Come one come all - Welcome to part one of the friday double bill that you've all been desperately awaiting. I apologise for the delay - I probably should've mentioned that it wouldn't be until later on friday that I would be posting these. Anyway, on with the matter at hand...
On tuesday I went down to see my brother who lives in Welwyn Garden City as a sort of prelude to our planned day out in London on the wednesday. I was picked up by my brother who lives in Leeds on his way down, which was nice as it saved me the torment that is public transport. Actually in all fairness, I have started to enjoy travelling by train as it is the only time I ever get round to reading my book ('The Straw Men' by Michael Marshall - really good so far), but I just can't be doing with paying for it as I am immensely poor after all the christmas shopping.
Got down to WGC by about 8pm to be greeted by beer and wine and lovely food - all greatly appreciated; then had to get a reasonably early night as was due to get up at some horrible time like 7:30am. Though I was compelled to stay up and watch True Lies - good old Arnie.
Wednesday: Ok, so having got up and almost come to terms with being awake before 11am, we then made our way to the train station so we could head into London early to meet my third brother for breakfast at a place called Simpsons. The place was distinctly posh and expensive looking, which was nice. We all ordered their most heff-sized cooked breakfasts, which were extremely tasty and kept us all stuffed for the rest of the day pretty much. We then went about our travels looking at some of the sights on London and trying to walk off atleast a small amount of the vast repast we had just consumed.
This first picture is of Saint Paul's cathedral. Unfortunately, taking the picture from the front of it and being down a hill, you can't really see the big dome on the top of it which is what really makes St. Paul's so distinguisahable.
This next picture is just one of many weird looking buildings that decorate London's streets. Just proof that architects like to see what they can get away with.
Below is the lovely Tower Bridge. We went through their little tour and had a look out along the Thames from the two walkways that join the two towers and also ventured down into the engine rooms to have a gander at some of the old pistons etc.
Whilst walking along the Thames we also stumbled upon the Golden Hinde. This is the ship of Sir Frances Drake. It was kind of hidden out of the way in my opinion, but still, I guess it's finding little surprises like that which make exploring worthwhile.
We also popped into the Tate Modern for a quick peek at what offerings they had which were masquerading as art. From the looks of things it seems to be a large collection of giant sugar cubes piled in no discernable order. We didn't bother looking at any other exhibits after this one, although perhaps we should have as upstairs they may have had a giant cup of coffee or perhaps a 20 foot pony (or however high that is in hands); as we all know ponies love sugar lumps.
Below is a picture of the London Eye, which I shall come back to later as we did go on that, but this was just taken in passing as we were on our way back over the Thames.
After we crossed the Thames again we went round China town (as can be seen to the right), as well as going to Convent Gardens and to Leicester Square. Whilst at Leicester Square we visited the Häagen-dazs restaurant and indulged in some lovely ice cream. It was nice, but I wouldn't say that it was worth the prices that they charge. If memory serves me rightly, I had a two scoop milkshake with one scoop of 'Vanilla with caramel and brownie pieces' and one scoop of 'Strawberries and cream' - it was great.
We finished off the day in London by going on the London Eye which I thought was fantastic. We managed to go on it at a perfect time as well. We went on just as it started to get dark, so all the lights came on but it was still light enough to see everything, or atleast when we first got on it, as it had got pretty dark by the time we reached the top. The best thing about the time we got on was that the queues were nice and short, as by the time we were at the front of the queue it had pretty much trippled in size.
Below are a couple of pictures I took whilst at the top of the Eye. They are both of the Houses of Parliament, but the second one has some stupid effect on it as I was playing with my phone's camera features and I happened to think it looks kinda funky.
After this it was then time to call it a day. My brother who had met us in London headed off back home and the rest of us returned to the house in WGC for chinese and beers. All in all a most excellent day.
The following day, my brother who lives in Leeds dropped my back off in Lincoln on his way home and I then proceeded to get ready to go to Scunthorpe...
