I spent a weekend soaking up the
tourist attractions of London with Amber and Steve, who are on a holiday in
England and Europe from Australia. We kicked off the weekend with a trip to Madame
Tussauds, where we were amazed at how real all the wax sculptures seem! It was
very busy but not too hard to get a paparazzi snap with our favourite celebs. I chilled with Will
Smith, shook hands with Robin Williams, texted Shane Warne on my phone and
ordered Barrack Obama about from his White House desk. I may have propositioned
Prince William and posed some intelligent questions to Albert Einstein and
Isaac Newton as well!
I had words with Pope John Paul, Mahatma Ghandi and the Dalai Llama about the
state of the world. We nervously made our way through the scream room, which
sent us on a walk through the dungeons, with live actors playing the part of
crazed inmates! After that we relaxed by taking a tour through London’s history
in a traditional black cab, like an indoor amusement ride really! The experience
ended with a 4D short film, where Spiderman, Ironman, the Hulk and other superheroes
banded together to save London. It truly was a four dimensional experience, as
we were sprayed with mists of water, had pressurized air shoot past our heads
and where prodded from all sides by the seats! It was quite an amusing
experience really, and resulted in a lot of squealing and giggling…
After enjoying some lunch we
headed over to the Tate Modern for to get in touch with our artistic side. It
was not a very attractive building; it looked more like an old industrial
factory made from brick! Inside we viewed art from modern times, and eventually
ended up at the bar on the top floor. We savoured some organic beer and cider
before heading back home for a short while before dinner. Dinner was wood fired
pizza at my favourite local pizzeria, and then we caught the train into Covent
Garden for drinks with my London buddies. It was nice to be able to introduce
two groups of friends to each other; it felt like having home come to me! After
a couple of drinks we headed back home for some well deserved rest… Sunday was
another big day!
Sunday was another busy day; we
started by going to the Tower of London. We heard the tales through history
from a Yeomen Warder, as he guided us through the grounds and pointed out some
grisly facts. We saw the ravens guarding the tower, perused the Crown Jewels
and learnt about medieval torture methods. We climbed up the ‘trip stairs’ of
the Bloody Tower, where every fifth stair is a slightly different height to
trip up any soldiers trying to invade the tower. We learnt about armor from
each generation of royals, including Henry the Eighth, whose armor tends to
make most men feel a touch inadequate (purely psychological warfare
apparently!). After the Tower we headed over to Westminster Abbey, where we
attended Evensong. It was very soothing to hear the angelic voices of the boys’
choir fill the expanse of the abbey, and quite a nice break from traipsing
around the city. It became a bit of a game to ‘spot the priest’, every time
there was a spoken part of the service, a different priest would come out to
read, and each time they stood at a different alter! It kept us on our toes for
sure.
Following Evensong we walked over
the River Thames to the London Eye. It takes around 20minutes for the Eye to
make a complete revolution, and we enjoyed the 360 degree vista as we slowly
made our way to the top and then back down again. It was late afternoon so the
sun was on its way down and casted a shadowy haze across the city to the north.
The southern view was a stark contrast with clear blue skies! It was an amazing
experience though, and one I would love to go on again, maybe at night or
sunset. By the time we had finished our ride on the Eye it was just about time
for dinner, so we caught the train out to Brick Lane, the Indian Food capital
of London, and bartered our way along the Lane in the search for the best deal.
We eventually found a place that gave us a four course meal and a couple of
rounds of drinks for 10 pounds, which we were rather happy with! The meal was
pretty good and we rolled back home and into bed, exhausted from embracing the
tourist opportunities that London has to offer.
