Experiencing Culture in London, UK - Part 7 & Part 8

Day 7 ( 18 Sept' 14 )

Today's first landmark we going to visit was the Buckingham Palace to see the Guard Changing Ceremony at 11.30am. We went 1 hour earlier to get a better spot but still can't really see the whole ceremony because too much people blocking. 

That is all I can see about Buckingham Palace.... gilded railings & gates... And then need to peek through.

People squeezing and the police guards "look after the traffic".

Actually it feels amazing that I can see Her Majesty's official residence in London! I cannot imagine, the Queen's home is in front of me, Her Majesty used to stay here, what Her Majesty do inside, how was the life.... All those sort of Royalty. And I found an interesting site that talked about the facts of Buckingham Palace, so if you don't mind to spend some times on it (Strongly recommended!).. please read 40 Facts about Buckingham Palace. I promised you will get Wowwwww, Ohhh, WOW!

More people you can see all around!! All visitors.. How many visitors come everyday?! But take note on the days of Guard Changing,  some period was daily, some period was the day after.

Patted the horse that the ride by the police after getting the permission because I scare I will get caught by simply touching the royal property! They stood so close to us!

This is what everyone waited for hours for... around 30mins of parada.

Everything ended at 12pm then we took underground tube to Stratford to visit Discover Children's Story Centre but we have to wait until 4pm then the tour will only start. So before that we went to eat our late lunch in an Middle East Restaurant. I am quite surprise that how nice the workers there let us stayed inside the restaurant without doing anything for quite long (waiting the time passed) even though we finished our meal quite long ago, some of us took some nap by lying on the couch or table. Lying on couch was the most comfortable because I did it too. Restore energy!

Everyone were just too tired...

Finally time to look around but it took less than 30 mins inside there.

London streets always will note out where to look when you cross the road, which is a very good idea for tourist from different country. Thumbs up!

Reminder of vehicles will coming from the right.

We then went London Olympic Stadium by walking and passed through Westfield which gave a very nice and comfortable environment. Surrounding view:

Installation surrounding

Bridge connected to another side of malls.

Westfield is like another land that is out of the busy city which I felt it is a surprise from another surprise. After passing through the sea of people, we came to a more quiet place... The land of designers' masterpieces.

Floating ball of lighting.

London Olympic Aquatic Centre.. The cur~~~ve~~

Olympic Stadium London

Learned extra knowledge! Normally who will care so much about what the history or future development of a building/structure? Maybe only me. Olympic Stadium opened in 2011 was constructed to serve as the host stadium for the 2012 summer Olympics & Paralympics. In late 2013, it was closed for renovation and will be reopen in 2016. It will become a long-term home of West Ham United Football Club & British Athletics. 

We then traveled back to city centre by taking the rail and proceed to the Heritage & Culture Walk around the city. London Eye, Big Ben, Wetsminster Abbey & Trafalgar Square are all in the list.

Panorama view in front of the Big Ben.

Millennium Wheel, aka London Eye 

The largest 4 faced chiming clock in the world and 3rd tallest free standing clock tower!

For me, every scenes in London are drawings for me, because of those building styles, architectures, environments, people, vehicles, roads...everyhting. Yes Paris got all those significance buildings and nice architecture too, but I don't really inspired much from there but here...I am just totally fall in love with London! I could not pictured all of them but I used my eyes to captured and saved in my mind. I wanted to be back to London again and I WILL in one day!

The drawing that  I mentioned.

Dang Dang Danggg! The Westminster Abbey Church the gothic style church where royal weddings take place! Price William & Kate got married here. Ain't it too gorgeous with those sweet moments happened here before?! Royal life is so eventful and happening what!

Side of Westminster Abbey Church.

Front facade!!

Last station was the Trafalgar Square:

Nelson's Coloum: Monument built to commemorate Admiral Horatio Nelson who died at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. 

