What's the Matter with English Weather?

London is such a majestically beautiful city.

I got my first glimpse of London from the air as I was flying in from Scandinavia. After the wee bite sized Scandinavian capitals I simply couldn't believe what a sprawling metropolis this city looked like from the air.

It was no different after I landed. Everything in London - every single brick in Trafalgar Square to every blade of perfectly manicured grass in Kensington gardens to every intricately carved coffin in Westminster Abbey oozes the prestige and power that London has enjoyed throughout history.

There is SO MUCH to do in London. I've had 3 really full days in London and I think I would need AT LEAST 3 more to just get around to all the MAJOR sights! It's crazy!

So far the highlights have been:

Watching Les Miserables at the West End. The first time I have ever seen a standing ovation. I stood up at the end of the curtain call just because I wanted to see the curtain call and couldn't over all the standing people. :p

Trafalgar Square
I love this place! It's just so big and busy! You can stand at the entry of the National Gallery (which has just an incredible collection of art, although the audio guide is crap and there are actually mistakes in the explanations - hmmm...) and just overlook the whole square and watch the people feed (or scare) the pigeons depending on their personality bent, enjoy a quiet moment by the beautiful fountains or climb all over the lions at the base of Nelson's Column to try and get the best touristy photo. Plus the whole space is just really well designed and executed so it's just good.

The Parks
Kensington Park and Hyde Park are just beautiful spaces to go walk your dog or feed the birds or just while some hours away doing nothing. It's also awesome for people watching.

St Paul's
Climbing up something like 800 steps to the Golden Gallery (basically the pinnacle of the cathedral) to get the most spectacular view of the city. Too bad buying the London Pass meant that I was super short on time so had to run the whole thing. I think it's a sign of the times that I wasn't even really out of breath after the climb. But oh my aching legs...

Also see the photo gallery for some highlights of my trip through Madame Tussauds.

Note that Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace didn't make the list. The overwhelming sea of tourists put me off. Okay, I realise that I myself am actually contributing to the tourist traffic but I somehow consider myself superior to all of them. I will tell you the logic behind this when I figure it out. Maybe cause I wasn't blocking off the entire view to the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. Maybe that was because I couldn't get close enough to the fence to block the view... hmmm...

Oh and the British Museum isn't on that list either because I haven't been. Methinks the standard opening hours of 8 hours is just not going to be enough for me. I'm waiting for one of those days when they have extended opening hours! :p Yes Xin is crazy... :p

Oh yea and I went up to Oxford today. And was once again hit by my curse of always going somewhere when the one attraction I actually want to see is closed. I went to Oxford to see the dining room where they film the Hogwarts Hall for Harry Potter but that was closed. Poo. Nevertheless Oxford is such a beautiful city. I love all the Grotesque decorations on the buildings (noticed I capitalised Grotesque to signify that I was referring to the artistic/decorative/architectural style not using the word in the sense that the decorations are ugly). Now have lots of photos of funny looking creatures making faces (basically that's the layman's definition of what Grotesque style is :p).

So I want to finish this entry by raving about what awesome weather I've been getting in UK (touch wood). It's only rained once when I was actually inside Westminster Abbey so it didn't even matter and apart from that I have been getting spectacularly sunny skies! Yay! :p