Honeymoon in Europe : Day 10

Route : London

Continental Breakfast was provided at this 2-star hotel named Royal Norfolk Hotel. It was surprisingly good. I thought toasted bread and jam or butter plus coffee or tea will be served only, for continental-styled breakfast. Not only these, they actually also provided ham & cheese or yoghurt with cereal for you to choose. I took ham & cheese this morning and Alvin opt to upgrade his breakfast to Full English with additional 2 pounds. And he had 2 sausages, some bacons and sunny-side up eggs with the toast.

We set off for the day at 9.30am because the Underground master told us that it is cheaper to purchase day pass after 9.30am and we heeded obediently. We paid 5 pounds per person for 1 day unlimited ride on the Underground.

Our first sightseeing for the day begins at Westminster. Upon exit from the Underground station, Big BEn and the Parliament House surfaced.

On the bank of the other side of River Thames, stands the lofty London Eye.

We strolled over and as we approached the Eye, Alvin suggested we go check out the ride tickets. So I stepped into the ticket area and realised the ride will cost 15 pounds each person.....a quick mental calculation and it will caused both of us S$90 for 30mins ride on the gigantic ferris wheel. Then, Alvin came running in happily telling me that an 'ang moh' young gal gave him 2 tickets for the ride. Both of us were doubtful and being the kiasu Singaporean, we actually brought the tickets to the customer service counter to ensure both tickets are still valid.

We were so happy when the customer service officer told us the tickets were valid and we quickly hopped to the queue. It was not very long yet as it was still considered early. We were onto an Eye within 5 mins and there were about 15 of us in 1 Eye.

As the Eye rose, the aerial view of London city appeared slowly beneath our feets.

Soon the ride was over and had a walk along the bank of River Thames enjoying some of the street artistes performing. The wind is cool, accompanying with the occasional sunshine, it was such a lovely morning ! While we were strolling back heading the the Undergorund, we heard some noises,
"shoo...shoo....wanna to take me home? "

We turned around, saw this and burst into laughter !!!!!!!



We continued to laugh while we stared at the 'dog'. The 'dog' couldn't care at all to be mock at and keeps shoo-ing passer bys to 'adopt' him. Everyone couldn't believe what they had just saw and laughed. We knew the rules and put in some penny before taking pictures of this London 'dog' before continuing our day.

Since I was in London, I decided to visit my UK colleagues and saying hello to my MD. So, Alvin followed me and we chatted and met up some some of my colleagues, seen and not seen before. Our head office was located near to Knightsbridge, so after the office visit, we moved on to do window shopping, covering Harrods. It is huge and decorated extravagantly. All stuffs were branded in there so we covered the mall is a few minutes. Before we left, I managed to buy 2 Harrods bags much to Alvin's dismay for spending so much on 2 plastic bags.... but I dun care... We continued to roam Knightsbridge until we were pretty tired and decided to return to our comfy little room to rest.

We were amazed when we returned and realised that we little room had been housekept with new towels for the day !

We returned to Oxford Street hoping to be able to do some shopping at Primark but it was entirely filled with people with cashier queues and changing rooms longer than I ever saw in my life. The clothes racks were still as messy as ever.....so I told Alvin we better returned the next day. By then, we were hungry and Alvin wanted to have chinese food and so we find our way via Tube to Leicester Square where Chinatown is located. We got a little lost initially but manged to reached the Chinatown after some inquriries.

You know you have reach a Chinatown because all foreign Chinatowns look the same in decor... with a sign gate at the entrance.

We toured around the mini Chinatown and finally settled on this chinese cantinese restuarant which we saw they hung yummy roast meat at the door. We also shared a lobster noodles which is so huge and worthwhile at 15 pounds. It was a great dinner and we left the restaurant will a full tummy. We walked around Leicester Square to digest away some of the food as it was impossible to sleep with such a full stomach. And I realised Leicester Square was a part of the theatre places in London. We wandered around and ended up in Picadilly Circus. Wow ! Shopping again ! But, we were too tired by then and gave the shopping a miss.... and returned to our comfy little room....