5 DAYS IN LONDON

Five Days walking to the Capital of the United Kingdom, among monuments, shops and parks.

 

It was a little time since I desired to go visit London, thus taking advantage of all these low-cost flights, the last Saturday of February we started.
Like many, we chose a flight of RyanAir and we landed at Stansted which is about sixty kilometers from London. Espletate the various formalities and withdrew our luggage we immediately take the train (Stansted Express) whose tickets we had already purchase directly on the plane, having a first taste of "economic" London in terms of transport. For about 45 minutes of poor train, the return ticket cost £21 each person. We managed to find two seating niches but several people have traveled standing up.
On arrival at Liverpool Station, we have suffered direct at the doors of information to buy our 'travelcard' that will allow us to get on and off at our desire by all public transport (buses, trains and subway) for the beauty of 7 days. Truly, we will stop only 5 days, but doing two calculations we agreed to weekly one, which costs £ 17 each for zone 1. Also guides recommend to buy the card in the country of origin because, according to them, in England it would not have been possible to buy this travelcard. Why?
And so on for the underground corridors, in search of our train, and in a short time we are at Victoria Station where finally we will see the sunlight (if there was one), because so far we have only seen the London underground.
Leaving the station we have lunch in a fast-food and then head to our hotel, Stanley House Hotel on Belgrave Road, to take possession of our room booked via Internet. At the reception we can not find our reservation but I have printed everything so quickly I resolve this hitch. Entered into possession of the room we just take the time to park the trolley and give a sight to the room, and we are immediately in the streets to begin our discovery of London.
We are still a little shocked from the trip that has led us from the tranquillity of our world to the midst of this metropolis. On foot we are approaching the area of Westminster. The first step is Buckingham palace, the home of royal family. The building is truly impressive and gates are impressive too, all shimmering gold. The next changing of the guard, warns a notice, it would have been the following day at 11.30. I read on the Internet that in winter, until March, change is done on alternate days. After the usual souvenir photos of the building and the Queen Victoria Memorial (luckily, because when we returned two days later, the Queen Victoria Memorial was scaffolded, ready to be restored), we are approaching the St James's Park. I've been talked about the beauty and particularity of these parks but I didn't expect to find so many grey squirrels and birds and aquatic animals in the middle of a metropolis, it has left me speechless. The place is very quiet and distant from the noise of the city.
Always walking we pass the building of Horse Guards finally to arrive in the area of Big Ben, House of Parliament and Westminster Abbey, in the distance you can see the British Airways wheel. We look around fastly because almost immediately begins to rain and we forgot umbrella in our room!
After a dinner and a short walk which allows us to find the bus stop no.24, which we'll use tomorrow, we go to sleep.
So I note, but I noticed even better in the days to come, that perhaps the Londoners not feel the cold as I, which I'm covered "Michelin man" style. I note that more than a girl is wearing summer sandals without socks and with short skirts, not to mention the blazers...... Don't they feel cold?

