We started the day with missing the breakfast at the Hostel as we were exhausted after the previous day and overslept :) By the way, I had read a couple of bad reviews of the hostel, but it was dirt cheap (8.75£/night) and we only needed a bunk anyway, so I voted for it. So far it qualified for these expectations. We have four roomies - two swedish girls and two asians, chinese, I think - so we're 8 in the room.
The day's first lion was St
. Paul's Cathedral. The trivia about this cathedral is that it is an anglican cathedral, built on the site of several cathedrals, in the 17th century. In terms of height, only St. Peter's of Rome tops it and it still is one of the highest points of London. It's architecture is very stunning you have this gripping feeling of how small you are under that huuuge dome. We walked up into the cupola (a couple of hundred steps), where is an outdoor observatory and you could see the surroundings. Of course, we sought for The Gherkin first, and we found it :) Furthermore we tried to map our route which was planned to be roamed the today. Another interesting thing is that if somebody whispered something, you would hear it clearly, standing on the opposite side of the cupola, as the sound travels along the hemisphere-shaped walls, a common phenomenon in cupolas, they say.
Moving on, we made couple of shots of the cathedral and the surroundings, and afterwards we checked in for a morning coffee to a place called "Café Rouge"
. Can I just only say WOW? I mean I don't really know if all the coffee-shops are like this in Central London, but this one really amazed me. It was very sophisticated in terms of decor. And it had somehow its own atmosphere, far away from the outside noise, right in the centre of one the biggest cities in the world! It was just amazing. I've noticed that most Englishmen were eating their morning snack and/or coffee. There were every kind of people though, backpackers and Japanese tourists, students, businessmen and mothers with their children as well. And the coffee was tasty. As I mentioned, usually I don' drink coffee, but we had a busy day on schedule, so I went for it.
Oh God, there so much to tell, and I am struggling to give you a vague idea about the real thing! :)
Afterwards we kept to our schedule and visited a couple of museums, namely the Tate Modern Gallery and, later, the Natural History Museum. Of course the girls went on a shopping riot, so it was just the two of us guys :)
The Natural History Museum is one of three large museums situated on Exhibition Road, right beside the world-renown Imperial College London
. It is particularly famous for its exhibitions of dinosaur skeletons. The castle-like building, designed by Alfred Waterhouse is very impressive, it is a very precious piece of exhibition itself.
In the entrance hall, one would find a giant Diplodocus skeleton, stretching down the hallway, at least 20 metres long. Of course we headed for the dinosaur exhibition as we were short on time. I have seen dinosaur skeletons so far in Tokyo and in Chicago. Here were a lot of Allosaurus predators and a few other carnivorous dinosaurs. There is also a moving and roaring, coloured T-Rex model, but no skeleton, only a skull. The model is very impressive though, and scary. It really is, if you think about how it could have been in the Jurassic age. However, the Japanese T-Rex skeleton still is on the top of my list so far. And Sue in Chicago bad either :)
But the Natural History isn't just about dinosaurs, not at all. I wish we had a bit more time..
Afterwards it was time for a nice beer in small pub, located just next to our hostel at the Queensway tube station, where the girls caught up with us.
Now, I have just got home form a little stroll with my girlfriend, we roamed through Notting Hill, Bayswater and Paddington.
Time for bed now, as tomorrow we have Stonehenge, Oxford and Windsor coming up and I am very excited about it, given their fame.
Meet the T-rex!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
London, England, United Kingdom
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