Europe > United Kingdom > London
Our plane reached Heathrow at 09.25 in the morning, about 25 minutes delayed due to waiting line in the air above Heathrow.
We started with buying two 7-days combined underground/bus travel cards. About 22 pounds each. Worth it, easily.
Then we took the underground into town. We got off at Embankment to try to find some fruit and candy to Salin and Raisa (children to Moinuls uncle, we will live in their house this week). It was very nice and cosy here at Embankment but not many supermarkets which was our goal. We continued to the Elephant & Castle underground station and right beside it was a pretty big supermarket (see picture).
After the candy-stop we took the bus to Sunray Avenue - our home for this week.
We relaxed for a couple hours, went to meet the children after school, and then ate a big, nice bengali dinner.
Later at the afternoon we took a walk around the river Themsen. Mostly in the area London Bridge / Tower Bridge.
At about 22:00 we returned to our apartment where we ate some tasty indin / bengali food. Then we walked to a nearby food supermarket (not the one close to the underground). It was a big shop like "Ica Maxi Haninge" in Sweden :). Contrary to swedish shops and supermarkets this was open 24h! (I suppose it's normal in London to buy food when the children are asleep).
On the way home a fox crossed the road, this was in the middle of the housing area. Many foxes around here. Last time I saw a fox in Sweden was at least 10 years ago!
Time to sleep. In the middle of the night I woke up because my alarm clock was ringing (why I don't know..). I found it after 10 minutes of intense searching in the dark. Then, when I tried to sleep again it wasn't that simple - the bengali people were snoring heavy! Luckily I brought my ear plugs! Sweden-Bangladesh : 1-0
Europe > United Kingdom > London
Woke up about nine. It started to get too warm and bright in the room to sleep. Ate some yoghurt, toast, egg and bengali shemai. Shemai is a bengali variant of porridge - it's good!.
Our goal today was to see some of the most typical tourist traps in London.
Changing of the guards at Buckinham Palace was starting at 11.30 so that was going to be our first stop today. Moinul's uncle and the two children joined us.
The changing of the guards (or "the guard mounting") was a bit long and not much happened. Some parading and some live music for about two hours. Really, really many tourists here! Even more than Abu Simbel in Egypt :)
Moinul's uncle + children went home while we continued our sightseeing.
We took walk along the river Thames and took some photos of Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, London Eye and then ate lunch at McDonalds.
After the food intake we visited Trocadero which is a 5-stores entertainment center in the middle of London. Lot's of different games, go-cart, dance dance revolution, etc...
Then we ate dinner at an italian restaurant in the Elephant & Castle area. This was not an ordinary restaurant. It looked pretty dark inside and the door was locked but a note on the door told us to knock. After a while a girl opened the door and "yes, we're open". She seemed to be the one and only personel at this whole restaurant. (Seemed like she also made the food). We ate some bad pasta carbonara and an ok pizza.
About bombings: t's hard to notice that there's been terror bombings here not so long ago. There are very few trash bins along the streets but I don't know if that is normal here. The Central underground line is also taken out of service along with some parts of the other lines in the central part of London.
Other observations: Very few smokers here. Clean, big city. More of everything in comparison with Stockholm. Good underground: It's very extensive but easy to understand.
Europe > United Kingdom > London
Woke up at about nine and felt that this was going to be a really warm day. The sky was clear blue and it was hot already.
We left the house at about 12:30 (pretty late..). We headed straight for British Museum. Our (or mine atleast) primary goal at the museum was the "Rosetta Stone" (a stone from ancient egypt which has been very helpful when translating hierglyphs). Besides all the egyptian history the museum also featured totems, greek torsos, a diamond exhibition, and much more. Free entry at this museum.
Then we bought a light lunch (yoghurt, baguette, soda). Together with a couple of bananas from the house this was a good meal.
We then took the underground to Green Park and then walked to Hyde Park which is the biggest park in London. The park was pretty crowded by people who was busy with various activities: resting in the shadow, kicking ball, inlines, etc... We ate our packed lunch here and slept a rested a little while in the shadow, real nice.
After this break we walked down to Harrod's - the shopping paradise for shopping maniacs. The place is full of rich oil sheik daughters and expensive decor :).
We skipped all the clothes, parfume, chocolat etc and went directly for the toys at floor five. Pretty good range but Hamley's was better! (Oh by the way, we walked by a beautiful Lamborghini on the way to Harrod's, see photo).
Then we took the underground to Brick Lane in the eastern part of London. Brick Lane is the bengali part of London. Moinul was in paradise. We found lots of shops with bengali movies, bengali restaurants, misti, bollywood music, clothes - lots of stuff! I bought a bengali flute here :)
To our surprise there was lots of bars here full of tourists. I took a couple of photos and recorded an environment sound which I uploaded to this homepage.
There was also some sort of Art Festival here where people (mostly asians) painted "live" accompanied by loud club music. Some where really good (see photo).
We decided to eat dinner here at one of the bengalian restaurants. I ordered Chicken Korai which is a middle hot dish with some sort of pea/bean-mixture with chicken pieces in it. Of course with rice. About 4,5 Pounds.
We're now sitting on an internet cafe, uploading pictures since the memory cards soon are full. Soon, we're heading out in the dark to take som nice night photos.
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![Moinul and his uncle - We'are living on the top floor. The house is situated about 20 min[...]](/images/entries/en/london2005_moinul-and-his-uncle-(103).jpg "Show fullsize (opens new window)")
![Elephant and Castle - This is how Elephant & Castle looks like. The underground station is situated[...]](/images/entries/en/london2005_elephant-and-castle-(118).jpg "Show fullsize (opens new window)")
![Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace - Here's a photo from the changing of the guards (also called "guard[...]](/images/entries/en/london2005_changing-of-the-guards-at-buckingham-palace-(119).jpg "Show fullsize (opens new window)")
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![the Rosetta Stone - The Rosetta Stone was found 1799 by french soldiers in the city Rosette[...]](/images/entries/en/london2005_the-rosetta-stone-(122).jpg "Show fullsize (opens new window)")
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