And so, after a good breakfast, we stop at 24 pending our bus. Our program provides initially going to see the inside of Westminster Abbey. After a short wait our bus arrives, and so for the first time we take one of these double-decker red buses, so characteristic. Most of the new buses has maintained the same typical style of the old ones, practically they have modernized the look of the old model maintaining the double-decker displacement, the appearance and color (red) unchanged, as well as taxis and telephone booths. Losing these means, which unequivocally characterize the city, it was like losing a great piece of London.
It's Sunday and it's still too early, in fact there is little people around and the whole area of Westminster appears desert than the confusion that was the day before, even those who protest against war in front of the parliament are not yet arrived, billboards and posters are along the square waiting to be animated.
Not being able to visit the Abbey on Sunday morning we move to Trafalgar Square. We walk around the square and we see now a falconeer with his beautiful eagle, whose presence on the square serves to keep away pigeons. There is to say that the pigeons, so long as eagle lies on the hand of his falconeer, have that face of one who knows thet fear. When however eagle rises in flight, pigeons are confined to move in the opposite direction. In any case, the square is very clean. This is one thing that has struck London, is a big city but is very well kept, treated and especially clean.
We decide not to wait for the opening hours of the National Portrait Gallery (10am, as for all other museums), but instead of going to see the British Museum which we feel is more interesting, if we left time back to see the precious paintings of this gallery.
We travel by bus and quickly arrive at our destination and into the the British Museum until rooms open for visits. It is enormous and extremely bright and I wonder just how the hell do we find, in this tangle of halls, the Stele of Rosetta. We have a map indicating the hall but does not indicate the exact location of Stele. We start our research in the halls dedicated to Egypt where we find the Stele.
After visiting the museum (not all), we are going to find a bus that will take us towards Regent's park. So shortly after lunch we give us a quiet sunny walk in Queen Mary's Gardens (these gardens are contained in Regent's Park). To achieve them we also pass in front of the house of Sherlock Holmes in Baker Street, where two oriental persons are making pictures with pipe and hat. Who knows.. if I'll go back to London after few years maybe there would be also a Pivet Drive with the house of Harry Potter!
The park is full of people that like us are walking and enjoying the tranquility and the beauty of these parks. It's Sunday and Londoners enjoy their deserved rest in the tranquillity of these green oases.
The next destination is the district of Notting Hill that I find very nice and the famous "Portobello Road". I do not know why but are coming to my mind all those "Mary Poppins" movie style houses. Here we come in this road with its stalls, there are still many objects good only for flea market, but it is distinctive and satisfy my curiosity!
Returning we have a break to Marble Arch. I see, in the adjacent park, a lot of people grouped together and I am reminded that it's Sunday, and that's the Hyde Park Speakers Corner, so we are approaching. There are some guys, standing on stairs that make rallies.. and some of these also have fairly audience . What a crazy thing , I tell myself! Anyone can take a loudspeaker and other people listen ... what a laugh. My friend told me but lively it really does another effect.
As is rather cold, and it seems that should rain again, we decide to make a leap from Harrod's, but unfortunately for us, it is closed at Sunday.
However we go to the Victoria and Albert Museum, a little culture instead of shopping! The museum collects a flood of stuff, of the most different kind and perhaps this variety makes it interesting and never boring.
After the visit we notice that just before the museum transits bus C1, which leads us directly to Victoria station, wonderful! This is a small normal red bus, bad luck .. nothing scenic ride upstairs!
In the evening we are just cooked, the day was long and intense, we skipped here and there like locusts for the city, taking and leaving buses, capturing every corner and every moment of this city. The 'traverlcard' was just a good purchase, turn on foot, given the distances, our travel would not have been possible.

We wake up and warm winter sunlight entering from our window, so we decide that is the right day to get to see the famous Tower Bridge. Even if the distance is a lot we choose to take the bus and not underground. We have no hurry and is more pleasant to see the streets and people along the way. Take the case, the usual 24 to Trafalgar Square but this time we accaparrarci places in the first row upstairs. All another vision! From Trafalgar Square take another bus that takes us directly into The desired zone, passing in front of the Royal Courts of Justice and the Cathedral of St.. Paul which unfortunately is all scaffolded for a restoration. It's easy to be reached with the bus, even fun!
On arrival at destination, let's make a trip around to look over surroundings of the Tower of London, there is only a single ticket booth that has just opened with a very long tail, we did not really want to do all the tail, specially after having just watched the price of entry passes (23£ each). There will be also kept the crown jewels and the largest diamond in the world but it is not what interests me more. In fact, we decide to go to visit other places. Not to be stingy, but we think the price is too much high. We thus start to the bridge (Tower Bridge), which we picture from all angles and then we make a walk along the Thames until all Belfast cruiser, also used in the Normandy landings.
From this point you can see the modern London, madet of skyscrapers and futuristic constructions that really dominate the city as opposed to the Victorian-style buildings that for centuries spread in the city. A nice contrast, I like it, though I particularly don't love the aesthetics of modern constructions.
After lunch near St.Paul's Cathedral (entrance £7.5), we are going to see the obelisk of Cleopatra along the Thames and then to move to the covered market in Covent Garden, the area where is the Museum of Transport (surcharge), where interesting we find a sports store. Finally we move into chaos in the area of Piccadilly Circus.
By advancing the afternoon and increasing the cold we decide to go the famous Harrod's mall. What a disappointment.. I do not like the shopping fanatics but this place is no longer a shopping mall, it is an excess! Articles ready for sale which seem pieces of art in a museum, everything in my opinion has the scent of unbridled luxury, the service personnel is the smartest I ever seen, even those in the photographic equipment department are dressed in dark, white shirt, tie and... pink top, oh there what an exaggeration! The interiors of the building, are in Pharaonic style. Sure good, but excessive too! I Do not buy anything because even the prices in my opinion are pharaonical. I wanted to have tea but I saw a the tea shop in Victoria Station that costs much less than Harrod's branded teapots.
I must say that when I hear the television or the newspapers talking of consumerism, since I live in a beautiful country of the province, I feel these argument distant, but in a place like this, where there are immense shopping malls, where the streets of the centre are a a succession of shops, I realize accounts of what consumerism is and what is actually living this way.
As the afternoon is not yet finished we jump on a bus and look at the National Gallery that we left behind. I am not a passionate of art nor we understand much, but it was very pleasant to visit. It was the first time that I saw a Van Gogh really! A framework in particular, then struck me, I can not remember the title as the author but I stayed much time stopped to admire it better. It's a portrait of an execution, which took place in the Tower of London, of a young woman. The painting seems almost alive, the folds of the dress, details, the expressions of the face and hands of the girl seem alive, even more than it could be through pictures, gives you the feeling that they are going to animate as that is about to happen now. And it's impressive the feeling of fear and anguish that this painting can send you !
Finally we return to the hotel to rest a moment pending the dinner. This evening we decided to go to make a sightseeing tour of the city at night by bus. Just back from our tour we make a stop to photograph the Big Ben at night.

