London!

Friday

Well on friday we boarded the tour bus bright and early at about 7am thereabouts. We set off for our destination of London, England. So we pass through the french countryside with tons and tons of farms, some cows here and there...then we get to have some time for lunch before we go through the euro tunnel. That is some experience, we first drive into a container in the train before it goes through the tunnel into England. So into england we go and through the customs then onto the car again, we pass through more farms and now we get to see horses! so yeah after a little while we get off in Greenwich and take a look at the Greenwich meridian muesuem about the history of time and Greenwich Meridian Time and the line itself which started it all.

We then go all the way downhill till we reach the river thames to take a boat called the dome i believe, to westminster abbey, which is a big famous church in london which holds royal weddings, funerals etc...

i cant remember the exact details but after a little walk and passing by the stage starting the Tour De France (which is in England for the first time this year) we get to go down to covent garden for our dinner, now the 2 of us are explorers in England, the tour group likes to stick together for dinner although its stated you can go on your own for dinner, so they end up paying 6 pounds for sucky chinese food which i can eat back home for 3 bucks...so we go on exploring the area and looking for the one shop which we are so excited to go but not know where it is! So we just take a little walk and lo and behold! we see Topshop(small one), these 2 crazy girls run like hell towards the shop to check it out, but meh its not much after all, so we ask this girl in the shop, this black girl who was so pretty and helpful where Abercrombie and Fitch is, she said she didnt really know but said maybe in covent garden? She still emphasized that she was only guessing. So we head on following her directions and arrive in Covent Garden we see tons of things like how the english ppl are standing outside bars in huge groups with their beer glasses in hand (cos pub damn small no more space inside), exactly like what Uncle Hei said we'd see...So we grabbed dinner on the go, something called a Cornish pasty, sort of like a Curry Puff but only 2x bigger and with things like cheese and bacon or chicken and blah blah blah instead of curry...its was quite good, with bits of onion and vegetables added as well. We walk around a little and saw Urban Outfitters!! Diesel!! big marks and spencers tons of things to see!! tons of shops.. We walked through a Station i suppose thats what it was. We saw David and Goliath(shop) we saw a bar with a narrow 2nd story balcony that was filled with men holding beer glasses! Bah no Abercrombie and Fitch, so then it was time to get back to the tour bus and we were already running late. We rushed back and jumped onto the bus and its on to our hotel to spend the night.

The hotel was alright i guess...it was four star but i've seen better four stars...Anyhoo the room was pretty standard with all the necessary items, bathroom was not bad lol but i guess because we came with a tour and it was so cheap is was kind of lacking something...some of the families who came in 3 had to share one room...and our room was just one big bed. but well we've been there and its lucky its just the 2 of us. We took our showers/baths flipped through the television watched half of the movie Wimbledon and went to sleep, tired as we were.

Saturday

So the next morning we wake up bright and early for breakfast at 6.50 am(we can wake up ok!) then trodge down at 7.10am abouts to present our breakfast vouchers, we were then led to a little area of the breakfast lounge and told us we are going to have the continental breakfast and its cold cuts. I was a bit puzzled but just went to get some cereal first, luen went on to get sausages eggs and the usual. I thought everything was ok till another lady with her husband and daughter on tour led me aside to tell me that we weren't allowed to take the meat and that the waitress already reminded her...so i just hurrily went to get 2 sausages and wolfed them down. Lo and behold the americans began exclaiming," What we cant have the meat!" after the waitress mentioned it to them..so i was like sigh...well on our way we go to windsor castle. When we reached the carpark the castle was not open yet! So i was wondering why we had to wakeup so bloody early and wait around for about 30mins in this carkpark area with some toilets and a souvenir shop if it wasnt open yet..so well we just wait, then we trodge on down to windsor castle for our tour..well it was pretty expensive the entry tickets, but what the heck we just went to take a look. It was a pretty good experience given that everything in the castle is authentic and the explanations were very good, there was so much inside to see!

I cant remember if we went to Eton on Friday or Saturday but i will just write in here. The Eton area was extremely quaint with many nice cars and shops, it was pretty obvious it was an upper scale area, we walked on down to the Eton school courtyard but didn't go in, i don't think we could, so we just peeped through the gates a little.

For lunch this time, we were to go down to picadilly circus! Actually to chinatown which is nearby, we were supposed to go there the previous day but due to some road closures we couldn't make it there for dinner, so it was covent garden for dinner. Anyways this morning we ask the hotel if they knew where Abercrombie and Fitch was or burlington square, where its supposed to be, they give us a shake of the head but produce this free magazine called where or something with a map on the back plus some listings! which listed the abercrombie and fitch store, it's address and approximate location though we didnt figure it out yet because it left out some road names or some parts of the map where unreadable due to the centrefold. anyway we looked at the map on the exit of the underground(mrt) and found the street where its at! And after some directions and burger king lunch we speed on down to our treasure island!

