Showing posts with label england. Show all posts
Showing posts with label england. Show all posts

Thursday, October 30, 2014

October 18th, 2014 - A Day Out Along the Southbank

It has been a few weeks since I left Bromley to have an adventure in London. This was because I have been swamped with work and just been too tired to make the trip into central London. However I did have a good excuse and time to make an afternoon trip out to the city.

I didn’t make it a full day in London, just a few short hours, but in that time I was able to see quite a few things.

I took the train to London Bridge station, which puts me on the south side of the city and in an area that has quite a few interesting things to see. Things like The Shard, Borough Market, The Globe Theatre and bridges that cross the Thames.







I had decided that I wanted to visit Borough Market.

The market has been operating in the Southwark for 1000 years. It is one of the most well known food markets, which also sets it apart from other markets in London, which sell things other than food.






Borough Market is partly covered by glass roofs and by a train bridge. So it gives the whole place this underground and enclosed feel. It means that walking through the stalls is cosy. The smells of the market is wonderful, from warm breads to delicious cheeses. There are also the sounds of the different vendors selling their wares.

After a leisurely stroll through the market investigating what was being sold I headed out towards the Thames.

Walking along bankside you see a variety of things.





One of the great things to see is Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Which is a recreation of the original. I didn’t have time to go into the museum or to see a play, I am saving that for the spring when the Shakespeare performances start up again and I get to experience one in the open-air theatre.

Walking further west along the Thames I came to the Millennium Bridge. It is the most futuristic bridge that crosses the Thames and from below it looks as though the people could just fall off. I didn’t cross the bridge, but I did go stand on it to get a great shot of me with St. Paul’s Cathedral in the background. Seeing the cathedral from the bridge is just a wonderful juxtaposition of the modern and the old.



After that it was having a wonderful dinner in Borough Market with Santina. Thanks Dita for putting me in touch with her. She offered some great insight into London and some things that I should see and do.
The evening ended with a walk along the Southbank to parliament and that back down the other side to the train station.

Overall it was a wonderful afternoon and I am excited to see some of those things that Santina told me to see and experience more of London.

Up next is my exciting half term trip up to Scotland!

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Buckingham Palace State Rooms - 20.09.14

So my first adventure out in the UK happened in London. I know that I had gone on a one day tour of the city with Mom in August before she went home, but unfortunately I never wrote a blog for that day.

Just know that it was a fun day and that I saw quite a bit of London and gave me plenty of ideas for further places to see.

It was on that day that I saw posters for a chance to visit inside Buckingham Palace and see the state rooms, which I decided would be my first adventure.

Canada Gate at St. James Park
I visited the Palace with a fellow teacher at Oaklands Primary. Her name is Bonnie and like me she is a foreign teacher, but from Australia not Canada.

Bonnie and I got to the palace just as the guards were finishing the changing of the guard so we didn't get to see it. I know that I will be making a visit back out to the palace to see this.




So it was interesting to see inside the state rooms of the Palace, which are the rooms that the Queen or reigning monarch uses as the "public" rooms. We were able to see the Throne Room, the gallery - which is filled with paintings, the main dining room, the ballroom and a few other drawing rooms.

All of the rooms were gilded and that it was gives the palace its majesty. Mostly though the palace just feels like a museum. Which I suppose it is because it holds things from farther back than the Victorian era.


The special exhibition this year is the Royal Childhood so incorporated through parts of the rooms and in the Ballroom do we get to see mementos from various royal children and their childhoods. It was toys, clothing and school work.

The back of Buckingham Palace
The tour concludes with exiting into the garden of the grounds and then a walk through a small sections of it.

After the Palace Bonnie and I went to Portobello Market in Notting Hill. We didn't get to see much as the market was closing, but I did get a chance to see the book store that inspired the one in the movie Notting Hill.

It was a great fun day and I can't wait for my next day out and exploring. It may be London or some other part of this fascinating i

sle.