A day In Bermondsey / Southwark

I was on a crazy mission to visit as much tube station as I can when I alighted the train at Bermondsey station. I was curious what kind of place Bermondsey is. The name just sounds exotic :-)

Don't know which way to turn once I'm outside the station, left or right? Saw the Shard building on the left, so to the left it is. There were not many people around as it's just past the morning rush. The place was quiet and not much traffic either. So, just calmly walked along the road until I saw a sign to Thames path. So I followed it. It brought me through a street with wharves on both side of the it. It was so pretty. I think it's probably old wharves building turned into high end residential estate. The name of the wharves that interest me most, Java Wharf, St. Saviours, St' Georges, St' Andrews, New Concordia, Butlers wharf & Tea trade wharf. I wonder how the wharves got its name.

I reached the Design Museum and in front of it is a weird looking sculpture. It looks like a face of a man.

I walked straight on along the Shad Thames. The small alley is interesting due to its cobbled stone, very dangerous if one is wearing high heels. Swanky restaurants and delicious looking bakery lines the street now. But it used have largest complex of warehouses that stores tea, coffee and spices unloaded from river boats.

The converted warehouses retain their original features and named after the commodities which were originally stored in them - Vanilla & Sesame Court, Cayenne Court, Ginger Wall and others. I did smell a hint of vanilla when I was in Vanilla & Sesame Court, though. Then, there's a striking red structure that caught my eyes. It's the China Wharf, which is actually a new residential building. There were also boat houses docking in front of the New Concordia wharf.

Further along, I reached the Tower Bridge and walked along the Queen's walk on the riverside. As usual, the place is packed with tourist with selfie stick trying to get the best shots of the Tower Bridge as a background. Walked past the shell-shaped City Hall building and the Scoop, the open-air theatre that opens during the summer. There'll be a live telecast of Wimbledon games as well. Yeah! 

A riviera just popped up in London with view of the Thames. The colourful deck chairs were so cute with palm trees scattered  around the area. 

There's an exhibition going on near the Tower Bridge pier. It exhibits Thames tideway tunnel system, London sewerage system and hidden Thames gems.

Walked into Hay's Galleria, which now houses offices and restaurants where it used to be a warehouse. It was named after its original owner who acquired the property in 1651. In a fountain at the centre of the Galleria is a 60ft moving bronze sculpture of a ship unveiled in 1987 to commemorate its heritage. I thought the ship has been there since the 1700, I was wrong! 

Walked past by the HMS Belfast ship/museum but I didn't go in. Its admission price is to steep for a poor Londoners like me. Plus I had visited a battleship before - back in August last year.

Straight on until I reached the London Bridge station where I hopped on a tube to continue on my silly Tube Challenge :-)

A day in Firepower - Royal Artillery Museum

This visit is part of my crazy London tube challenge. The museum is in Woolwich Arsenal and the nearest tube is the DLR Woolwich Arsenal station. It's just 5 minutes walk from the station through the Woolwich Market. 

A day in Kenwood House

I really wanted to visit Kenwood House since I saw the Notting Hill movie back in early 2000. The house was in the background when Julia Robert was filming Henry James' movie. Actually I love old Victorian and Georgian houses. Sometimes. I wished that I was born in those period of time, in upper class society of course :-) Oh, the dresses, the afternoon tea, the parties and balls!

How to get there?

I took the Northern line towards Edgware and stopped at Golden Greens station. Once there, I was supposed to take a bus No. 210 to Kenwood House. But, when I reached the station, I saw a bus station and not a bus stop. There were lots of bus stops and buses including National Express busses. I was quite loss and asked around for the correct bus stop to go to. The first was wrong and I waited 10 minutes but no 210 bus. I asked again and finally found the bus stop that is slightly outside the bus station, stop GK. Lucky, a bus was due to arrive in 1 minute, otherwise more waiting for me. Got on the bus and nervously watching the bus stop announcement/indicator. I got down at Kenwood House stop, like 5 stops away (20 minutes) from the tube station. But, I didn't see the entrance gate and I walked the wrong way (towards the direction of travel) instead the opposite. I walked till I reached another bus stop and another gate, the Compton Avenue/Kenwood House stop. Silly me.

The House

There's no entrance fees to the house but donations are welcome. The staffs are welcoming compared to other houses I've been to. They are approachable and knowledgable as well, I guess its a pre-requisite skill to have anyway.

The highlight of the house is the Library room. It was painted in pastels colour scheme and the ceiling is magnificent. It's my favourite room of the whole house.

The rest of the house are filled with beautiful paintings and portraits. There's one portrait where a lady was posing in her bridesmaid dress and it was quite fashion forward for that period. I was told that a royal tailor made that particular dress.

