Jul 07

Hay all,

Well I am just after arriving back in the hostel of spending the day in Greenwich. Tomorrow I depart for Thailand but firstly in the morning its a quick trip to the Imperial War Museum, been meaning to get to it all week.

Since I last updated I've managed to get around most parts of London that were worth seeing. Well apart from Sunday when I just sat in O'Neills watching the Dublin Game!

Harrods
Over those few days I managed to pay a visit to the over-rated, over-priced Harrods Department Store, the jolly old guy on the door would not let me in as I was not dressed suitably......can you imagine some stoping you at Pennys saying you can't get in because your were wearing Tracksuit buttoms and I taught the Beerkeeper was bad! Anyway paid another trip back on Monday to which I was greeted with a gleaming smile as he opened the door for (nice chap!). A glorified Shopping Centre would be the best way to describe Harrods.

Around the Parks to Buckingham
The walk around the parks, both Hyde Park and St. James's, I really enjoyed. It took the best part of 2 hours but was well worth it. When you come out on one side of St James's park you see nothing but bus after bus full of Tourists looking to get a peak at Buckingham Palace. Why? Its just a bland building. If you really want to see what a palace should look like they should check out the royal Palaces in Brussells or the Palace of Versaille in France, at least they have a bit of character and life to them. However I must say well done to the Gardners who keep the avenue leading up to the palace looking really well.

A 10 minute walk around the road and you reach Westminister Abbey and Houses of Parliment these are are impressive buildings that really stand out amoung the modern London Buildings that surround it. Next time your watching Brian Dubson report for RTE standing outside Houses of Parliment don't be fooled by the size of Big Ben in the Background, he aint that big!! Another 5 minutes down the road and you'll come to the famous No.10, Gordon was'nt home to take my call unfortuantely.

The London Eye and Soho

After stuffing my face with a lovely Strawberry, mint-choc and vinalla Ice Cream I head for the highest point in London - The London Eye. Now thats something else....It took me almost 1 hour to wait to get on but it was surely worth it in the end. You can see for miles from the top, must say well worth the £15. Sure after all that excitement a wee drink was in order and what better place to chill out but in Soho, relaxing in a Jazz Cafe with all pints £1.50. Class.

My Last day

Today, Tuesday, was the last full day in London, I was going to just check out Maddam Tuasads and the Imperial War Museum, but that can wait till morning. I decided instead to head for Greenwich. On the way out that direction I took a stop off at the infamous Millenium Dome, quite a site, but I can understand why it failed at the start. Its not in the best of areas and it still looks dirty in certain places. I took the estuary walk around the dome which you can see all the impressive buildings across the Thames at Canary Warf.
A bit of lunch, I then caught the bus and headed for Greenwich village to check out the Maritime Museum and Royal Obervatory. It was extremely interesting and I'm delighted I decided to go. The obervatory host an excellent exhibition on Time and Navigation Travel, it also has a small piece on Summer Time, which is celebratin 100 years in exsistence this year.

So thats more or less it for the moment. I will be updating photo's from a few of the above sites when I get to Thailand. Time to go and get ready for my last night out in London. I think were hitting Cambden tonight.

All the best for now

Colin

Here a just a handfull of photo's....it to takes way to long to upload

check out my widget on bebo for more......

Hay everyone,

Hostel Pub Crawls - Avoid!
On Thursday night I decided to join the Hostel Pub Crawl in the Camben area. Now I'm not a big fan of Hostel pub crawls as they are usually sh*t and of course this was no excemption. They should change the word crawl to Marathon as there was a good 15/20 minute walk to each pub. One of the pubs we did check out was The Dublin Castle, its kinda a Spirit Store type pub playing up and coming bands everynight. Its were Blur, Madness and Coldplay all started out apparently!

Agony

All my walking on Thursday did not really help the aul legs on Friday, they were killing me. So it was either stay in bed or get up and do things fairly slowly at my pwn pace, I decided to do just that. I head for the tube and decided to check out Covent Garden. Now this place is fecking class. The market is not really up to much but the wide range of street performers is just amazing. You could spend your entire day here watching the street entertainment.

I came across a band called Lotus, they were kind of an mad classic band, but really good. Check out the video recording I took of them. (It might take a minute or two to load!)

I'll think i'll leave it at that for today. The plan now for the rest of the day is to chill out before hitting Picadilly Circus later on for a night on the town.

All the best.

Colin

Hi All

Arrived yesterday to the hostel, did'nt really like the area at first (Kings Cross) But as you walk around it gets a lot better. The hostel itself is grand, the Generator, heard so much about this place which I must say is extremley over rated. Took a wee wonder around last night and had a few pints of Abbot Ale (Cask Ale) really nice stuff, great way to relax after a fair bit of travelling.

Today I spent a very exausting day working around a SMALL part of London. First impression is quite positive, the parts of the city I have seen so far shows London as a clean modern city and I must say the people are really friendly. Its easy enough to get around and the underground is very user friendly

First attraction of the day was St. Pauls Cathedral. Its amazing if you like those kind of buildings. The present structure dates from the 17th century, and is generally reckoned to be London's fifth St Paul's Cathedral, although the number is higher if every major mediæval reconstruction is counted as a new cathedral.

It would have a similar design to St. Petrers in Rome, espescially the Dome, which when you climb to the top you get one of the Best views of London. Down below in the crypt there is carvings, statues, memorials and tombs of famous British figures including Nelson, Churchill and Florence Nightingale. However the first person to be interred in St Pauls was its deseigner Sir Christopher Wren and his memorial reads ......"Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice" which translates to "Reader, if you seek my monument, look around you"

On from St. Pauls it was a walk over the new Millenium bridge and on around the banks of the Thames, up past the famous London Bridge before talking time out to let my T-Shirt dry from the bloody sweat. Next stop was the infamous London Tower and Palace. Its an amazing site and perfect building for photographing.

That was enough for day one, 5 hours walking around London, think I'lltake the underground tomorrw....easier on the feet.

I will upload photo's as soon as I can get a proper computer (no usb port on this one - ancient!)

Right thats it for now

Colin