London Trip Report Day 2 “South Bank”

OK, this blog entry is not about food. It’s about more of my Sunday walking tour of the south bank of the Thames. I started the morning hoping to visit the Westminster Abbey and the Parliament. It appears that I chose a wrong day to that because Westminster Abbey is closed to tourist because of worship services.

So, the best I could do was to walk around the compound.

I found a small entrance at the back of the Westminster Abbey and got into the courtyard. It was really quite because not many people ventured to that back entrance.

The corridor was amazing and mesmerizing reading the plaques on the walls and on the floor. Many of them are hundreds of years old. I had a good time reading some of them. The floor of the corridor seems like grave slabs. I am not sure really if people are really buried right under it but the writings appears do say so.

The Parliament building’s public area was under renovation. So, I did not get the chance to see how the insides were.

A day earlier, I had booked a flight on the London Eye. The London Eye flight takes about 30 minutes for one revolution. It costs about 12 GBP. People are divided over whether this is an ugly eyesore or if it gives a different character to the city centre. What do you think?

That being a weekend, it was a good thing I had a pre-booked ticket. The crowd were growing very fast and we can see the lines getting longer.

The view were spectacular from up high. I could pick out some of the famous buildings around and it does give a different perspective of the beauty of London from up high.

I next took the Underground to the St Paul’s Cathedral. Bad move — it’s because again, it’s closed to tourists on Sunday because of church services. We get to see the insides from the back of the church but could not get any nearer. Also photography is prohibited in the cathedral.

I badly wanted to get up to the top of the dome to take pictures — dashed!

From St Pauls, it’s just a 5 minute walk to the new and famous Millennium Bridge. It’s a pedestrian only bridge. When it first opened, I heard that it closed for some time when the bridge wobbled. It seems very stable when I crossed it. Across the bridge is the Tate Modern. I was not interested in the Tate Modern and gave that a miss.

The view of the Millennium Bridge spanning the Thames and having St Paul’s imposing facade on the other end makes a great shot.

Further down the South Bank was the reconstructed Globe Theatre — Shakespeare’s theatre. I did not have time for this and also gave this a miss. London had so much to offer tourists and all within a short walking distance one from another.

This is the London Bridge … well, it clearly says so at the underside of the bridge. Some bloke from the US bought the London Bridge and took it apart brick by brick … had it shipped to the US and reconstructed it. Many people thinks that he mistaken the Tower Bridge for the London Bridge!

Near to the Tower Bridge was the unique City Hall building. It was really beautiful.

I walked over the Tower Bridge across the Thames to get to the Tower of London. This bridge is so beautiful and is perhaps the one symbolic structure that defines London. Who doesn’t know the song “London Bridge is Falling Down”?

You can into the top of the tower if you want. Entrance is about 6 GBP.

This is where I spend most of my afternoon — The Tower of London. Entrance in costs 15 GBP. The Tower of London is a complex of successive forts, armories, palaces built over hundreds of years. I’ll blog more about the Tower of London tomorrow. Enjoy.

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