Dido Belle
Dido Belle was born into slavery as the natural daughter of Maria Belle, an enslaved African woman and Captain John Lindsay, a naval officer stationed there. Lindsay took Belle with him when he returned to England and entrusting her to his uncle William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield to raise. The Murrays educated Belle, bringing her up as a free gentlewoman at Kenwood House, with their niece Lady Elizabeth Murray. Belle lived there for 30 years. It is a very interesting story as at time, normally coloured people were normally slaves. They must have helpers in the house who were coloured people as well. I wonder how Belle feels, did she felt guilty or lucky for being born in upper class English family. There's a movie on Dido story in 2014.

The exterior

I love this side of the house as it reminds me of the Notting Hill movie. Will definitely watch this movie this weekend. :-)

There's a lake in front of the house with sweeping hilly garden. It's just beautiful. The woodland around the house is pretty ancient too. Plus they have a cute dairy farm as well.

I completed the tour of the house and garden in 2.5 hours. I enjoyed the cafe as well, the coffee and cakes are fabulous. They have afternoon tea on offer, 22.50 pounds per person.

I recommend this place if you love old mansions and its history.

A day in Kew Garden

Another late entry. I visited Kew garden with my husband last Saturday (6/6/2015) and didn't get to write an entry due to extreme exhaustion :-) So here goes.........


It's finally Saturday and I'm so excited!!! We're going to Kew Garden today. Been planning this for weeks. 

We went out approximately 11 am (late, I know). Took the DLR and got off at Bank station. But surprise, surprise, when we arrived, we saw a sign stating that the Monument station was close. So, we decided to catch a District line train from Tower Hill station. So, we took the DLR again back to Shadwell and change for Tower gateway train. But......the Tower Hill station was close too!!!! I felt so silly for not checking the tube status before we went out. Rookie mistake! Hence, onto the DLR again to Shadwell, to catch the Overground train to Kew Garden. Surprisingly, there were no closures on the Overground line. Normally, there'll be massive closures on the Overground line during weekends. There's no direct route from Shadwell to Kew, so we need to change at Cannonbury for train towards Richmond. 

It's mid-day when we reached Kew station. There were a lot of people trying to get out from the small station. Once, we are out of the station, we followed the signage to Kew Garden. It took us up a crossing bridge to the other side of the station and walked for another good 10 minutes before we reached the front gate. 

I saw lots of people queueing outside its gate. Lucky, I decided to buy the tickets online. If you buy the tickets online, you need to print it out and they'll just scan it at the gate. No more queuing! Oh, and the ticket cost 14 pounds if you buy it online compared to 16 pounds at the gate. Save time and money, what more do you need?

We were so rushed trying to get to Kew as fast as we can (the park/garden close at 6 pm), that when we passed the gate we were quite a loss on where to start. We only have like 5 hours to cover the vast park so hubby became the time keeper. We tried our best to visit all the attractions in the park.

Palm House

It was built in 1844 and has been in the park for 160 years. Impressive! It houses palms & other tropical trees from around the world. I'm from tropical climate country and most of the plants in there were familiar to me. But it's still fascinating to see it. I saw a Durian tree but no durian fruit! I guess they alter the tree DNA or something so that it won't have fruit. Just imagine a thorny durian fall on visitors, that would be a disaster. I saw a person fascinated with a banana tree. I used to ignore the banana trees at my grandma's house but here people are fascinated by it. I should be grateful that I grew up knowing the things that I knew. I'll definitely teach my future children to be one with the nature. The glasshouse was so hot inside, that I felt like melting. Once, I stepped out of it, I felt so relieved. I wonder how it will be in the peak of summer heat. 

There's another large glasshouse in the park, the Temperate House. It's the largest surviving Victorian glasshouse in the world. Unfortunately, it's currently being restored and will only re-open in 2018. 

Waterlily House

Next to the Palm House, is the Waterlily House. It was built in 1852 to house the natural wonder, the giant waterlily, Victoria Ammonica. There were also other beautiful waterlilies in there as well. It was a joy to take pictures of the flowers.

Pagoda 
In the middle of a Victorian park there it was a Pagoda stood 10-storey high. It was built in 1762  as a gift for Princess Augusta, the founder of Kew Garden (I think!). But you can't enter the pagoda, though. It's close to public. It was almost 3pm and we decided to stop for a quick lunch at the pagoda. Lucky we bought lunch with us, as the food in the cafe were so expensive. My time-keeper hubby told me that we only can sit for 10 minutes, oh boy how annoying. Well, the reason that we went out late this morning was because hubby woke up late and I had to wait for him to get ready.  Plus, the back and forth in the DLR trying to find your way to Kew took away precious time. Ok, enough with the nagging :-)

There's a Japanese Gateway and garden near the Pagoda complete with a Chokushi-Mon, a replica of the gateway of the Imperial Messenger in Kyoto.

