London
Before the actual trip to London had begun, I was already filled with anticipation. I have heard how grand-looking the churches’ were, and many stories of London as well. Curiosity and excitement engulfed me as I embarked on my long awaited 10-days trip.
In comparison to Singapore, London was more dirty and cold. In outdoors, the freezing wind brushed against my cheeks repeatedly. The public transport was not as well-organised and was packed like sardines. Unfortunately, I even got affected by a serious train delay in London. That was my first journey and I felt utterly disappointed.
One of the attractions which I felt extremely meaningful was the British Museum. I would consider it vast and grand-looking from both inside and out. Established in 1753, it had around 71,000 objects of all kinds. Currently, it contained about 8 million works including the ancient tombs of Egypt,China antiques and even items from the ancient Africa. The gallery which I found most eye-opening was the ancient tombs of Egypt. It showed many examples of mummies,tombs as well as how tombs were made and the time required. The fact that Egypt has such advanced techniques of mummification in the early b.c.’s awed me.
Buckingham Palace was an awesome place too, even better than what I had anticipated. The royal family leaves there most of the time and would go to Windsor Castle for a vacation occasionally. Although I did not have the opportunity to take a tour inside Buckingham Palace, the architecture of the building had already fascinated me. The guard changing ceremony was amazing as well and not only were there guards wearing the significant black-coloured helmet, there were also many horse-riders. The horses looked beautiful and well-tamed.
The Westminster Abbey was a must-visit destination. Many famous scientists like Newton were buried there. It was one of England’s most notable, religious and prestigious buildings. It was built in 960a.d. Personally, I enjoyed the place and the atmosphere within it very much. Many paintings and carved words were all around the inner building. It was breathtaking.
Another spectacular place was the St. Paul’s Cathedral. Even though the cathedral has a rich history of over 700 years, it was still in almost perfect shape. They have a large choir group mainly consisting of boys and I was fortunate to witness one of their performances during my visit. Their melodious singing tones reverberated through the cathedral and that made my visit even more interesting and special.
The renowned Tower Bridge was better than what I had expected of it. The Tower Bridge was featured in many English Movies. Also, it was easily confused with another location named the London Bridge,which was not too far away from it. In fact, I took a boat to my destination,enabling me to travel along the famous Thames River. Tower Bridge had caught my eye the moment I alighted from the boat. Even though it had been there for more than a century, it still looked as magnificent. I had also went in to the different towers. The different towers represent the different purposes of that location and brought me back to the past. It ranged from being a Palace, to a prison and even a zoo. It featured the royal crowns and belongings of the royal family today and in the past.
One of my last stops were Oxford and Cambridge. Personally, I liked Cambridge better, because of the architecture and surroundings. Cambridge has a river and it was upsetting not to be able to sit on a boat, and get rowed through the river, visiting different colleagues. Due to the time constraints, I could neither enter any college in Oxford nor Cambridge.
In a nutshell, I enjoyed my stay in London extremely much. It was an interesting yet meaningful experience. The weather was cold and it snowed and that made it even more special to me since it was one of my first time touching and tasting snow. Besides these attractions above, there were many more others like the London Eye, King’s Cross Station,National Gallery,Greenwich,Stone Henge,Harrods and more. The memorable experience would be etched in my memories forever and I hope to visit London again.
