Christine's Food and Travel

15th April 2011
On our last day in London, we went to visit Kensington Palace. The palace is another royal residence. All the important princes live here like Prince George and Prince Harry. Princess Diana used to live here too before she passed away. The palace is open for visitation. To find out more, click here [link]. It is a very relaxing place to be in. We had to walk a stretch of road so we did some shopping along the way.

Whole Food's Market. Kinda different from the markets in Malaysia.

Kensington Palace

Round Pond near the palace.

After that, we visited one of the filming locations of Harry Potter. Diagon Alley in the story is filmed in this place called Cecil Court. Felt so excited to visit! Its like visiting a magical world and reliving the story in real life. I could just imagine myself walking as a witch, searching for the best broom or an owl!

Cecil Court

The National Gallery was our next and final destination! It is situated at the Trafalgar Square. The Gallery is an art gallery, currently housing thousands of paintings dating from mid-13th century to 1900. It has free admission. To find out more about the gallery, you may click here [link].

British red telephone box!

National Gallery

Near Covent Garden.

We went back to our hotel to take our luggage and headed to the airport for our flight back to Malaysia. Overall, this Europe trip gave me one of my best experiences and exposure to the world on the other side. Anything that I have read in books or watched on TV had came into reality in this trip. Indeed, I truly feel blessed to be able to visit these countries and I hope that in the future, I would have the chance to go back again. :)

14th April 2011
After breakfast, we started off towards Buckingham Palace. It is the official London residence and principal workplace of the British monarch. When we reached, the Changing the Guard ceremony took place for about 45 minutes. To get more details on when you can watch, click here [link]. We did not enter the palace though. However, guided tours are available to some certain parts of the palace. To find out more, click here [link].

London Bus

Changing the Guard ceremony in front of the palace with Victoria Memorial in view.

At Buckingham Palace, inside the gates.

With music

Red flowers around the palace. The national flower of London is rose though.

The Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walk.

The garden near the palace.

We dropped by at the Supreme Court of UK. It was quite cool inside. Not many visitors so we had the court rooms to ourselves! There was no need of entrance fee when we went. However, there might be some changes. To check out more, click here [link].

Abraham Lincoln Statue we saw on the way

The Supreme Court of UK

Queen Elizabeth

One of the courts for visitation

Stairs. Feels like I am in Hogwarts already.

Look at the signature and the handwriting. Loves!

We walked across the street and reached Westminster Abbey. It is a mainly Gothic church with magnificent architecture. We walked in the vicinity of the church. The official website of the church is here [link].

North façade, built in Gothic style.

The west front end

Opposite of the church is the Palace of Westminster. At the north end of the palace is the Big Ben. It is the famous clock tower in London.

Palace of Westminster

Big Ben Tower

We had to fit in many destinations in one day, so we did not walk to see the London Eye. We proceeded towards the Tower Bridge. I had always thought that the Tower Bridge is the London Bridge we had always sung about. The Tower Bridge crosses the River Thames.

Sundial I saw nearby the railway train station.

Riverside view towards Tower Bridge.

First time listen to poetry reading.

A model of the area.

Tower Bridge!

On the bridge

Thames River - night view of London

Where the bridge splits.

Nearby the Tower Bridge is the Tower of London. The Tower Bridge got its name from this Tower of London. It is actually a castle, a grand palace early in the history, which served as a royal residence. For more details, click [here].