from Egypt. Almost disgustingly so in fact. Someone once told me, "Everything in the British Museum is stolen from somewhere else..." After looking at the Egyptian collection... I do wonder...
Well preserved mummified body. Trust me it's a real corpse..
Mummies and their coffins...
Mummified cats..... really.. no joke...
Royal Game of Ur
Heh... the famous Rosetta stone....
The parthenon sculptures. Between 1801 and 1805, the British Ambassador, Lord Elgin removed half the remaining sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens to Britain. There is an ongoing debate on whether the sculptures should continue to be displayed in the British museum or brought back to Athens....
Walking around the park
Theatre Hall from opposite the park
Where to go?
Queen Victoria statue in front of Kensington Palace
Kensington Palace grounds
The Sepertine...
Princess Diana Memorial Fountain
Gate to Hyde Park
Statue of Duke Wellington
Another WWII memorial: I think it's for the Indian soldiers.
Wellington Arch: Start of the FREE TOUR!!!
WWII Australian Memorial
WWII New Zealand Memorial
Buckingham Palace! During the free tour, I almost laughed out at how many people have managed to break into the palace and have a "chat" with the queen. So much for having top security.
Tralfalgar Square with the Lord Nelson Memorial. It is also where the National Gallery and National Portrait gallery is. Both of which are free. The National Gallery has the famous Van Gogh Sunflower painting in it. I personally like the National Portrait Gallery better as it houses the portraits of most famous english personalities, think king and queens/ politicians/ royal families (E.g: Elizabeth 1/Margaret Thatcher/Queen Elizabeth II). Nice to put a face to the name..
Nose on the wall: Supposed to be Napoleon's nose
Guard's house
Can you imagine having to sit on a horse and having to deal with tourists taking pictures of you ALL THE TIME.... poor guys... really..
WWII bunker
Group picture of pple who came for the free tour!!!!! And that's only half of the total, coz there were like 2 english guides
Winston Churchill war museum.... WC used this basement as his military headquarters during WWII. 10 pounds for entry... but the guide said that it's not really worth it...
The London Marathon.... the atmosphere was really great here... heaps of people coming on to cheers their family members and friends who were running in the marathon. It did create a real pain for us tourists though, having to take detours everywhere and finding it really hard to cross the road if you so happened to end up on the other side of the road. But overrall, it was kinda cool to just stand around and watch.... made me feel like cheering someone on too!
British Museum: Outside. Best part about museums in London, they are free. And the British museums are one of the best museums to go to, since there are so many famous collections housed there, such as the Egyptian collection, it is truly enormous, and the pictures that I have here are only a few...
British Museum: Interior: Reading Room. Has numerous manuscripts from around the world...
Glass Roof of British Museum
Artifacts "brought" back from Egypt by the British Expedition in the 19th Century. They really have a massive collection of mummies and famous artefacts from Egypt. Almost disgustingly so in fact. Someone once told me, "Everything in the British Museum is stolen from somewhere else..." After looking at the Egyptian collection... I do wonder...
Well preserved mummified body. Trust me it's a real corpse..
Mummies and their coffins...
Mummified cats..... really.. no joke...
Royal Game of Ur
Heh... the famous Rosetta stone....
The parthenon sculptures. Between 1801 and 1805, the British Ambassador, Lord Elgin removed half the remaining sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens to Britain. There is an ongoing debate on whether the sculptures should continue to be displayed in the British museum or brought back to Athens....
