London (English version)
Door: Franziska & Klaas
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Franziska & Klaas
19 Juni 2010 | Nederland, Groningen
Dear friends,
Almost a week passed since we came back from England and we still owe you the last part of our trip report. Well here it is:
Tuesday 8th of June:
After breakfast we take the tube (underground) to Leicester Square in order to buy some half price tickets for tonight’s show of ‘We will rock you’ at the Dominion Theatre. We are successful and take the tube back to Kings Cross, where we visit the free exposition ‘Magnificent Maps: Power, Propaganda and Art’ at the British Library. It is a fascinating exposition, certainly for a map-addict and geographer like me. It shows maps from different times (antique till contemporary) emphasizing on the purposes they were made for: some of them were just pieces of art made to decorate a wall, some tell a story and read like a comic strip, some show the power of a ruler or are propaganda for a certain regime, brand or belief.
In the afternoon we discover the south bank of the Thames on a guided walk organized by London Walks. We discovered this organisation on a previous trip to London in 2003. On walking tours across a certain part of London the guides show you hidden corners of the city, tell you a lot about the history of the surrounding buildings as well as plenty of stories about the current and former inhabitants of these buildings. Today we do the ‘Somewhere else London’ walk, which shows us the formerly heavily industrialized neighbourhoods on the south bank of the Thames. Hidden between buildings built after the bombings of the Second World War you can still find the old Georgian architecture from the time this used to be a place full of factories.
In the evening we attended the musical ‘We will rock you’, a story written on the music of the rock band Queen. It is great fun with a big sing along factor.
Wednesday 9th of June:
The weather forecast was fine for today, so we decided to visit the Kew Gardens, which are the botanical gardens of London. The gardens are huge and have a great collection of plants (especially trees) imported from all over the world. Some are older than the botanical gardens themselves, imported to Britain sometime in the late 18th century. There is a rock garden with plants from alpine surroundings, a rose garden, a rhododendron dell, an arboretum, a tree top walk and much more… But probably the most magnificent and also the most famous items in the Kew Gardens are the wonderful glasshouses constructed during Victorian times, which were actually the largest glass buildings at the time they were built. They house mostly palm trees and other trees and shrubs from all over the world. We spent most of the day wondering through the gardens and we still haven’t seen everything. After returning to our hotel, we changed, had a bite at a local pub and took the tube to Westminster, where we attended the Beating Retreat, an annual show of the marching bands of the Household Division of the British Army taking place on the grounds of the Horseguards behind Whitehall. The tattoo and the music of the bands were wonderful and the demonstrations of the cavalry and the royal artillery impressive. We had great seats on the stands with a good view of the show and of HRH the Prince Philip sitting diagonally in front of us and taking the salute. All in all the tattoo was another wonderful experience!
Thursday 10th of June:
This morning we did another walk with London Walks. Our guide showed us the hidden corners of Mayfair, a posh neighbourhood between Green Park and Oxford Street. When it was built in Georgian times, it was a neighbourhood where the nobility of the English countryside built there city-houses. Behind these city-houses are little streets, where the stables used to be and where the male servants used to live. Today the former stables have been transformed into apartments, which are almost as expensive as the former city-houses of the nobility. Mayfair is still an exclusive neighbourhood with lots of expensive restaurants and shops, nothing for ordinary people like us. That’s why it is so nice to take a glance behind the scenes on a walking tour of London Walks.
After the walk we relax with a good lunch at the Hard Rock Café on Park Lane. As Klaas collects the t-shirts of this restaurant chain, of course we have to visit the shop too. Unfortunately he can’t find a nice shirt this time and leave the shop without buying anything. Instead we take the tube back to the shopping heaven called Oxford Street. But we don’t spend too much money here either. Most of the things are either not to our taste or far too expensive. We end our shopping tour at Fortnum & Mason near Piccadilly Circus, a shop which stocks a lot of exclusive foods. We really like their coffee tins, but you can’t buy them empty and a tin with 250 g of coffee costs at least 15 £. Too much we decide an leave the shop empty handed.
Tonight we dine at a restaurant on Brick Lane. This street in the former Jewish Quarter is now dominated by Bangladeshi restaurants serving descent and very inexpensive curries. For not even 30 £ we had two complete meals including drinks.
Friday 11th of June:
Quite a busy day today, as we had quite a few things we wanted to pack into our last day in London. We started the day by visiting the Shakespeare’s Globe on the south bank of the river facing Millennium Bridge. This is a replica of the open-air theatre Shakespeare used to performe in. You can visit the theatre itself on a guided tour and the adjacent museum, telling you about what theatres were like in Shakespeare’s times. It is even possible to see a play on the stage of the replica. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to see a play, but we did visit the museum and the theatre.
Right next to the Globe is the Tate Modern Gallery, the next item on our to do list of today. This collection of modern art shows anything from paintings to sculptures and from photographs to installations. Unfortunately modern art is not really my cup of tea, but Klaas loves it and if there are two of you, you have to make compromises. Well I survived and I guess I even saw a few interesting pieces of art.