Day 8 ( 19 Sept' 14 )

1 day leader day. First station was the.... Harry Potter Trail at Kings Cross station.

The famous Platform 9^3/4 but why different spot from movie? 

Visited the souvenier shop.  

So waited my packs to take photo and buy souveniers... After some time then hurried them up to finish everything or else they gonna shop forever. Me and Kaya lead everyone to Arsenal Emirates Stadium which is the excited moment for our Mr. Vijay the huge fan of Arsenal team. 

I will appreciate this moment more if I am truly a football fan, but still glad at least once in a lifetime: Ohh, this is it!

The boys went on with the tours in the stadium while girls shop 1 round the souvenier store then we decided to go for Tate Modern. Obviously most of the girls don't really interested in sports! 

*Photo taken from internet as i couldn't take a proper one.

I like how they implement the lighting design inside this modern art museum which they allow the natural lighting transmitted into the space for energy saving purpose!

From roof top.

From walls

Noticed that this can be open and close automatically.

I like this ramp, saw a lot of kids playing around here.

I felt sorry for all of the members as this is the case study that I chose and everyone seem so bored with it. I found out it was not interesting too so they ended the tour earlier then do nothing for waiting me. I needed to walk through every spaces and look around. So basically the reason I chose here was because of the idea implement in this building that the empty double volume space (the ramp part in previous photo) which is provided for temporary exhibition from time to time and the lighting design then lastly because they were having some fabric monuments that time... So for real quite boring as we don't really know/appreciate those artsy thing...

Another interesting activity provided inside is....

Called the "Bloomberg Connects"

Draw anything on the screen privided and after you done, you can post it on the wall right in front of you! 

The projector that project your drawings from the screen onto the wall.

I also saw this super cute scene! Smarter than human... in some point. My friends might be always annoyed by me because every time if I saw there is any dog on the street, I will: Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, see so cute!

Caption: "Don't walk too fast, master"

After ending the museum visiting, asked the help from Elyn to lead everyone to our next station. London Tower and Tower Bridge. So we walked through the Millennium Bridge to another side of the river.

Millennium Bridge

I felt bad for those Muslim friend in our team because it was really not easy to find halal food there and they ended up get nothing when they walked all the way from here to our next destination. I knew the hard feeling because for this trip we don't really have time to take meal and it was almost like we only manged to take 1 meal for whole day, and most of the time is the "so hungry" moment, but before we back to hostel we can grab some food for supper and that's all. So they have to starve because no halal food can be found or either the shop close. 

After we separated for food hunting, we then reached London Tower successfully and it was very near to the tube station. This tourism spot really convenient! I was amazed by the red sea once I saw it. The ceramic red poppies around the tower were set to commemorate the centenary of WW1. Entitled as "Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red". Until now it is still spreading and getting wider and wider!

Can you imagine how it will look like after the red poppies filled the whole empty area?! I can't because I cannot see that. SAD

Hello! The Tower Bridge.

Everyone complained about the color of the bridge why the color was in blue. Same to me, it looked weird in the color of blue and was a totally unexpected color. 

Answer I found was... It used to be in chocolate brown color before 1977, but it was painted to white and blue after 1977 to celebrate the Queen's Silver Jubilee.

And sadly, we only can see from far when the bridge was opened!

Last station was Southbank Centre. We arrived with excitement because there was a lot of food stalls outside the centre! 

 Tried some local beer and it taste not bad! *Sharing with friends.

Experience like how locals do because most of them will having a cup of beer on their hand and walk around. 

Managed to got some food, scotch egg before the store close.

From my observation, no matter what store or shop, European always close shop so early at night! Mostly around 7 or 8. It's so different with Malaysia. And another thing is, there were a lot of bars in the street which were normal but... a lot of people will standing outside the bar with holding the beers on their hand. It's not only few but a lot of people will stand outside the shop!

 Like this.

And like this!

Went back earlier today to grab an early rest!