London - Day 1

The day has come.

Lets cut it short- I'm not gonna elaborate how the 14 hours journey took its placed.

We departed at 4pm, and just imagine, when my watch shows it is 8.30pm, outside is still as hot as 4pm. Forced myself to sleep when it is about 9.30pm, but as usual, bukannya leh lena sgt dlm flight kan..

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It was all a mixed feeling of overjoy and at the same time, started to miss the girls back home. Keep on imagining if they are around. For once, we felt that things around us are quiet, it was all bizzarre.

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Reached London at about 10pm London time or 6.30a.m M'sia's time.

The temperature is 6 degrees, so we started to put on our jacket, cakap pun berasap2.

Reach our hotel at around 1a.m., goshh..it was tiring, but lucky I can continue my sleep as it was just past midnite in London, zzzz....

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The next day, we're out at around 8.30a.m. It was c c c collddd...brrrr....but i love it, heh.

We stayed somewhere nearby Lancaster Gate tube.

-The hotel-

Signage nearby our hotel.
Took a day pass for the tube costing about 7pound each, approx. - RM36/=.

Our first destination in London: Picaddily Circus - the famous billboard. We walk from Picaddily Circus to look for Trafalgar Square.
Passed by this monument.

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Walking along the St James Park. Boy, it was beautiful indeed, tho it is towards the end of winter. It was magnificent!!

We walk till we arrive around the Westminster Abbey.

Big Ben in the background.

Around St. James Park & Westminster
Posing with the phone booth is a must!!

Spot this calendar in one of the souvenir shop. tak pulak terserempak ngan mamat neh..

Around Trafalgar Square

In the background is the England's National Gallery.

Next, we march to the Buckingham palce to witness the changing of guard ceremony. The event is daily on 11.30am, except on Friday. Punya la ramai umat...

Here they come...

more pics..
(but this is not the usual palace's guard - ni guard besa je kut)

Next - we walked back to St.James Park undergaround tube to get to Tower Hill underground.
As....we are heading to.."Tower of London".

London bridge is falling down..falling down...(teringat lagu ni, hehe)

The Tower BridgeActually its best to walk nearer to the tower itself. But it seems, we got enough view from here. Dah tak daya nak menapak ke sana, tho takkan berpeluh setitik pun, daku tetap malas nak pegi. Btw, the temperature is somewhere around 13 to 14 degrees, it is in between winter/spring, i love it. But as usual, H will always the opposite site of me..he hated the cold weather, huh.

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Melepak sat...makcik pokcik dah tak larat. Couldnt imagine if we bring the kids along...for sure they'll start whining.

But at the moment like this, i still kept on wondering how the kids doing back home.

my few pennies...ow, i required some time to recognize the coins..first day la kata kan..

Memoyos kan diri...

The early bloomers i'd ever spotted since i reached London. I love peonies...

Just to share, Tower of London & Tower Bridge , is somehere on east side of London and quite far from other interesting places. You can enter the Tower of London, but sorry, we just got no time for it.

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Now, its time to made way to Madame Tussauds.

From Tower Hill, we need to take the Circle line to Baker Street.

My first impression when I first reached London was - "betul2 cam Monopoly ek"...coz those King Cross, Piccadilly, Paddington, Oxford Street, Regent Street...aint all of it are our monopoly's mortgage cards, heheh..

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Here are the underground sub-guides. We found it easy to navigates via tubes. Signs and leads are everywhere and I have my 'Tube map' (this pamphlets were everywhere in major stations).

The key:

1. Just follow the line, or its its colour. e.g. above are District line (in green) and Circle line (in yellow line)
2. Choose the correct platform as guided in pic above.
3. Check each train final destination to determine which train u should jump into. E.g. in M'sia, when u're at the interchange, kena pilih 'Bukit Jalil' if u wanna go to Sg. Besi. Tube pun camtu la jugak, sonang yo...

The train

Our day travelcard...I can go anywhere in London's Zone 1 and 2(central London) with our 7 pds ticket.

If i dont purchase the day card, each destination will cost me 4pounds, mahal kan....baik beli day pass. Or, theres option for Oyster Card, tapi acik malas ah nak kaji penggunaan card tu.

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Next....
Madame Tussauds (somewhere in Baker St.)

Dapat jugak ku jumpa abg Johnny. Tapi abg Johnny degil, taknak pandang camera. Camera shy katanya...letihhh.....

Sherlock Holmes yg really cam real.

The minute u enter Madame Tussauds, u'll be entering the 'A-List Hall'. Kiranya most of star2 kat sini la..e.g Julia Robert, Beckham/Victoria, Brad/Angelina, Miley Cyrus, and of course Kiera Knightley & Orlando, plus few others....ramai la jugak org in the hall till the extend, I got confused between the waxed and the real people, hahahh..kena careful2, takut terpegang orang. From top left- Beckham (tak real sgt pun), Kiera (ok la jugak), Orlando (pun tak real sgt.) and Cruise (dia ni nmpk real).
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There are few halls, e.g sports, royalties, the geniuses, world's leaders, the Scream etc..
So, acik combine je la suma pics ek...
Top left- sapa lagi...then queen elizabeth & husband (looks very real of couse), Prince William, Brad/Angie and Picasso.
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With my fav - Audrey Hepburn

ni, sapa ke lagi....

tapi tak real pon..ni kes tak sempat nak ukur betul2 la ni...

From top left-MJ, Jimi Hendrix the legend, Hitler & M.Tatcher
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Along the street (tak ingat la kat mana nih)

From Baker St., we moved on to Westminster for the London Eye. This is b'coz, we need to collect our online purchased M.Tussauds & L. eye ticket from the M.Tussauds itself.

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With the Parliament House in the background..cantik gilos buidling nih.

The London Eye

Parliament House from the London Eye.

Other views fr. L.E

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Then, we moved on to Regent St., nyopping sket2...

Its dark by 6pm, so most shops will be closed by 8p.m.

As a result, we slept at around 9.30pm, besides the overly-exhausted, rasa macam dah almost midnite at that time, plus, its started to sunyi by then.

To be cont....