Summer 2011 at Cambridge University: Weekend in London #1

Whirlwind tour of many major sites in London - way too much to cover effectively in one blog post! But here goes...

1) Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Albert Memorial. We attempted to go to tea at The Orangery, but it was closed for construction...instead walked around the two adjacent parks, seeing swans on the lake and tons of dogs - very cute! Along the south edge we saw the Albert Memorial across from the Royal Albert Hall - way more spectacular in person than on camera, believe it or not.

2) Tower Bridge - lots of tourists (because it's right near the Tower of London) but lots of great photo ops! There was a beach cleanup on the Thames too, which was fun to see.

3) Tate Modern museum. My favorite pieces were two wonderful Dalis in the Surrealist room (by far my favourite section) and an interesting photo exhibit on "living persons declared dead." There was also an awesome timeline on the third floor showing artist signatures next to each of the movements in modern art. The museum is excellent and completely worth spending half a day inside, though as with most modern art, I only truly liked 5-10% of it. And MoMA is better, unfortunately.

4) St Paul's Cathedral. We weren't able to go past the transepts into the east end or up the tower due to the evensong service, but of course it is a stunning place to be inside. Planning on going back to climb the tower next weekend!

5) Back to Great Dover Street apartments (housing for King's College London). AMAZING deal! 55 pounds for a spacious room with two beds, desk, en suite toilet and shower, and even little shampoos and a bag of tea to take away :)

6) Dinner at a lovely French restaurant near the riverfront - can't remember the name at the moment, though I know it's in Partow's photos. Had an open-faced smoked salmon sandwich, and cream tea for dessert!

7) London Eye. Totally worth the money (and the money for the fast track ticket too, btw - 10 pounds more for a 5 minute wait, as opposed to a 50 minute wait! The view is amazing (especially at dusk). I would do it again, even, despite how expensive it is.

8) Piccadilly Circus. Basically the Times Square of London - lots of glitzy billboards, fancy hotels, theatres, Ripley's Believe it or Not (yuck), Trocadero center, Chinatown...it was starting to get dark while we were there and it was becoming more and more crowded...clearly the place a lot of people go for the nightlife. I don't need to go again now that I've seen it, but I'm glad I did!

9) Next day - British Museum. That's all, because you can spend an entire day in the British Museum and still feel like you've seen 1/10 of it, and absorbed only 1/10 of that. By far my favourite place in London so far, hands down :)