On tuesday I went down to see my brother who lives in Welwyn Garden City as a sort of prelude to our planned day out in London on the wednesday. I was picked up by my brother who lives in Leeds on his way down, which was nice as it saved me the torment that is public transport. Actually in all fairness, I have started to enjoy travelling by train as it is the only time I ever get round to reading my book ('The Straw Men' by Michael Marshall - really good so far), but I just can't be doing with paying for it as I am immensely poor after all the christmas shopping.
Got down to WGC by about 8pm to be greeted by beer and wine and lovely food - all greatly appreciated; then had to get a reasonably early night as was due to get up at some horrible time like 7:30am. Though I was compelled to stay up and watch True Lies - good old Arnie.
Wednesday: Ok, so having got up and almost come to terms with being awake before 11am, we then made our way to the train station so we could head into London early to meet my third brother for breakfast at a place called Simpsons. The place was distinctly posh and expensive looking, which was nice. We all ordered their most heff-sized cooked breakfasts, which were extremely tasty and kept us all stuffed for the rest of the day pretty much. We then went about our travels looking at some of the sights on London and trying to walk off atleast a small amount of the vast repast we had just consumed.
This first picture is of Saint Paul's cathedral. Unfortunately, taking the picture from the front of it and being down a hill, you can't really see the big dome on the top of it which is what really makes St. Paul's so distinguisahable.
This next picture is just one of many weird looking buildings that decorate London's streets. Just proof that architects like to see what they can get away with.Below is the lovely Tower Bridge. We went through their little tour and had a look out along the Thames from the two walkways that join the two towers and also ventured down into the engine rooms to have a gander at some of the old pistons etc.
Whilst walking along the Thames we also stumbled upon the Golden Hinde. This is the ship of Sir Frances Drake. It was kind of hidden out of the way in my opinion, but still, I guess it's finding little surprises like that which make exploring worthwhile.
We also popped into the Tate Modern for a quick peek at what offerings they had which were masquerading as art. From the looks of things it seems to be a large collection of giant sugar cubes piled in no discernable order. We didn't bother looking at any other exhibits after this one, although perhaps we should have as upstairs they may have had a giant cup of coffee or perhaps a 20 foot pony (or however high that is in hands); as we all know ponies love sugar lumps.
Below is a picture of the London Eye, which I shall come back to later as we did go on that, but this was just taken in passing as we were on our way back over the Thames.
After we crossed the Thames again we went round China town (as can be seen to the right), as well as going to Convent Gardens and to Leicester Square. Whilst at Leicester Square we visited the Häagen-dazs restaurant and indulged in some lovely ice cream. It was nice, but I wouldn't say that it was worth the prices that they charge. If memory serves me rightly, I had a two scoop milkshake with one scoop of 'Vanilla with caramel and brownie pieces' and one scoop of 'Strawberries and cream' - it was great.
We finished off the day in London by going on the London Eye which I thought was fantastic. We managed to go on it at a perfect time as well. We went on just as it started to get dark, so all the lights came on but it was still light enough to see everything, or atleast when we first got on it, as it had got pretty dark by the time we reached the top. The best thing about the time we got on was that the queues were nice and short, as by the time we were at the front of the queue it had pretty much trippled in size.Below are a couple of pictures I took whilst at the top of the Eye. They are both of the Houses of Parliament, but the second one has some stupid effect on it as I was playing with my phone's camera features and I happened to think it looks kinda funky.
After this it was then time to call it a day. My brother who had met us in London headed off back home and the rest of us returned to the house in WGC for chinese and beers. All in all a most excellent day.
The following day, my brother who lives in Leeds dropped my back off in Lincoln on his way home and I then proceeded to get ready to go to Scunthorpe...
The bottom picture of London looks like a small nuclear explosion has gone off or it's been hit by a shot from a Darlek in one of the old Dr. Who episodes.
Either way; do you think this will affect house prices?
Hehe yeah - I'd like to think its been shot by a Darlek. Can visualise one of those old episodes now :)
If anything I think prices will go up - blue buildings; that'd make me buy a house.