Okay, it's not that I am getting lazy... but the last week in London was a mix of shopping and sight seeing hence the compilation...
After my overnighter on the ferry, we checked ourselves in to the hotel and went to Hampton Court which is just outside of London town... This was where King Henry XIII resided... It was his tudor inspired mansion...
The coolest thing bout this place is everyone who works there is dressed in period clothes... so cute... it was all role playing from the guards to the maids.... :)
Just so happen that on the day we went they were re-enacting the wedding of Katherine Parr to King Henry... which makes it his 6th and last marriage... so every hour had a different part of the wedding preparation being acted out... it was quite entertaining.... :)
After a couple of hours we decided to have lunch in their kitchen... They were serving meatball stew... yum yum...
This is me pretending to make pie... heheh!!
The gardens outside the mansion... i wonder who is the poor gardener who has to trim the trees...
Then I went exploring the maze while my mum and sis had tea.... Not too difficult... I was successful in getting to the centre and out again... :D
After the whole day being spent in Hampton we went back to London and had dinner at the famous Chinese Restaurant which at this moment I cant remember the name... Ya ya, it is because I took so long to blog... I am sorry... :( Anyway...the roasted goose was the main attraction and it did not disappoint... It was sooooo yummy.... :)
The next day we bought tickets to the Big Bus Tour which was a hop on and off buss around london.. Just to maximise our visit since we wanted spare time to shop... :) So this is Trafalgar Square seen from the bus...
Big Ben....
Big Ben a little bit closer...
The London Eye.... which I went on later in the day....
St Paul Cathedral... nothing special from the outside but the inside was as grand as the Notre Dame... pity all the cathedrals did not allow us to snap any photos on the inside...
Now lunch time... This was the one thing I told everyone I must try when I am in London...all because I did an MBA assignment on this company... Pret A Manger.... hehe!! I just had to try them out... Not too bad.... The Wrap I had was delicious....
Next up... The Tower of London which was the place where many executions took place.... Even King Henry's 5th wife was executed here...
Inside the Tower were guards who are called Beefeaters... Yeah..like the liquor... they were the guides around the place... Really funny and entertaining... U should never walk around yourself if you can catch them giving the tour...
Right next to the Tower was the Tower Bridge...
Next stop... the London Eye...as you can see this was a very rushed day... we bought the London Pass so we had to squeeze in as many attractions as possible to make it worth it... haha!!
One of the pods..
View from up above....
We ended the bus tour at Harrod which can be summed in 1 word... "Expensive"!!! So that was the end of my 2nd day in London... Next morning we headed out to the the Burberry outlet to shop... stuff was cheap but you wouldnt imagine the number of China ppl there buying...you would think it was free.... The rest of the day was also just shopping here and there.. the shops all close by 8 pm so there wasnt much time to shop....
Next morning I decided to go to Buckingham Palace while Ai Li went to the British Museum... saw the change of guards... It was quite boring but the band was really good.. so I enjoy the music more than the ceremony... :) I was squished in the same place for an hour... tired...
Some ppl just cant take photos properly huh? That is the problem when u go places urself and u need to ask strangers to help you snap a pic...u get pictures like this.... Urrgh...
That nite we had a musical to attend so we decided to have dinner at the pub nearby... u gotta try the English pub food rite? The funny story was I thought our show was at 7.30 so we sat down and ordered at 6.30 but when I recheck the tickets it was 7.00 sharp... holy cow... had to rush the waitress to pack our dinners and run over to the theater...so there we sat hungry and smelling the aroma of our food... :( Went we got back to the hotel and ate our dinner... Surprisingly it tasted good even though it was soggy... Imagine if it was just out of the kitchen... MMMmmmm.... :)
We went to the Apollo theater to watch Wicked.... I liked it... quite a interesting story line...
We called it a nite after that... next day was full shopping and the following day we took the Eurostar back to Paris... Decided to go to an outlet mall outside of Paris...Was not too impressed by it but I was impressed by this ice-cream... haha!! They actually managed to shape it as a rose.. cool huh?
After the outlet shopping we had to make one last stop in Paris... we cant exactly go to Paris and not go there... Galeria Lafayette.... yeah... you go there just to see the Dome and architecture... The rest you cant afford... haha!!
So that was the end of my 15 days in Europe... everything went by so fast... Was rushing for most of the trip just to make the best out of it... I really wonder how those ppl tour 7 countries in 8 days? They just sit in the bus huh? haha!! If I have another chance to go Europe I would plan a more leisurely trip definitely.... All in all it was still a good trip... got to see, do and eat many things...
One final thing I found at the Paris airport which I could not resist taking pictures off... Obviously our government is spending some of the taxpayer's money properly... :D
Outside was a display of the world largest pewter tankard made by them commemorating 100 years of the business...
We were brought around the museum to see the various usage and designs of pewter and it's history.... then after that we were brought to the factory to see how they actually craft the pewter...
Did you know that pewter was made of Tin, Antimony and Copper? hehe!!
This is Elaine holding up a freshly casted money tree... See! money does grow on trees... :)
Why there is no aichin in the pictures is because aichin is the better photographer...muahaha!! So this is Elaine trying very hard (look at the determination on her face) to knock the cylinder with one straight line of hammer markings....
Yes... the cylinder in the picture is fully completed... with beautifully hammered marking... but No, it was not done by Elaine... she pretend only... ;)
Next up...we went for a session in the School of Hard Knocks! for us to make our very own pewter bowl... first, u put on your aprons...
See, we are all set to go.... apron on and mallet in hand...
First we had to etch our names onto the back of the pewter plate... This is Elaine's... similar to Elaine, it's not very straight...tee hee hee!
Now the knock starts... we had to knock in 2 stages... one to form a shallow platter and then next to form it fully into a bowl....
Now that is mine... See... it says "Aichin's bowl"... heheh!! Nice and round after 20 mins of hard knocking...
This is what it looks like up front....
