My trip to London

I was just writing my blog entry on Easter in the UK when my computer suddenly shut down not to reboot again. Darn! I had to take it to be fixed and in the end what happened was that it was full of viruses. I have always been scared to clean off my hardrive. I’m not an expert in computing and always thought my computer would work forever. Obviously, this was not the case.

But this is not the reason I disappeared from the blog for a few weeks. I always try to keep positive on everything and something great came along. Quite suddenly J. and myself decided to go to London for a long weekend. So off we went. This was my first trip to the UK since I started with my Crazy for UK adventure, and it had to be London. Every time I go back to this magic city it feels like home. I couldn’t stop taking pictures and I believe this will compensate for not having published my entry on Easter.

I’m not a photographer, and I’m just learning now how to work the camera, but I believe the pictures are great anyway as London is just beautiful.

So I arrived in London on a Thursday in March and I started my walk on the North Bankside of the Thames River, just around Blackfriars, and this is what I saw until I reached Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. As you might see, I couldn’t stop staring at the London Eye: J. says that my index finger got heavy as I took so many pictures. Don’t worry, you won’t have to look at all of them as here you will only find a small selection, but there are more of them on my Tumblr and Instagram accounts.

You might not believe it but I finally got to Big Ben. As a tour was just starting, I decided to go into Westminster Abbey as I had only been inside ages ago when my friend B. and I decided to join the Evensong. This actually happened one week before Lady Di died, but that’s quite a different story… Anyway, if you want to visit Westminster Abbey you will witness British History: this has been the traditional place of coronations and burial sites for British monarchs. Many other national figures are also buried or commemorated in Westmister Abbey.

The Houses of Parliament can also be visited, but it was late for me so I decided to head off to Borough Market, just an hour before closing time.

From Borough Market I took one of my favourite walks in London, the Southbank walk. Borough Market is a good place to start this walk (or finish it) : from the market you will walk along Southwark Cathedral, the Golden Hinde II or Sir Francis Drake’s galleon, Clink Prison Museum, the Globe Theatre or the Tate Gallery, and that’s just until you reach the Millenium Bridge, where I decided to cross the river. But if you are lucky enough to be walking along the Southbank, you can also continue until you reach the Embankment bridge, from where the views of London Eye and Big Ben are magnificent, or even cross Westminster Bridge and just walk by both attractions.

When I was crossing the Millenium Bridge I just loved to see Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and the Shard, past and present coexisting, within the same eye span. And I fell in love again with St. Paul’s Cathedral, which at that particular time was already reflecting the light of the early evening. From St. Paul’s I walked Fleet Street back to the hotel as I had to get ready for dinner at Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Restaurant!!! Very soon I will tell you all about it.

On Friday my walk was a bit more hectic, as I just walked randomly without any established plan. I just wanted to go everywhere! I started my day in Temple Church, the church that appears in The Da Vinci Code. Then I walked again around St. Paul’s, where I found Shaun the sheep, had lunch near Leadenhall Market, and  walked again passing by Holborn, the Bristish Museum, Russell Square, the Bristish Library, coming back through Bloomsbury towards Covent Garden, which was as lively as usual.