London day trip : an afternoon at the Tower Bridge

Sometimes I think it's unfair for my son to trouble city adventure, for it is actually exhausting. I'd rather give him beach where he could play with the sands, or simply outdoor playgroud where he could play with the slide or grass, or anything that he fancy for like chasing birds at square. But Aariz has been a good boy, very cooperative for us taking chances while we can.

I love you, my son. 

part ni yang leceh ..

We hop on the London Underground and get off at Tower Hill station. At first it was quite confusing to find the Tower Bridge, we didn't bother to ask people. Ataupun masa tu dah penat sangat...

I always wanted to have a photo like this, standing here at this road with Tower bridge at my back

us, London 2012

London Tower

Hubby's writing postcards =)

spent almost an hour just chillaxing with a view of the Tower bridge. We cancel British museum - tapi tetap pergi masa second visit he he he

 at Euston , near Euston station

Alhamdulillah, the earlier plan was to visit and solat at London Grand mosque, Regent's Park. Tapi memang tidak sempat. This is Euston mosque

back to Birmingham by Virgin train =)

London day trip : London landmarks

I like open public space where I could see other people, local and tourists sitting side by side doing their thing, melepak la dalam kata lain. In every city I've been to,  be it in Roma or Barcelona, I liked piazza.. ehe that's square in Italian =) 

From Buckingham Palace we moved on to Trafalgar Square, and there should be a long road straight from the palace to the home of famous stone lions, but closed for public. So we crossed the Green park, jauh sikit la, and made our way to here instead. 

Approaching Trafalgar Square and we noticed this Malaysian restaurant, too bad it was closed. I managed to sneak into its menu (and price), not bad for a restaurant located at the central London area.

National Galleries

erm, I didn't remember that they have a clear fountain at this square, now seeing is believing.

the long straight road that leads to Buckingham Palace

We didn't spent so much time at Trafalgar Square, I was imagining Aariz chasing birds (his best buddies!) at the Square... kan, bukan macam tu ke selalu kat tv?? Hmm..where have all the birds gone.. 

It was a day trip and we didn't have much time, nasib baik dah bawa bekal so jimat masa di situ. We quickly made our way to the bank of River Thames, for I knew the top London landmarks are all there..

..and suddenly I began to realize that I'm living in England! haha

London eye

Big Ben

 So can you guess what's the next  London landmark? 

London day trip : crowds at Buckingham Palace and lunch at Green Park

The first thing that came to mind about this London trip was to witness Changing the Guard at the royal palace. 

So done with Malaysian Embassy, we walked like 2 miles towards the Buckingham Palace. The ceremony takes place daily at 11 am, but we should come earlier next time =(

hmm..we should have known

We chose not to join the crowd, except my husband managed to record a few minutes of the ceremony, and we went to the nearby park - the Green park to have our packed lunch. 

What a nice park! I liked it there. We let Aariz had his time and even I didn't mind lying on the grass. And after lunch we went to the palace area again. And clearly the crowds were slowly gone.

 
And we moved to the Trafalgar Square.

London day trip : getting to Malaysian Embassy with a mission

Mission accomplised! heh.. London is 2 hours and a half away drive from Birmingham. Having that on mind and..erk kind of taking it for granted, we kept postponed London visit. Only in July we finally had our first trip to London (and had second visit the next 2 weeks) , to collect our milo stock at Malaysian Embassy. Our dear friend came to London, unfortunately we didn't get the chance to see her, and she brought our 9 kgs milo stock all the way from KL! Mahalnya milo oi haha.

We took National Express bus from Digbeth coach station, Birmingham city at 6ish am ( days start as early as 4 am in summer term) and arrived at Victoria coach station, London at 9: 30 am. Memang penat lah naik bus but it was kind of last minute decision so we missed out the train low fare. But the journey was fine, Aariz slept along the way and we experienced London morning traffic jam a bit.

 sampai London, erk..haha

Victoria Coach Station area

Morning in London

Heading to Belgrave Square to find Malaysian Embassy..kind of tricky, maklumlah tak biasa London huhu. It was quite a walk from the coach station. Tapi oklah, we enjoyed the walk boleh la tengok2 apa yang patut..

We  bumped into Malaysian, and we asked them the Embassy whereabouts. Malaysian kan baik dan peramah ^_^ they ushered us to the building..

This is inside the Malaysian Embassy. Oh rasa terharunya dah sampai! Malaysian building berdiri megah di kota London.. ( and of coz we can enjoy our Milo yey!)

We waited a bit until we met the person in charge, while I had a chat with the man with white shirt. He's Filipino, I assumed right from his accent. Ingatkan semua Malaysian kat sini. Malaysian memang baik dan generous.

 outside the buiding

 homeless..gelandangan di London

..and we walked again to Buckingham Palace!