London - Day 1

Finally here to blog about my highlight of this year - my first ever trip to UK and France! It's like traveling around 3 cities in 5 days because we went to Paris, London and Oxford in total. It was a super efficient, fruitful, yet tiring one but kudos to my lil sister for arranging everything - accomodation, flights, and also researching about the interesting tourist spots. We managed to spend efficiently and didn't overspend.. that is until we reached Paris's Printempts Departmental Store (more about that later). Dad's shopping habit is worse than a woman's lol ok im digressing..

Went to T3 and had Thai Express for dinner w my family before boarding Qatar. We were gonna take a 6-7 hour flight, transit at Doha for 2-3 hours, then take another 6-7 hour flight to London Heathrow Airport. Phew~

Watched big bang theory, new girl and slept on and off throughout the flight.

Doha was super warm, we could feel the heat when we exited from the plane, and it was night time there. Seriously no joke it was super humid! Anyway we went exploring around, the Nutella and Marlboro was HUUUUUUUUUUUGE

Had a fast food meal while transiting and it costs SGD 64 OMGGGG and it didnt even taste THAT good. Oh well.

Finally... some time later we reached Heathrow Airport, took the tube and finally found our hotel - Gower House Hotel (B&B).

It was around 12-1 in the afternoon UK time, so we had a full day to enjoy!

We were earlier than planned though, check in time was only 3pm so we had few hours to ourselves. Got a map from the hotel and went around exploring!

 Zoomed this plane shot like crazy. Clear innit?

Decided to settle at Caffe Concerto for brunch. The interior and ambience was total classy and fab. Shifted and sat indoors due to the unpredictable gloomy weather. It was still early autumn and the weather was super cooling, due to the winds. It was noon so it was considered to be quite warm already. I was loving the weather!

My first meal there -  Eggs Benedict with Smoked Salmon + Pot of Tea! It tasted great~ Dad had classic breakfast and it was pretty filling i think.

We decided to head for the British Museum and along the way we were browsing around gift shops, and checking out the area.

Maple leaves everywhere~ cant find that in Singapore!

The parks there are so scenic, it looks like those nature magazines/pictures we see on telly. The people were literally frolicking around the park, sitting/lying in/on the grass and playing their guitars, walking their dogs. It is such a relaxing feeling~ Btw the tree trunk in the picture above is super thick! Like around 5-6 tree trunks in SG?

 THIS IS A HOTEL OK OMG SO GRAND

Gift shops!!!All the stuff there super cute!

Soz lah this was my flight outfit and i didnt get to wash up ok!

Streets! It's like victorian architecture so it looks rustic but classy/grand!

JUST HOW CAN YOU NOT TAKE PHOTO WITH THEIR SIGNATURE TELEPHONE BOOTHS? TELL ME HOW

Their mail box! Reminds me of Mr Bean..

Reached the British Museum! 

Totally touristy shot

I was super excited to be there lol!!!!!!!!

There were many hot-dog/coffee/ice cream stands available and they were so cute!~

Yeah the interior of the museum is super grand and spacious and HUUUGE. The flight of stairs in the picture below reminds me of Hogwarts.

Taking photography to the next level.. LOOK AT THAT HUGE ASS CAMERA

 Reminds me of the goblet of fire HAHAHA

This was one of the original models of the solar system.. looks super special so i took a photo + description of it.

Look at the shelves and shelves of books that extends all the way up to the ceiling. I WANNA HAVE IT TOO

The architecture here reminds me of the Explanade.. totally same concept i think.

Was totally tired after that so we went back to the hotel and tapped on wifi (!!!) while waiting for the rooms.. 

It was an old victorian hotel so they didnt allow huge scale renovations because they wanted to preserve the state of the building i think. So, there were no lifts and we had to carry our heavy luggage up the many flights of stairs! Thank god one of the hotel guests helped us cos we really didnt have the strength for it. The hotel floor was slanted so it was really quite interesting too. We couldn't boil water so we had to buy a lot of bottled water cos we get so thirsty easily. There was also no airconditioning but it didnt feel too humid though. It was just nice.


After a few hours, we got out, took the tube to Waterloo station to catch Big Ben and the London Eye!

Ate dinner at this place called 'Enough to Feed an Elephant'. Well they really weren't joking about it cos their servings were huge and we barely finished it! But felt super satisfied after that!

While waiting for our time slot for the London Eye we strolled around. The weather then is just SUPER COLD especially we were near the river(?) so the wind was super strong.

BIG BENZXZXZXZX HELLO

Dad was feeling hungry AGAIN lol

 
What did I say about the super strong wind? NO LIE I was so cold

 

Dad talking to a statue lol i kid..

ELLO DUA BEN BEN

Saw this small section of Madam Tussauds wax figures so we took some photos w it 

 David Beckham!

 Kate Winslet - Aka Rose from Titanic

Also went to this short 3D screening of the london eye and took those memento photos thingy

Didnt buy it so i snapped a quick photo of it lol

YAY AND ITS LONDON EYE TIME. We chose the night slot because the the buildings light up at night and the scenery was breathtaking. So glad that we chose to go there at night.

It was taking the tube straight back into the hotel after that. Btw they gave the keys to our room plus the hotel entrance key so it was kinda different and interesting. I guess the staff dont work 24/7 so they gave the keys to their guests? I slept like a mother pig of course. It was a SUPER tiring first day cos ours were literally longer than everybody else. Day 2 soon!