When East Meet West . Vol 5: London Day 7

Part of information extracted from Wikipedia.

It was almost the last day of my stay with The Duck. Sobsss... Feeling less adventurous and for the sake of our thinning purse, I decided to just walked around London. Catching glimpse of places I had yet to visit. Weather was pretty fluctuated with drizzle this moment and sunny the next.

Hiked up the hill situated in Greenwich Park early in the morning, just to see this Royal Observatory, Greenwich. It played an important role in the history of astronomy and navigation, and is best known as the location of the prime meridian.

(top) The Shepherd gate 24-hour clock

(bottom) Standard lengths - 1 yard (3 feet), 2 feet, 1 foot, 6 inches (1/2 foot) and 3 inches

Laser will be projected from the observatory marking the prime meridian line

Greenwich University which was built in symmetry

The taller-than-me sunflowers

The Greenwich Market

There were stalls selling accessories, antiques, junks, sweets, clothes, souvenirs, food, etc.

It started to drizzle by noon. To cover ourselves from the chilly wind and rain, we decided to go for lunch first before heading to our next destination. The Duck brought me to Wahaca, a Mexican restaurant at Canary Wharf. It is located within walking distance from Jamie's Italian.

(left) Citrus Fizz (£1.55). Freshly crushed lime, torn mint and sparkling water

(right) Hibiscus Water (£1.50). Homemade cranberry flavoured Mexican flower juice

We shared the Wahaca selection (£19.95) which consisted of a variety of street food. On the whole, I enjoyed the food a lot.

(left to right) Black Bean Tostadas and New Potato Taquitos. These two top my list of the day

Broad Bean Quesadilla with Green Rice and Black Beans

(left to right) New Potato Taquitos, Chicken Tinga Tacos and Pork Pibil Tacos

It then started to rain. Despite the tingling wind, the sole of my shoes were thinning and before long, my whole feet were 'immersed' in a pool of icy cold water. Pure torture!

The British museum is a museum about human history and culture. It owns a collection of more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originated from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present.

There are departments of Ancient Egypt and Sudan, Greek and Roman Antiquities, the Middle East, Prints and Drawings, Asia, Coins and Medals, Prehistory and Europe, Conservation and Scientific Research as well as Africa, Oceania and the Americas. However, as much as I am interested in different cultural from all over the world, my feet troubled me greatly and I can think of nothing but going back soon. Therefore we just simply browse through the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan.

In front of the British Museum

Nevertheless, alas, we still haven't found the suitable birthday gift for my dad. Hence it wasn't yet time to go back. We headed to Westfield, one of the big mall there, hunting for presents.

Snog. Original flavoured frozen yoghurt with brownies. It's zero fat! Hehe

After we found what we were looking for, it was time to end the agony! We then took the tube back, stopping at Blackfriars on our way back to buy dinner. We went to Hare & Tortoise, one of The Duck's favourite Japanese Restaurant.

(left) Tori Katsu Curry (£6.50). Deep fried chicken in breadcrumbs with thick Japanese curry sauce, served with steamed rice

(right) Unagi Don (£8.75). Grilled eel fillet in teriyaki sauce, served with steamed rice, pickles and miso soup

Both the portions were generous and delicious, although the eel definitely fared well over the chicken.

My last night on The Duck's bed with Hippo covering my eyes from the light

I've finally completed posting on my trip to Europe. Definitely missing the great time there, especially the time spent with The Duck. I am very grateful for the warm hospitality and I was definitely pampered with all the good food and extremely interesting experience. Thanks to Jia Jia as well for helping me to carry my heavy luggage up the stairs, treating me chocolates and adding more joy to my visit. ^^

When East Meet West . Vol 5: London Day 6

Part of information extracted from Wikipedia.

A continuation entry from my royal post of Windsor. Since we got back London early, I was brought to one of London's attraction, the Natural History Museum. It is located on Exhibition Road, South Kensington together with two other large museums (Science Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum). The museum is sponsored by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, therefore, entrance is free of charge. Visit their website here.

The museum is particularly famous for its ornate architecture and exhibition of dinosaur skeletons.

The galleries are further divided into the Red, Blue, Green and Orange zones, each displaying different exhibits. Since the museum is exceedingly large, three floors if I was not mistaken, we just visited the rather interesting sections.

Blue Zone - Dinosaurs

Skeleton of Apatosaurus, also better (though mistakenly) known as Brontosaurus

Huge skull of the Triceratops

The biggest attraction here. The moving Tyrannosaurus (T. rex)

Dinosaur featured toys

Night
Day at the Museum

Red Zone

This gallery themed around the changing history of the Earth.

Our horoscope, Capricorn

Entrance to the Earth galleries

My most anticipated part, Kobe earthquake simulation. We were given a chance to experience it.

I'll show you this video taken by The Duck. Hehe. Don't mind my dumb expression.

Green Zone - Birds

Huge ostrich. Spot me and Spongy Bob?

We then went for some food shopping at Sainsbury's, the third largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, not far from The Duck's floyer house. I bought some snacks (yoghurt bars, chips, jaffa cake, etc.) which cannot be found in Penang while The Duck grabbed me some yoghurt (with rice in it!! yummeh~) and ice-cream (macadamia~♥). Hehe

Bak Kut Teh noodles by The Duck for dinner. Scrumptious eh? *wink

When East Meet West . Vol 5: London Day 5

Information extracted from Wikipedia.

I am going to keep this entry short and simple. The day after we were back from Cambridge, in order to make full use of my remaining time in London (/.\), we went over to capture some snapshots of Buckingham Palace despite my feet which were throbbing in pain. (p/s: Never wear your new shoes in you are on a full day schedule!)

Buckingham Palace is located in the City of Westminster, serves as the primary residence of the British monarch. It was first resided by Queen Victoria in 1837. Since I did not visit the palace, I had not learned much about this palace. Read more about Buckingham Palace here.

The principle facade, the East Front, which was completed in 1850.

Right in front of the palace. One of the attraction is the changing of the guard. Too bad I did not met its time.

The Victoria Memorial is a memorial to Queen Victoria, the longest reigning monarch in British history. It stands in the center of the Queen's Gardens in front of Buckingham Palace.

Bronze winged 'Victory'

The four figures with lions surrounding the Memorial each represents Peace, Progress, Agriculture as well as Mall and Industry

The four boats on the base represent Britain's rule over the oceans

The Green Park, which is one of the Royal Parks of London

Canada Gate, situated on the south side of The Green Park

Being in a Western country did not diminished my love for Asian food. During dinner time, we opted for Assa Restaurant as it was a chilly night and nothing better for a hotpot to warm up our tummies.

Yours truly. Excited to get shelter from the freezing wind as well as resting my aching feet. Best of all, KOREAN food!!

We chose a set meal for two which costed us around £25. The set came with two drinks (I had Sprite while The Duck had orange juice), two complementary bowls of rice and two banchan (side dishes).

Kimchi and pork hotpot. Kimchi, pork, tofu cubes, mushroom and vege all dumped into this big pot of appetizing sourish soup

Ah Bui can't wait to start feasting. On pork? Hmm....

Spicy rice cake. We love the chewy rice cakes covered in the sauce. The Duck especially loved the sweetish hot ramen (noodles)

Next up was Windsor Castle.