London, England - Part 1
As I said before, my first stop using the RTW ticket was London, from August 7th to 13th.
Arriving at the airport, I went to M - my cousin - and S - her husband - 's house, where I'd stay during these days in London. The rest of the day was spending in catching up (it's been years since I last saw them, especially S) and planning what to do for the next days.
August 8th. The sightseeing race begins. The first area chosen is East London.
The Tower of London is a fortress that, according to a London guide website, despite its grim reputation as a place of torture and death, has also been enjoyed as a royal palace, served as an armoury and for a number of years even housed a zoo. Expensive to enter and no time, so I just checked the outside. One interesting point is the Traitor's Gate. I imagine how the prisioners entering from that gate felt... Looks a lot like some movies.
Tower Bridge is a suspension bridge in London close to Tower of London and one of the symbols of the city. Some excellent pictures of it, especially at dawn, but hope mine will suffice.
Changing the area just a little bit, the next stop was St. Paul's Cathedral. An Anglican Cathedral that is also one of the most visited places in London... and very beautiful from the inside as well (note: there's an entrance fee too). One curiosity is that there are some sightlines from the cathedral's tower must not be obstructed. That's one of the laws in city planning there. Because of that and the irregular space to build, some skyscrapers are built with unusual shapes. One will have a triangular shape to avoid spoiling one of those sightlines... too bad I forgot the name of the building.
Crossing the Millenium Bridge, also named Wobbly Bridge after crowds of pedestrians felt an unexpected swaying motion on the first two days after the bridge opened (the problem was solved afterwards), the next stop of the day was Tate Modern, a national museum of international modern art which some interesting galleries and stories (like when an artist made a crack on a ramp as part of her exibition. Go figure. They fixed it later, but the place where the crack was made is still noticeable).
The last stop was the National Gallery. In front of the gallery there's the Trafalgar Square, that was crowded because of the Olympics opening ceremony. It was just at the time the chinese delegation entered the stadium. Some sort of sign, maybe?
Anyway, the National Gallery was the first of a series of museums in London that impressed me. Lots of paintings from different ages, some very famous, and the entrance is free! They accept donations, like "pay what you think it's worth". My cousing says it's because the public museums are supported by taxes, so some thought it'd be fair to make entrance to public buildings free of charge.
Next day. Checking the internet, M noticed it was a day when there would happen the Change of the Guard in front of the Buckingham Palace. Since it's one of the "Londonish" things to see, off we went. Too bad we got a little too late. Not to watch the event, but getting a god place requires getting there long before it starts. So, my viewpoint wasn't good, but I was impressed on how some police officers took care so "opportunists" wouldn't just sit in front of people who stood waiting for hours.
After the event, the weather wasn't too promising, so we decided to check some museums for the rest of the day. At the Science Museum I felt myself more at home. Guess I'm really a science guy rather than arts person. Some exibitions are interesting, and there are activities based on science for children. But I was disappointed when there was not even a mention on Santos Dumont in the History of aviation, but plenty of things about the Wright brothers... Well, guess that History really depends on who tells it...
The second museum was the Natural History Museum, where the most popular exibition is the dinosaurs by far. The only one with a huge queue to enter. Not that the rest of the museum was empty either. Or uninteresting. The Earth Galleries are very nice.
The saga continues...
Arriving at the airport, I went to M - my cousin - and S - her husband - 's house, where I'd stay during these days in London. The rest of the day was spending in catching up (it's been years since I last saw them, especially S) and planning what to do for the next days.
August 8th. The sightseeing race begins. The first area chosen is East London.
The Tower of London is a fortress that, according to a London guide website, despite its grim reputation as a place of torture and death, has also been enjoyed as a royal palace, served as an armoury and for a number of years even housed a zoo. Expensive to enter and no time, so I just checked the outside. One interesting point is the Traitor's Gate. I imagine how the prisioners entering from that gate felt... Looks a lot like some movies.
Tower Bridge is a suspension bridge in London close to Tower of London and one of the symbols of the city. Some excellent pictures of it, especially at dawn, but hope mine will suffice.
Changing the area just a little bit, the next stop was St. Paul's Cathedral. An Anglican Cathedral that is also one of the most visited places in London... and very beautiful from the inside as well (note: there's an entrance fee too). One curiosity is that there are some sightlines from the cathedral's tower must not be obstructed. That's one of the laws in city planning there. Because of that and the irregular space to build, some skyscrapers are built with unusual shapes. One will have a triangular shape to avoid spoiling one of those sightlines... too bad I forgot the name of the building.
Crossing the Millenium Bridge, also named Wobbly Bridge after crowds of pedestrians felt an unexpected swaying motion on the first two days after the bridge opened (the problem was solved afterwards), the next stop of the day was Tate Modern, a national museum of international modern art which some interesting galleries and stories (like when an artist made a crack on a ramp as part of her exibition. Go figure. They fixed it later, but the place where the crack was made is still noticeable).
The last stop was the National Gallery. In front of the gallery there's the Trafalgar Square, that was crowded because of the Olympics opening ceremony. It was just at the time the chinese delegation entered the stadium. Some sort of sign, maybe?
Anyway, the National Gallery was the first of a series of museums in London that impressed me. Lots of paintings from different ages, some very famous, and the entrance is free! They accept donations, like "pay what you think it's worth". My cousing says it's because the public museums are supported by taxes, so some thought it'd be fair to make entrance to public buildings free of charge.
Next day. Checking the internet, M noticed it was a day when there would happen the Change of the Guard in front of the Buckingham Palace. Since it's one of the "Londonish" things to see, off we went. Too bad we got a little too late. Not to watch the event, but getting a god place requires getting there long before it starts. So, my viewpoint wasn't good, but I was impressed on how some police officers took care so "opportunists" wouldn't just sit in front of people who stood waiting for hours.
After the event, the weather wasn't too promising, so we decided to check some museums for the rest of the day. At the Science Museum I felt myself more at home. Guess I'm really a science guy rather than arts person. Some exibitions are interesting, and there are activities based on science for children. But I was disappointed when there was not even a mention on Santos Dumont in the History of aviation, but plenty of things about the Wright brothers... Well, guess that History really depends on who tells it...
The second museum was the Natural History Museum, where the most popular exibition is the dinosaurs by far. The only one with a huge queue to enter. Not that the rest of the museum was empty either. Or uninteresting. The Earth Galleries are very nice.
The saga continues...
1 comment:
Hi Takeshi! How are you?
wow, you are appearing around the world now. Amazing!
I'm in Kyoto, as ever,but training my English.
Maybe I can talk more fluentry next time.
See you.
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