Xstrata treetop walkway 
Next, is the treetop walk. The walkway is 18m above ground and 200m long. It was opened in 2008, quite recent. We took the stairs to top, what a mistake. I was out of breath when I reached the top. There's a lift if you're wondering, do take those. It was a windy day and the walkway do sway a little bit and you can see the bottom when you walked along the walkway. It's quite scary if you're afraid of heights like me. I ended up clutching my hubby's hand and walked really fast to the end. Hubby didn't get to enjoy the scenery that much 'cause I kept whining. Sorry love.

Princess of Wales Conservatory 
The conservatory was opened in 1987 by Diana, Princess of Wales. It houses various plants especially cactuses. Lots of weird looking cactuses. If you love orchids, there are various species on display as well.

Sackler crossing 
It was built in 2006. The bridge is quite unique because as you approach the crossing, you can see as if there's solid walls on both sides. But, if you see it on the side, the was is almost invisible. You need to see it to appreciate. My picture does not do it justice.

Kew Palace 
The centrepiece of the park, the Kew Palace. It was built in 1631 as a country retreat for George III. He and Queen Charlotte spent their summer with their 15 children. It was also a refuge for George III during his infamous episodes of madness. Queen Charlotte died here in 1818, and since then the house was closed up. It was only re-opened 80 years later but it was in a really bad shape. It has been restored since. It was quite a small house, I wonder how noisy it was with 15 children inside.

The Orangery (1761)
There's an orangery next to the palace but there's a wedding happening, so we can't enter it. The building is very pretty and suitable for wedding and other events.

It was a pretty long day with lots of power walking involved. I suggest if you want to enjoy the park leisurely, do arrive early as the park opens at 9.30 am. I was quite exhausted at the end of the day that I spent the whole Sunday lying on the sofa.

A day in Westminster

Date of visit: 4 June 2015
Place of visit: Westminster, London

It was a sunny and super HOT day today. The temperature reached 25C and my skin became tanner/browner as though I'm not dark enough before :(

Walked the suggested route 'Westminster Walk' (see Map below) that I got from WalkLondon.com. It covers the main tourist attractions in Westminster.

Attractions along the way:
1-House of Parliaments & Big Ben
2-10, Downing Street
3-Horse Guards
4-Banqueting Hall, Whitehall
5-Trafalgar Sq & Nelson Column
6-National Gallery
7-St James' Palace
8-The Mall & Clarence House
9-Buckingham Palace
10-Queen's Gallery & Royal Mew
11-Churchill War Rooms
12-Westminster Abbey

Well, as usual I'm not good at following guides, I either got loss or strayed to other things that looked interesting to me at that time. I started from the mid-section i.e. from Trafalgar Square, which I've seen everyday since Monday. I think it has etched into my long term memory by now :) Next, to the National Gallery.

There were lots of awesome paintings the gallery. I saw Rafael's and Leonardo Da Vinci's awesome paintings. It looked so life-like. I just can't believe someone can paint so well. But unlucky for me, I was not able to view the very famous Van Gogh painting, the Sunflowers, as the room was closed for restoration work. The staff told me that the room will be open on Friday, but maybe some other time.

It took me like 1 hour to finish the whole museum. I'm not into the art so much but at least I've seen the famous paintings once in my lifetime.

I did not rent the audio guide so I was a bit lost. Didn't know what I was looking at except that it were beautiful. There was quite a crowd when I was there, but surprisingly quite.

Truthfully, I was quite bored in there!

Admiralty Arch

Before I know it, it was lunch time and I did not have any breakfast yet. Bought cheap sarnie from Co-Op and coffee from Costa. I headed off to St James' Park through the Admiralty Arch.

Walked along The Mall and stopped by St James' Park where I sat under the shade having my lunch. Will never get to do this anymore in the future.

Buckingham Palace

Continued on to Buckingham Palace. But it was too hot to take a decent picture so I just give up. This is the only good picture of the place that I have (after Photoshop treatment, of course). By this time, I feel it weak due to dehydration. I quickly passed through park to find St James Palace but alas I couldn't find it and I ended up at the end of the garden and I was on Piccadilly road.  Hahahahaha... I'm lost again! But what the heck, keep on walking till I reached Piccadilly circus, turned right and walked downhill towards Parliament Square.

Now, the masterpiece of London, Westminster Abbey! Wanted to go in and have a look but the 20 quid price tag is just too steep for a budget traveller like me. I guess the exterior picture is enough and  bought some postcards with the interior pictures on it. Job done!

There you go. I completed the Westminster walk in 3 hours, including visit to the National Gallery. Not bad! But I was sun burnt and dehydrated at the end of the walk. Really, if you're walking around London during heat waves/summer, do consume lots of liquids (not iced coffee like I did, it made me more dehydrated).