Thursday, May 10, 2012

Goodbye London... til next time!

The final day in London… I was feeling pretty tired because the last three days have been non-stop walking, so I decided I wanted to slow it down a little bit… not to mention I had already seen almost everything I wanted to ! haha. I got up and went to Liverpool Station in search of The Breakfast Club restaurant that one of my friends told me about. I searched high and low and was unable to find it… so I settled for Krispy Kreme donuts :) mmmm… Haven’t had those in quite a while!
Well, guess I can say I made it to Liverpool
I started walking from there towards the London Bridge, but I made a stop along the way at the Lloyds of London. Ryan had been talking about it so much I thought I needed to check it out. I’m glad I did! They are very different compared to everything else I had seen here, but it was pretty cool. It’s almost like the Pompidou in Paris where a lot of the things are on the outside like pipes and stairs and elevators. I was also able to see the Gherkin building while I was here… which is exactly like Torre Agbar in Barcelona. I don’t understand why this shape of building is becoming so popular… haha
Lloyds of London
I continued my walk to the bridge and stumbled upon the monument in place for the London fire. You are able to climb to the top, but I decided to bypass that because it’s not that tall so the views wouldn’t have been anything compared to St. Paul’s. I made it to the bridge and my destination – the London Bridge Experience. I wouldn’t have known about this if it weren’t for my London Pass. Basically, it was an exhibition within the bridge where actors took you through and sort of reenacted the history… then came the fun part – the haunted house. Luckily there was a group there because I probably wouldn’t have survived it alone! Haha. It wasn’t too scary, but the part where the rubber inflatables somewhat suffocated you was not pleasant! But I made it, and was glad to be back out in open air again!
London Bridge still standing!
The next stop on my journey was the Design Museum. I was pretty excited for this. It is a museum all about design obviously, but it is a mixture of architecture, furniture, fashion, products, graphic design… basically anything you can think of. It was really cool, and I spent a lot of time in the shop. There were so many books to flip through and a bunch of little gadgets everywhere. Now this is my kind of museum!
Design Museum
After the museum I grabbed a quick lunch and headed to Fleet Street. Yep, I saw Johnny Depps…errr…Sweeny Todd’s old shop. Unfortunately it isn’t anything too spectacular, just a shop that is in need of renovation. I feel like they could really turn this into a tourist attraction, but I guess they already have plenty of those!
Sweeny Todd's old place
I was feeling pretty worn out at this point, and it had started raining. So I got the brilliant idea to take this opportunity to ride a double decker bus! I couldn’t leave here without doing it! I took it from Fleet Street to a stop close to where I was staying. It wasn’t too thrilling, just a bus ride, but I can now say I’ve been on one of the infamous red double deckers! After I got off the bus I walked around to shop a little bit and just wander. I headed back to the room, and then we went and got fish and chips… yes again. I won’t get to have the real deal for a while! After dinner I went back to the room and decided to take a nap because I knew I wouldn’t be sleeping that night since I would be in the airport.
A double decker bus
So I got a few winks and went to catch my bus to the airport. I had bought a ticket, but wasn’t able to print it. So I took a picture of the confirmation and ticket on my computer to bring with me thinking that would be good enough. I told the driver this when I got there… you would have thought this was the end of the world – they don’t even take your ticket they just glance at it. I think he just wanted to make a scene in front of everyone because as he was loading my bag and pointing at me to take a seat he proceeded to say over and over “that’s your problem you don’t have printer, not mine” loud enough for everyone to hear of course. I don’t get it. But I was able to get on, and I made it to the airport… which is where I sit right now writing this at 2:30am. Only a few more hours before I board my plane and head for Prague. I can’t wait.
Random Shot of the day
Cheers London.

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