This is a continuation of my previous post on my Europe trip. My first stop was London. :)
There are so many memorable and beautiful historical buildings in London. Walking around and listening in to the guided tours was like a really interactive history class. Definitely more interesting listening and actually looking at the things than plainly reading it. Plus the guide we had on our first day was kinda funny, which makes it all the more enjoyable.
I am genuinely impressed with their knowledge of history and their transparency with its brutality. No point in telling fairy tales, right? Wouldn't explain a lot of things now would it?
 |
| So... so much history... St Paul's Cathedral |
.jpg) |
London Eye
.jpg) |
Big Ben
 |
I think this is... Westminster Abbey??
Windsor Castle... stormy sky again~! |
|
|
I think it was after listening to the story of King Henry the eighth and his many wives that I decided I just had to do more fun activities in my life instead of listening to how other people had their fun. :P So we also did our shopping and pigging out... hehe...
 |
| Borough Market |
 |
| Super humongous pies, it looks like a small pot. I should... in reflection.. taken a pic with my hand beside it as comparison |
 |
| M&M Shop |
 |
| The many colors and flavors of M&Ms |
 |
| Buckingham Palace |
 |
| Harrods |
 |
| Panoramic view of Harrod with some 2D looking people |
 |
| 'Queen is calling', a phone booth outside Windsor Castle |
One of the most memorable part of my London trip was really my lunch at 'Dinner by Heston Blumenthal'. He is like my chef crush~! I have always wanted to try his cooking ever since I saw him in MasterChef Australia show. Once I knew I have the chance to visit London, I kept eyeing his specialty restaurant 'The Fat Duck'. However, reservation at this michelin star restaurant can only be made 2 months in advance (and man, the table reservations finishes very fast!!) and cost about £194 per person. T_T Maybe next time... next time... So I settled for a smaller establishment by his name but it was still nice. A set lunch only cost £38 per person! hehe... I even asked the waitress whether Heston would be in today ('cause I wanted to take a pic with him if possible), but she told me he happened to be in Australia at the moment. What irony... T_T
 |
| Lunch Menu @ Dinner by Heston Blumenthal |
 |
| Pork belly with hydrogenated pork crackling, apple sauce, and burnt cabbage |
 |
| Goat cheese and honey fig |
 |
| Heston Blumenthal's famous nitrogen cooled ice cream |
Apart from meeting my chef crush, there was also another person I kept hoping to bumped into but on reflection it was probably childish. I will let you guess who this is, all I can say is that I was hoping to buy his legendary bear in London Made in London but I didn't see it anywhere. Sad... If I open a souvenir shop in London, I will definitely sell his bear there. DEFINITELY!!
On the 3rd to 4th day in London, we decided to join a tour to visit Windsor Castle, Bath and Stonehenge. The view of Windsor Castle from afar was beautiful but a castle being a castle, I was bored after a while.
But Bath... it is a very beautiful place indeed!! When we heard that we were going to a roman bath and how the bath water used to have healing properties and all that, we thought we could actually touch or dip into the bath. B even took his swimming trunk just in case. lol... but it was nothing like that at all. It is now more a museum than anything else, a relic from the past. There were signs everywhere saying 'do not touch the water' as it is untreated. We were so devastated.
But the town itself was beautiful... all unfiltered pictures some more!!
 |
| This is now the wallpaper for my S4 |
We only had about an hour to explore the little town but we quickly scooted in a trip-advisor-approved tea house (they have the trip advisor sticker on the front of the shop) and ordered the local bun. No imagination required, it is called bath bun. lol... It is basically a bun with crushed sugar inside that gives that nice crunch when you bite into it. I didn't realise that the sugar was expected of bath bun, I thought they didn't mix the dough properly before baking it so I dug the sugar lumps out and left it on the saucer. Luckily I didn't complain... would be embarrassing... :P
 |
| Tea time |
Before we left, we found a bun that captivated our attention. It was Sally Lun's bun!! I remember the tour guide mentioned this bun in the bus so we were so excited and bought one. And boy, was it HUGE!! We were so excited...
But.... It was just a BIG bun with NOTHING inside!! Felt like I got cheated. So sad.
To its credit, it probably would have been an awesome bun if you have some curry.... but we only had water to wash it down...
And last but not least Stonehenge! I heard they used to let people roam in and out of the stones but now they have it all fenced up. *shakes fist at stupid vandals* Those olden day people don't drag these rocks from the land far far away just for vandals to inscribe their names, ok? :P But stonehenge is like erected somewhere middle of nowhere, so no one really knows what is the true purpose of it anyway.
Still, hope you enjoy the unfiltered image of Stonehenge below. :)
Until next time... when I blog about Paris and/or Barcelona.
.jpg)
.jpg)
