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Sunday in London
Oct. 8th, 2006 09:27 pmWe decided to sleep in a bit this morning, and then we took our time getting ready. I'm really glad we did, even though it meant we weren't able to do everything we wanted... we're exhausted tonight, but not completely worn out, which should make life better tomorrow, too.
First up, we stopped off at King's Cross Station and got our picture taken by some very nice people just outside Platform 9-3/4. For lunch, we grabbed some steak and stilton pasties at a cornish pasty stand in King's Cross Station. Really, really yummy! Why can't we have these back home?!? Then it was over to Kensington Palace for the tour. The thing that really stuck out to me there was when we were touring the room where Queen Victoria lived as a child... and the audioguide quoted a bit from someone's records describing the young princess "galloping around the halls" of Kensington Palace. It was such an amusing mental image.
We did one more quick look around Kensington Gardens... but still no luck finding a sundial (although several other things from the game were exactly as described). We walked back to High Street Kensington Station and headed out to Trafalgar Square, which was *packed* (and pretty impressive). We wandered around the National Gallery for a while, but it was also heavily crowded (it makes sense, really, being a Sunday afternoon). In fact, we finally got to the room with van Gogh's "Dandelions" (the thing![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rackham had most wanted to see) and pretty much just had a chance to glance at it briefly (it was in a small room with several other paintings and was obviously popular, considering the size of the crowd). Still, it was quite cool to see the originals of so many famous paintings!
For dinner, we tried a place recommended to me by my physical therapist: Cafe in the Crypt (located under St. Martin-in-the-Fields). That was just... neat! Great atmosphere, decent prices (it was about £6 for a full dinner) and very tasty food! Afterward, we took the Underground to Waterloo Station and wandered down along the Thames for a bit, crossed over Westminster Bridge, finally got to hear the chiming of Big Ben and then headed back to the hotel for the night.
If we'd gotten out earlier in the morning, we would have tried to run out to Greenwich after visiting Kensington Palace... as it is, we knew it wasn't going to work. I think we'll have to wait until the next time we visit London.
Tomorrow, the plan is spend the day at the British Museum... and if we're not too worn out when we're done, we'll head over to the London Eye (we considered it this evening, but it was getting dark and the line was quite long).
ETA: Oh! And we saw a bus billboard ad today for "Torchwood"!!! We'll be keeping our eyes peeled for the next few days and will try to snap a photo of one... sadly, I believe we'll be missing the premiere here by just a few days.
First up, we stopped off at King's Cross Station and got our picture taken by some very nice people just outside Platform 9-3/4. For lunch, we grabbed some steak and stilton pasties at a cornish pasty stand in King's Cross Station. Really, really yummy! Why can't we have these back home?!? Then it was over to Kensington Palace for the tour. The thing that really stuck out to me there was when we were touring the room where Queen Victoria lived as a child... and the audioguide quoted a bit from someone's records describing the young princess "galloping around the halls" of Kensington Palace. It was such an amusing mental image.
We did one more quick look around Kensington Gardens... but still no luck finding a sundial (although several other things from the game were exactly as described). We walked back to High Street Kensington Station and headed out to Trafalgar Square, which was *packed* (and pretty impressive). We wandered around the National Gallery for a while, but it was also heavily crowded (it makes sense, really, being a Sunday afternoon). In fact, we finally got to the room with van Gogh's "Dandelions" (the thing
rackham had most wanted to see) and pretty much just had a chance to glance at it briefly (it was in a small room with several other paintings and was obviously popular, considering the size of the crowd). Still, it was quite cool to see the originals of so many famous paintings!For dinner, we tried a place recommended to me by my physical therapist: Cafe in the Crypt (located under St. Martin-in-the-Fields). That was just... neat! Great atmosphere, decent prices (it was about £6 for a full dinner) and very tasty food! Afterward, we took the Underground to Waterloo Station and wandered down along the Thames for a bit, crossed over Westminster Bridge, finally got to hear the chiming of Big Ben and then headed back to the hotel for the night.
If we'd gotten out earlier in the morning, we would have tried to run out to Greenwich after visiting Kensington Palace... as it is, we knew it wasn't going to work. I think we'll have to wait until the next time we visit London.
Tomorrow, the plan is spend the day at the British Museum... and if we're not too worn out when we're done, we'll head over to the London Eye (we considered it this evening, but it was getting dark and the line was quite long).
ETA: Oh! And we saw a bus billboard ad today for "Torchwood"!!! We'll be keeping our eyes peeled for the next few days and will try to snap a photo of one... sadly, I believe we'll be missing the premiere here by just a few days.
