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| Love these classic icons |
One of my old time friends Stanley came to visit me on Saturday. For a day - yep. He was on his way to Poland and decided to stop by London for a day to say hi and hang out. It was nice to see a familiar face here, and I was his tour guide for the day. Unfortunately it was a rainy day so that made sight seeing a little harder to do. I made breakfast for us 3 and we hanged out at home for a bit, before I suggested going to my fav Vietnamese cafe for lunch. After lunch K had to go home to attend to something, and so I brought Stanley out to see the main tourist sights.
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| Inside the M&M mega store |
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| Admiring their flowers after lunch @ Cafe East |
I have to admit that I was dreading being stuck in the tourist traffic, but it was pretty enjoyable actually. The rain meant that Westminster Bridge was not packed with tourists.
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| Never tire of them. Always in awe of the Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. |
We alighted from Waterloo station, and from there we walked over to South Bank, and right to the London Eye. Then we crossed Westminster Bridge and toward St James' Park in the direction of Buckingham Palace. The sun came out intermittently and we could enjoy a little bit of sunshine for a while. There were loads of squirrels, ducks, swans, pelicans by the lake and some kids were feeding them bread which meant loads of the birds flocked to where the food source was. A fat squirrel came out from hiding towards us looking for food. And suddenly it even climbed up Stanley's jeans! lol what a greedy squirrel!
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| Outside Churchill War Rooms. Love the lamps here. |
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| Greedy squirrel |
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| They thought he had food |
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| Walking through St James' Park |
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| Some sunshine after the rain |
We finally arrived at Buckingham Palace which was packed with tourists. We then walked through Green Park, and I showed him the gentleman's row Jermyn Street, before discovering Piccadilly Arcade. We then walked a quick round in Fortnum and Mason, before taking a break at Cafe Nero opposite The Ritz. I couldn't believe how far we had walked so far!
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| Buckingham Palace |
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| Golden statue outside Buckingham Palace |
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| More beautiful lamps at Buckingham Palace |
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| Piccadilly Arcade |
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| Piccadilly Arcade - look at the lamps |
We chatted more over our coffee, before starting our walk again. I wanted to bring him to walk past Mayfair towards Bond Street. We avoided the touristy areas but opted for back alleyways and into side streets looking at the beautiful architecture. I have this thing for beautiful lamps by the way, which is why I took quite a few shots. I remembered walking past Aviary Row near Brook Street which was this beautiful yard with a restaurant and we also walked past the posh looking Claridges Hotel. Finally we emerged on Bond Street and found ourselves in the main shopping belt. Looking at the watch, we realised it was dinner time soon, and so we took the tube to Leicester Square.
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| Burlington House - beautiful gates |
So much walking for an afternoon so a proper reward would be having the famous Four Seasons roast duck on Gerrard Street! K met us there and 3 of us wolfed down our dinner happily. (That's how K and I feel every time we come here. Just happy.)
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| Berkeley Square |
After dinner we tried to look for a quiet pub for a drink but of course being in Soho, the words quiet and pub don't quite go together. We walked towards Charing Cross station where we needed to take the train home and remembered Lawrence recommending the hotel lounge right above the station being a good chill out place. We went there for a drink to wrap up the day, and then easily went down to catch our train home.
Overall it was a tiring day but it was enjoyable - I managed to catch up an old friend, show him London and see London from a tourist eye all over again.
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| Stanley took this parting shot of us. See you soon! |
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| Don't mind me in my pyjamas here :) |
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