This morning we have an appointment to Buckingham Palace: the changing of the guard.. Eh, eh, eh ... Since the show is expected at 11.30 we pass our expectation time at St.James Park. I intend to do a little of social relationships with squirrels. So.. I try an angle and try to offer a squirrel a piece of my biscuit. Marco, as great faunist, does not approve these attitudes, but the park is full of people with bags filled of peanuts and bread which are distributed at the left and right, that my miserable biscuit will not make the difference. Something like this closer to my house would mean paradise for me.. very different from the pigeons of our residence!
Finally comes the time of guards changing. There's a lot of people, many students in visit including our compatriots, and it's also quite cold. The show starts slowly and proceeds with its gift rituals. After a while, perhaps because of the cold, perhaps becuse of the crowd, we decide to have had enough and we go away.
After lunch we go to Kensington Park not first without having made a stop for a nice memorial photo at Albert Memorial. We walk along the artificial iced lake plenty of swans and waterfowl, where, according to my guide, once were bred turtles as food, and then we move in the near Hyde Park. Truly immense, it would take a bicycle to see everything.
To conclude the afternoon we visit the Natural History Museum. The museum is free and is really very interesting, I found only a little boring the human bodypart section. The section devoted to animals of prehistory is full of children making school visits. There are some who wear the uniform of the school, shorts, winter jacket, sweater, tie and jacket. I really want to know who is that "mind" which has designed these uniforms and has the bravery to send around these kids dressed in this way.
The museum, however, is very interesting and we spend a lot of time there, even the building that contains it is truly spectacular. Outside the museum, in the courtyard,was exposed an interesting photo exhibition with pictures that depict landscapes worldwide.
After this trip we come back, with the usual C1 bus, in the area of our hotel.

We wake up at 7.30 am with our neighboring friends television sound. We wake up in a sad and grey London that smacks of imminent rain, maybe it's sad because we have to leave. Our departure is at 19:00. We do breakfast, calmly prepare the suitcase and go to reception to pay the hotel. with our surprise the lady at the reception communicates to us that if we pay in cash we would have discount of £15 in total. So we leave and go to the nearby ATM to withdraw some cash.
The morning we dedicate to the visit of the science museum, adjacent to that of natural history. Turn aroundwith the trolley is not the maximum comfort so we left this museum back in order to visit it this morning. So we enter the museum, also free, leaving the suitcase in the cloakroom (1.10£) and we can begin our interesting visit without unnecessary weight. Even this museum is plenty of kids but it is generally less crowded than others, but maybe it's only because it is morning. I find very interesting the part on the space, the first trip to the moon, satellites, a little less the section on mechanics.
Outside the museum is almost lunchtime so we move on Brompton Road in search of a place for lunch, it will be because we are a stone's throw from Harrods but sprout like mushrooms people with their plastic bag with the Harrod's mark. Greatly for the owner they are not all following my philosophy.. ah ah ah ah
Since Stansted Express leaves from Liverpool station we move in airport's direction. Partly by feet and, when we tire up, with bus pass for Oxford street. I'm impressed by the people who crowd this way, the succession of shops, clubs, the life that spreads over in this way.
Then at the station, we are going to catch our train, place our travelcard, faithful companion of these days, in the backpack and prepare train tickets. The train, this time is not very crowded and, quickly crossing these campaign winter landscapes, melancholy leads us directly at the airport.
The airport is great, at our arrival we had not time to look around because we were immediately looking for the train, will also be a stopover of less than London but is very great the same!
We make check-in without doing too much tail but now we average with the interminable queue for the control of hand luggage. A torture.
This is the end of our small vacation in London. They have been five days rich of intense emotions, with many things seen and done and now remain only the photos and memories. London is still one of the most beautiful cities we have seen, who knows.. maybe one day we will come back...