Around 3 o’clock we left the museum and walked along the Thames to the Bourough Markets. This market built into the arches of the railway bridges sell mostly specialty foods from all over the place. We had a great lunch of a chorizo and rocket sandwich, a glass of cider and a brownie and bought some cheese, chorizo, honey and olive oil to take home with us as an edible souvenir. As our money was disappearing fast , we returned to our hotel in order to drop our purchases. We then took the tube again to South Kensington and joined another London walk: the Old Kightsbridge Pub Walk. Again we had a great guide giving us some inside information on Kensington, Brompton and Knightsbridge, showing us the hidden gems of the neighbourhood and giving us some time to have a drink at two of the local pubs. It was almost 10 pm when the walk ended and we hadn’t eaten anything yet. So we decided to take the tube to Leicester Square, where because of all the shows going on in the Westend it would be easier to have a meal at this time of the night. We had a tasty steak to celebrate the end of a great trip and then returned to our hotel for the last time.
Saturday 12th of June:
Today we had to get up early in order to be on time for the check in for the Eurostar at St Pancras Station. Because on maintenance taking place on a lot of tube lines we couldn’t take a direct line from Paddington to St Pancras, but took the tube at Lancaster Gate and changed trains at Oxford Circus. Luckily it being early Saturday morning the tube wasn’t busy and we had no trouble finding a seat in the tube or changing trains with heavy luggage. St Pancras station on the other hand was very busy with tourists checking in for the Eurostar trains to Brussels and Paris. We were really lucky we were there almost an hour before departure, because otherwise we would not have made it through the check in and the security check on time. The train trip back home wasn’t very exciting, except for the fact that we had to cross the Belgian-Dutch border by bus because of maintenance works on the rails. Because of this delay we arrived back home about an hour later than we had hoped for. But we did arrive safely and that’s the most important thing, isn’t it?
Well this is it for now. We had a fantastic time in the UK and hopefully we will be able to visit again soon. Hopefully you enjoyed our tripreport and will be following us next time when we take off for Norway in September this year.
I just want to remind you, that you can leave us a message on this website, if you have some kind of comment on our reports. Just go to the bottom of the page type your name in the window “Naam” and your comment in the window “Reactie” and click on “Reactie plaatsen”. Your comments will then appear at the bottom of the page. If your comments are of more private nature and you don’t want them to be published on this site, just send us an email.
Take care everyone!
Best wishes,
Franziska & Klaas
Almost a week passed since we came back from England and we still owe you the last part of our trip report. Well here it is:
Tuesday 8th of June:
After breakfast we take the tube (underground) to Leicester Square in order to buy some half price tickets for tonight’s show of ‘We will rock you’ at the Dominion Theatre. We are successful and take the tube back to Kings Cross, where we visit the free exposition ‘Magnificent Maps: Power, Propaganda and Art’ at the British Library. It is a fascinating exposition, certainly for a map-addict and geographer like me. It shows maps from different times (antique till contemporary) emphasizing on the purposes they were made for: some of them were just pieces of art made to decorate a wall, some tell a story and read like a comic strip, some show the power of a ruler or are propaganda for a certain regime, brand or belief.
In the afternoon we discover the south bank of the Thames on a guided walk organized by London Walks. We discovered this organisation on a previous trip to London in 2003. On walking tours across a certain part of London the guides show you hidden corners of the city, tell you a lot about the history of the surrounding buildings as well as plenty of stories about the current and former inhabitants of these buildings. Today we do the ‘Somewhere else London’ walk, which shows us the formerly heavily industrialized neighbourhoods on the south bank of the Thames. Hidden between buildings built after the bombings of the Second World War you can still find the old Georgian architecture from the time this used to be a place full of factories.
In the evening we attended the musical ‘We will rock you’, a story written on the music of the rock band Queen. It is great fun with a big sing along factor.
Wednesday 9th of June:
The weather forecast was fine for today, so we decided to visit the Kew Gardens, which are the botanical gardens of London. The gardens are huge and have a great collection of plants (especially trees) imported from all over the world. Some are older than the botanical gardens themselves, imported to Britain sometime in the late 18th century. There is a rock garden with plants from alpine surroundings, a rose garden, a rhododendron dell, an arboretum, a tree top walk and much more… But probably the most magnificent and also the most famous items in the Kew Gardens are the wonderful glasshouses constructed during Victorian times, which were actually the largest glass buildings at the time they were built. They house mostly palm trees and other trees and shrubs from all over the world. We spent most of the day wondering through the gardens and we still haven’t seen everything. After returning to our hotel, we changed, had a bite at a local pub and took the tube to Westminster, where we attended the Beating Retreat, an annual show of the marching bands of the Household Division of the British Army taking place on the grounds of the Horseguards behind Whitehall. The tattoo and the music of the bands were wonderful and the demonstrations of the cavalry and the royal artillery impressive. We had great seats on the stands with a good view of the show and of HRH the Prince Philip sitting diagonally in front of us and taking the salute. All in all the tattoo was another wonderful experience!
