In the beginning there was...Egypt?
This trip came up without long planning beforehand, for a change. A BBC
series about ancient Egypt led to a sudden desire to visit the British
Museum,
which houses several real artifacts found there in the 18th and 19th
century. Ancient culture is thrilling and interesting (in my own book),
so it was time to pay London a visit. No books or maps were purchased
beforehand this time, but various internet sites were instead visited,
mostly for getting an overview over what to visit in a rather short time
(2 1/2 days) and knowing how to get here and there.
This trip report will not be very extensive, as the trip was a short and
impulsive one.
Day 1
The flight to London was over in around 2 hours, but Heathrow airport
still is far from the most impressive one to see (my view hasn't changed
since my last visit in 2002). From there, the Heathrow Express train
left quite often, going directly to Paddington station. It didn't take
long to get there, but the speed was obviously less than what is usual
there, since a polite voice on the speaker excused over and over again
for this due to maintenance work. It was still travelling at nearly
twice the speed of the one in Rome ;)
The best time to learn a new subway system is definitely not when one of
the lines is partly closed, and there is re-routing going on. After a
bit of waiting at Paddington station, we decided to take the District
Line instead of the Circle Line, since the yellow coloured Circle one
never showed up going in the desired direction. Apart from that, the
subway system (or 'The Tube' as the locals call it) is really easy to
get around with and very efficient, as well as frequent (reminding of
the impeccable system in Vienna). A total of 12 lines are in existence,
with lots of crossings. For short stays, one might consider using a
single-day pass, which doesn't cost much (around £7 or so), and allows
you unlimited travel within the network. Just remember to keep on to the
ticket, as you will need it both to get in and out as well as cross
between lines.
The downside is of course that using the subway is a great way of not
seeing London, so to speak - but you may want to choose an open-air
double-decker bus or walk around on foot to see various sights. Use it
for getting around quickly - and with this available, you may even
choose to stay somewhat less centrally located.
The choice of hotel was the Radisson Edwardian Vanderbilt, which is
situated in Knightsbridge, near Kensington Gardens. The hotel itself has
a neat facade and a nice lobby which definitely reminds you of
where you
are (Victorian style). Having read brochures from local travel agencies
which warned about the standard and size of rooms in London
accommodation in relation to the price, this did indeed seem to be
right. For a Radisson hotel, the room wasn't overly specious (including
the bathroom), and the cheap package price at £119 per night seemed to
result in a room which cannot have been used overly much. The
airconditioning seemed somewhat weak, but the alternative of opening up
a window was not viable, as the room was right next to a ventilation
shaft which sounded like an F-16 before takeoff. After one seriously bad
night and waking up with a splitting headache the next day due to lack
of fresh air, it was time to call for maintenance to check if something
was wrong. Indeed it was - the guy who came to check it (they were fast
though) found a 1-2 inch thick carpet of dust covering the actual outlet
into the room, almost suggesting that the room was never used, a theory
backed up by a broken minibar. My impression was therefore 'expect to
pay a lot for a little' when considering hotel standard..breakfast
buffet was ok enough, one continental side and one english side which
was way too heavy for starting the day with.
The corridors in the hotel were quite narrow, definitely suggesting the
origin as a private house/villa.
The afternoon was spent visiting the Musem of
Natural History, a mammoth building which was only two blocks away from
our choice of hotel. It was quite an impressive building, matching the
posh neighbourhood and all its Victorian style buildings. A free
entrance doesn't hurt - but the point of going there would be to satisfy
my old interest in (which still hasn't disappeared) dinosaurs, and we
were indeed greeted with a life-size replica of a Diplodocus Carnegii
skeleton once inside the lobby.
The various dinosaur halls were lined up with a
lot of skeletons mostly, but also a few life-sized animatronic ones, and
it was fun to see them move and 'roar'. The highlight of the exhibition
was an animatronic T-Rex, where lighting changed to suit the
atmosphere..and he did look a bit hungry :)
Finding the exit easily was another matter
entirely..after walking around various rooms, hallways and stairs, an
unplanned visit was paid to the zoology section with a huge blue whale
in the middle, and finding the way out from there was even worse as
there was only one way to go - around the entire room in search of the
next exit but in the end..the shortened museum trip was completed.
