My First Tour In London
Day I: Hyde Park & Natural History Museum & V&A Museum
Embarking on my tour in London!!!
The weather is lovely in early morning!!! Soft warm sunshine and fresh air!!!
My first stop is The Hyde Park!!!
The park, actually, links the Kensington palace and the Albert Memorial!!!
There is the lake in the middle where swan 🦢 and other kinds of water birds are residing!!! The swans are so big and well-fed!!! They have labels on their lags as the sign that Queens and Kings are their owners!!!
And there are many crows …… They are all very big and well-fed and strong which can be shown in their shinning black feather ……
I got the sight of a squirrel 🐿️…… Later, a playful husky trying to ambush it!!!
People here are soo fond of jogging or running……and dog-walking……
Along the outline of the park, there is the Albert Memorial and Albert Hall can be reached!!!
Get behind the Hall, passing the Music Collage, there is the long queue for the opening hour of the National History Museum!!!
It starts rain ☔️ when I was waiting in line there!!! It's the wind that chills!!!
Tickets for introduction can have the quick pass to skip the long queue!!!
Once get in, the first thing to impress you is definitely the hanging skeleton of a dinosaur!!!
This museum is famous not only for its wide and full collections but also for those contributors!!!
There is a long hall for just various stones!!! Not very attractive to non-spatialist as I am!!!
I like the dinosaur hall 🦖 and birds hall!!!
Just went through the museum roughly……
Out of it, the fit of rain has been passed!!!
Just around the corner, is the V&A Museum!!! And no queue!!!
There are collections from different continents in it……even those casting ones are so authentic!!!
The V&A is much much worthy visiting to me!!!
Below are some spots on my way towards the park……
Photos of Hyde Park start here!!!
The trees in it are sooo senior in age ……they have strong trunks!!!
National History Museumas below……
Some patterns as the aesthetic touch on the ceiling of the museum!!!
V&A Museum below……
Start with Three Kings!!!
Day II: Sherlock Holmes Museum & BakerStreet Station & Westminster Abbey
There must be something special on my Birthday 🎂, isn’t???!!!
It’s such a rare sunny day here!!!😎 (It’s actually the only day without rain during my stay here!!!) My good!!!😊
So, my first treat is the Sherlock Holmes Museum at, needless to say and known to all, 221 Baker Street!!!
Opening hour starts at 10 a.m. little queue there……Ticket is purchased in the shop next door!!!
It’s an exclusive style visit experience with brief introduction by staffs there!!!
The house is a quintessential Victorian style: door way, narrow staircase, two rooms on each floor, top attic……
The stuffs in Sherlock’s “reception room/office”, on the second floor, are original one boasting 200 years!!! So they are forbidden 🚫 to touch!!!
Third floor is Wason’s place and the landlady Mis Hardeson!!!
The top area is toilet!!!
Next treat is the Baker Street tube station which boasts its nostalgic vibe!!! Quite so!!!
(London’s tube system is quite far from first-time-commuter-friendly😣 It may require some time to get familiar with the names of those lines; the exchanges between lines—on the same spot or on different platforms, etc.)
Then, I’m heading Westminster Abbey via tube!!!
Only the area around it……the visit inside requires ticket which is no longer available till 11/11……
On the bridge which provides the best view of the Parliament Building, there is a cluster of scam tricks……😅
Oh, bonus today are two protests near the Abbey: one for medical experiments 🧪; one for Palestinian casualties!!
I almost got nothing escaped from my camera there……
Out of the Sherlock Holmes’ home, I got into one of the oldest tube station in London—the BakerStreet Station!!!
The place is oozing captivating antique vibe……
Out of tube station(St. James Park Sration) and after a simple diet of salad…… These are those shots around the Westminster Abbey……
There was the ticket-purchasing problem that prevented me entering that holy place!!!
Below seven are shots of postcards in the affiliated shop at the exit!!!
Day III: British Museum on Halloween Day!!! 👻 🎃
An impulse of heading for Oxford hit me this morning!!!
Normally, it should be reached by train 🚂 ……But I changed my mind into shuttle bus 🚌 after caught a search result which stated that there is a shuttle bus, Oxford Tube, at Marble Arch!!! Hit by the reality that there might be was but is no more the bus there (It might be moved to nearby Victoria area!!!), I quit the Oxford!!!
So, I’n heading towards the British Museum!!!