We walk the length of burlington square but couldn't see the store although it was a pretty short street. Then suddenly my big ears picked up a girl saying ..."something something abercrombie and fitch of london"...i ran after her!! muahahah!! the fate! and we just walked right by it! largely because it had on signboard and looked kind of like a club with some guys and girls gathered at the entrance. So we head towards the building the girl pointed out, and we gingerly step towards the doors which had pounding music streaming through it, its then that we see....the half naked model omg! Drool. Yes this is abercrombie and fitch, so we rush past to get a look at the clothes! So expensive...sigh, i'd rather be patient and spree for the stuff but well just the experience of the store is good enough for me, it's actually in a sort of house, it occupies the entire building and has 2 floors all of which are the store area. The girls in the store are all hot , boobs and ass kind of hot, and they have models (male and female) wearing their clothing scattered in the store, the shelves are stacked high with tons of clothes, skirts, jeans, polos, tanks, tees, shorts, basically the kind of style that is typical of this brand. So mission accomplished we head on back to the tour coach empty handed.

Then its on to the british muesuem which is free entry (all mueseums are free entry in England), and houses the famous stolen chinese art and porcelain etc, daddy would love this place, i bet he could spend hours inside...heh heh..anyway we got bored pretty quickly and went for a little walk around the area and decided its another rich area. it was like a suburban area full of houses, and there was a garden in the middle of where we walked, it was gated with a lock on it obviously for the people who live there. so well we head back to the mueseum and sat down outside to eat one of the extra boxes of frosties we kept during breakfast. We then headed back in to pass the time till we have to get back to the bus.

So then from here they drive us back to picadilly circus where we have 3 hours of shopping + dinner time. So we go to macdonalds for dinner. Luen had a 1.19pound double cheeseburger and i had a 1.98 pound quarter pounder. then we head on back to abercrombie this time to decide if we really want to get anything at all. So after a little while in the store, we still had some time so we decided to just take a walk around. we saw casinos! lol....a sex mueseum called amora, places selling wimbledon tickets live earth concert tickets! aaargh we were there and had to miss it...yes well on we go down coventry street till we arrive at covent gardens again, i bought a 5 pound gap tank thats all then we just walk around looking at stores till all of them started closing and we headed back to the bus slowly taking our time. We also headed into Marks and Spencers to take a look and see what its like, the food basement was so cool ( and cold as well) full of yummy food, so we just went to the 2nd level took a look around then went back out and back to picadilly ( we are sort of experts in that area now haha) Anyway it was back to the hotel for another night. We watched live earth for while packing up our luggage then went to sleep.

Sunday

So the next morning we zip up double check and go down check out and have our breakfast. This morning the hotel didnt want us stealing their meat anymore so we were moved to a far off room to have our breakfast, with a buffet set up with only the food we were allowed to eat which was toast, croissant, cereal, cold cuts, fruits, drinks thats all, it was kind of funny i guess, to me at least. So well this morning we were supposed to go down to the tower of london then to buckingham to take a look if permissable. So on the bus we go when we were about to reach the tower we found out the tower itself was closed, as well the the roads leading to it...So well, maybe we'd try buckingham palace. well same situation, so change of plans they go to the maritime mueseum which me and luen had no interest in, so we spend sometime in Greenwhich park walking around looking at the children, eating up our last packet of stolen frosties from the first morning. We saw people jogging, cycling, one particular cyclist attached a little 'carriage' to his bicycle which contained his son, it was so cute! haha...we saw squirrels! little grey ones. then choppers started to appear in the sky...well we were a little puzzled but we continued up the hill back to the bus as we already whiled away the time we were given. Halfway, we started hearing screams and cheers from the front of the mueseum which faces a road, well that must be the Tour De France, but it looks more like its just the entourage and maybe the helpers of the riders..well we get back to the bus and are on the bus most of the time all the way back to France except for some pit stops so its just some nap time all the way back. On reaching Paris the jam starts! so le sigh we had dinner at maybe 9.30 pm close to then and we were already starving because giam gu luen didnt have lunch and finished the biscuits Uncle hei bought for us instead. Lols...so thats about it, one round of dai di me luen(lost) kit(win) and mun then off the bed with us...

(load photos maybe sometime later, what a long post, o wells its time to sleep wake early tomorrow going to Champagne! Yay! its just a 2 hour drive there...Au revoir!)