We had already decided beforehand (as usual by
now) to look up some Chinese dining, and Soho has a bunch of them, so
after a 'Tube' trip and a hop off at Leceister Square, it was but a
short walk to get there. 'Imperial China' was the choice of restaurant,
and it seemed to be one of the better in the area, as it was more
retreated from the busy, narrow street, and had its own small pond and
fountain. As always, the food is great in such places, so it is hard to
really go wrong anyway.
Day 2
Half of London in one day! The day started with a walk towards
Kensington Gardens. On the way there, a
building which might resemble
Hogwarth's School of Witchcraft is passed - this is the University of
Music, and is quite a cool looking building. Next to this is the well
known Royal Albert Hall, a concert hall. Directly opposite from this
across the
street, and marking the entrance to Kensington Gardens stands
the Royal Albert Memorial, which doesn't look that big until you get
near it. A short trip via Kensington Palace (Lady Diana's mansion) was
done, before crossing over into Hyde Park (the two are nearly one), a
very pleasant stroll and a chance to get away from most of the traffic
noise - only the constant sound of airplanes bound for Heathrow can be
heard. In the park there is also a pretty large lake called The
Serpentine, which gives a lot of life to the landscape. Right after the
eastern exit of Hyde Park one crosses over to Green Park, and next to
this is Buckingham
Palace with its contingent of strict looking
Beefeters (not beef-eaters) with their characteristic headwear. The flag
was up showing the Queen was "home", but we decided not to seek an
audience.
A bit of a walk further to the south, and the city part called
Westminster was reached - the centre of most of the important on-goings,
at least politically :)
The Houses of Parliament was actually a lot more impressive looking when
up close than one is used to seeing on the TV or on pictures - the
structure is very large, and Big Ben also looked nice and shiny.
We decided to get a bird's eye view of the
capital, and right across the bridge from
Westminster stands one of the
more modern additions to the skyline - the giant ferris wheel known as
the London Eye. Financed by British Airways, it was finished for public
right after the turn of the millennium. It is visited by 3.5 million
people annually, and once inside a capsule, it will bring you 135 metres
up in the air, giving a very good overview of the city itself for around
half an hour. Some structures look different from up here, while others
come into view that aren't easily seen from down below. One of these
would be the building known as 'The Gherkin' - a cuecumber-shaped odd
structure which is quite advanced power consumption wise, and houses a
company which is 'insurance' for insurance companies, or a reinsurance
company (Swiss Re to be precise). At 180 metres, it is the second
tallest building in the city itself.
After a walk along both sides of the river
Thames along the Houses of Parliament, the return trip to the hotel was
made, as by this time, it was already late afternoon and time for
Soho-dinner :)
Day 3
And the other half the next day? Well, not quite..it started out by
going to the British Museum, the actual
reason for going in the first
place. After visiting several sarcophaguses and mummies, we were
beginning to wonder where the other artifacts were, then we discovered
there was a large exhibition on the first floor as well. The statue of
Ramses II was found there, at least as impressive looking as it appeared
in the BBC series, and it must have been quite a challenge to transport
in the 1800s.
The tale of the Rosetta Stone deserves special
mention as well. Not only was it to be the
source for deciphering the
Egyptian hieroglyphs, but there was also a race going on between a young
French genius named Jean-Paul Champollion and an English guy named
Thomas Young. Much to the dismay of the British, it was the French who
won the 'race', but the original Rosetta Stone is on display in the
museum, and attracts quite large crowds.
From here, a return back to the wharf area along
the Thames was done, including a stop at the portico of St Paul's
Cathedral, then along narrow twists and turns to the Tower of London
(much less impressive looking than other castles seen on previous
journeys), across the famous Tower Bridge (quite impressive looking),
over to the other side, which was definitely more
modern in look,
housing the battleship HMS Belfast, and another peculiar looking
building which looks like a giant globe made of glass and steel - a
typical bank-structure, one might be inclined to think - but
surprisingly enough this modern building is actually London's City Hall.
The end of the day was marked by a quick stroll
for some night shoots - both the Royal Albert Hall and the Museum of
Natural History looked marvellous when flood-lighted!
UNESCO sites visited on the journey:
Westminster Palace,
Westminster Abbey and Saint Margaret's Church
Tower of London
Links:
London's official website:
http://www.visitlondon.co.uk/
A good map of the city:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/colourmap.pdf