Long queue there waiting for the opening hour!!! For just a while, compared with the previous Natural History Museum, I got in!!!
The museum is soooo big!!!
I spent more than five hours there only finished about half of exhibits!!!
My focus is on Western ancient civilisations as Mediterranean, Greece🇬🇷, Egypt 🇪🇬,Europe, Britain and Ireland……
The big items are grandiose; and the small ones are fine, exquisitely executed artworks……
Had a simple salad treat at an affiliated Pizza 🍕 eatery in the museum……and got my bottle filled with hot water ther as well!!!
There is a corner of drinks and food on the ground floor as well!!!
Back to hotel in the rain and under the darkening sky with a pair of souring feet 👣 ……but contented heart……
Below eight photos are about collection of animals I got in the Museum!!!
All are very small objects, but quite cutie ones!!!
See, Lily-in-the-Valley……
Day IV: London Bridge & London Tower
Morning showering rain……then, showering and sunlight exchanges dominance/dominates in rotations……
My tour today are the London Bridge and the London Tower, two spots just stone’s away to each other!!!
Crossing the Bridge is quite a sightseeing part……and I got the moment of “a portal towards above”!!!
🏰 The London Tower is the must to me!!!
Start from the castle at the outer layer, then, into its core—the white castle which has 1000 years of history!!! And sitting on the pew in the Chapel where those legendary Kings and Queens were doing their prayers is quite THE treat!!!
The Chapel once functioned as the place for religious practices for Royals, the document collection room……
The pillar on which has the flower petals decorated is the one pointing to the southeast the Holy Jerusalem!!!
NASA once consulted to and borrowed a piece of armour from the Tower to adjust the joints parts on astronaut suits!!!
(Information from a very lucky/serendipitous lecture in that Chapel )
“History” is the key word that breathing in and out through those stones in every room there!!!
Other houses are also dedicated to museums: the Crown Jewels, the castle regiment……
And the line of Kings, the armoury of Kings and Princes……but mainly the famous King Henry VIII!!!
And prisons and torture room and the famous two little captured Princes under Richard III!!!
What matters and thrills to me the most is the feel of touching the ancient stones and rocks that touched by people back then; the steps on the spiral staircases; the thick stone walls……What a sense/feeling of time travel!!!
Here are the photos of the London Tower Castle!! From outside into inside, from outlayer castle to the White Castle in its heart!!!
And all those interior stones……
The pillar with flower peddles as the decoration below is the one that pointing the Holy City Jerusalem!!!
Below are those animals from almost all over the world then chained in the Tower!!!
Below are some shots along the Thames at that section!!!
Day V: Buckingham Palace & Paddington Station
Chill windy rainy day……
It’s an aimless wandering day…… Well, not actually aimless at all!!!
I an heading the ultimate British icon—the Buckingham Palace the first thing in the morning!!!
It’s very early and it’s drizzling in the morning, so there are very few people there!!!
After photo-taking, I am wandering into the adjacent St.James’ Park where, firstly, I am greeted by several squirrels 🐿️ who are hunting for their breakfast and are sooo pro-human that one of them tried my finger!!! Super cutie 🥰
Then, the encounters of so many water birds 🦢 ……
On the way circling the park on foot, there are other checkpoints, say, the Calvary Museum……
When I came to the Buckingham Palace again, a string of sound of horse trotting 🐴 and smell rang the alert to me!!! Just some staffs walking horses maybe……😅
Then, the bear-seeking 🐻 at Paddington Station 🚉!!!
Two are now hiding in the bear shop!!! One and a chair are at the side way at the station!!! Cutie cutie 🥰
Then, the highlight part of the day—The Poppy Appeal Day music performance!!!
Almost an hour there, a brass band performed several musics pieces as the celebration of the Poppy Appeal Day!!!
What a way to wrap up my sojourn in London!!!
Hand on heart, I can say I am one of those who proclaim they love London!!! Truly, heartily……🩷
Well, tomorrow my body will leave my heart and soul on the way back to business!!! The business of dealing with those inferior to animals!!!Sick ones!!!
I’m the girl of principle!!! And I swear upon moon and stars that I will never let any historic and important moment in my life have any touch or eleme of that ugly “Animal Farm”!!!!!!
St. James’ Park photos start with this tree with archy canopy!!!
This swan is staring at me……quite happy that such beauty is interested in me……
The black one behind her is like the bow in her head……