Thursday 10th of June:
This morning we did another walk with London Walks. Our guide showed us the hidden corners of Mayfair, a posh neighbourhood between Green Park and Oxford Street. When it was built in Georgian times, it was a neighbourhood where the nobility of the English countryside built there city-houses. Behind these city-houses are little streets, where the stables used to be and where the male servants used to live. Today the former stables have been transformed into apartments, which are almost as expensive as the former city-houses of the nobility. Mayfair is still an exclusive neighbourhood with lots of expensive restaurants and shops, nothing for ordinary people like us. That’s why it is so nice to take a glance behind the scenes on a walking tour of London Walks.
After the walk we relax with a good lunch at the Hard Rock Café on Park Lane. As Klaas collects the t-shirts of this restaurant chain, of course we have to visit the shop too. Unfortunately he can’t find a nice shirt this time and leave the shop without buying anything. Instead we take the tube back to the shopping heaven called Oxford Street. But we don’t spend too much money here either. Most of the things are either not to our taste or far too expensive. We end our shopping tour at Fortnum & Mason near Piccadilly Circus, a shop which stocks a lot of exclusive foods. We really like their coffee tins, but you can’t buy them empty and a tin with 250 g of coffee costs at least 15 £. Too much we decide an leave the shop empty handed.
Tonight we dine at a restaurant on Brick Lane. This street in the former Jewish Quarter is now dominated by Bangladeshi restaurants serving descent and very inexpensive curries. For not even 30 £ we had two complete meals including drinks.
Friday 11th of June:
Quite a busy day today, as we had quite a few things we wanted to pack into our last day in London. We started the day by visiting the Shakespeare’s Globe on the south bank of the river facing Millennium Bridge. This is a replica of the open-air theatre Shakespeare used to performe in. You can visit the theatre itself on a guided tour and the adjacent museum, telling you about what theatres were like in Shakespeare’s times. It is even possible to see a play on the stage of the replica. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to see a play, but we did visit the museum and the theatre.
Right next to the Globe is the Tate Modern Gallery, the next item on our to do list of today. This collection of modern art shows anything from paintings to sculptures and from photographs to installations. Unfortunately modern art is not really my cup of tea, but Klaas loves it and if there are two of you, you have to make compromises. Well I survived and I guess I even saw a few interesting pieces of art.
Around 3 o’clock we left the museum and walked along the Thames to the Bourough Markets. This market built into the arches of the railway bridges sell mostly specialty foods from all over the place. We had a great lunch of a chorizo and rocket sandwich, a glass of cider and a brownie and bought some cheese, chorizo, honey and olive oil to take home with us as an edible souvenir. As our money was disappearing fast , we returned to our hotel in order to drop our purchases. We then took the tube again to South Kensington and joined another London walk: the Old Kightsbridge Pub Walk. Again we had a great guide giving us some inside information on Kensington, Brompton and Knightsbridge, showing us the hidden gems of the neighbourhood and giving us some time to have a drink at two of the local pubs. It was almost 10 pm when the walk ended and we hadn’t eaten anything yet. So we decided to take the tube to Leicester Square, where because of all the shows going on in the Westend it would be easier to have a meal at this time of the night. We had a tasty steak to celebrate the end of a great trip and then returned to our hotel for the last time.
Saturday 12th of June:
Today we had to get up early in order to be on time for the check in for the Eurostar at St Pancras Station. Because on maintenance taking place on a lot of tube lines we couldn’t take a direct line from Paddington to St Pancras, but took the tube at Lancaster Gate and changed trains at Oxford Circus. Luckily it being early Saturday morning the tube wasn’t busy and we had no trouble finding a seat in the tube or changing trains with heavy luggage. St Pancras station on the other hand was very busy with tourists checking in for the Eurostar trains to Brussels and Paris. We were really lucky we were there almost an hour before departure, because otherwise we would not have made it through the check in and the security check on time. The train trip back home wasn’t very exciting, except for the fact that we had to cross the Belgian-Dutch border by bus because of maintenance works on the rails. Because of this delay we arrived back home about an hour later than we had hoped for. But we did arrive safely and that’s the most important thing, isn’t it?
Well this is it for now. We had a fantastic time in the UK and hopefully we will be able to visit again soon. Hopefully you enjoyed our tripreport and will be following us next time when we take off for Norway in September this year.
I just want to remind you, that you can leave us a message on this website, if you have some kind of comment on our reports. Just go to the bottom of the page type your name in the window “Naam” and your comment in the window “Reactie” and click on “Reactie plaatsen”. Your comments will then appear at the bottom of the page. If your comments are of more private nature and you don’t want them to be published on this site, just send us an email.
Take care everyone!
Best wishes,
Franziska & Klaas
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