Sleep too early last night and was still not adjusted to the time in europe... Woke up at 7.30, it was soooo cold in the morning... get ourselve suitably dress for winter and we go to the cafe for breakfast.
Till we reached the lobby, then only i realized that today was declared as the First day of Winter... WOW!!! The breakfast served by the hostel is really really terrible. There are only few food served, i can name it easily... toast, bread, coffee, milk, juice and corn flakes....ALL WERE SERVE CHILLED!!!!! In a cold winter and i still have to eat these kind of food...... (NO MOOD)
We started our first journey of today,The Windsor Castle... we first travel to the Paddington station to get the train ticket to Windsor... Paddington station is Huge!!! they have about 30 platforms inside.... We were a bit confused to look for the correct platform for our train, but with the help from the helpful officer, we manage to get to the right train. I can't move my eye sight from the beautiful sceneries. From leaving the busy london township, passing through cottages and farms, fields... at last the Castle appear!!! The journey took us 45 mins from Paddington to Winsor East and Eaton Central. Next to the station is a shopping street. Full of shops with sale.. so tempting, but need to hold myself back to visit the castle first..
Even though we are about to enter the castle, but just can’t help ourselves to snap few photo outside the castle. The entrance fee is not cheap, cost us £14.80. and there is a long queue waiting to buy the ticket for visits. Here we see many Hongkees and Japanese! The Euro nation tax payer are entitle to redeem a goodie bags with some souvenir and guide book. But we don’t have, to buy the guide book is another £8 (No No). Traveling in UK destination are mostly come with a remote control like audio guide, you just have to press the numbers on selected attraction and it will give you explanation on the place.. and it is available in multi languages… big big kudos for the British, make self traveler like us easier..
It was about 11am, just the right time to view the change of guards, British guards are well known over the world, so, must watch… It is actually very amazing and unbelievable for them to stand still in the cold winter wind… I am shivering there. The whole square is crowded with people waiting to video the whole process from band playing till the guards march out. Me and mum have to climb to the high place to view it…
Finished with that, we proceed to the St George Chapel. St George Chapel is known as the Royal Chapel and you can see many Kings and Queens Tombs inside the chapel. The tomb aren’t the eerie tomb stone we saw in cemetery, this royal tomb stones are so well décor with carving and statue surrounded the chapel. This is the first time me enter into a real church, the choir is so beautiful, but no photography in the chapel.
Since this is our first destination in London, we actually spend more time in the chapel to study every detail in it. Finish with that, we took a walk around the castle.. seeing the magnificent castle stay by the Royal family of British.
We then walk to the Entrance to State Apartments, The drawing Gallery and Queen Mary’s Dolls house at the upper ward of the Castle, Again, there are long queues. First you will see is the Queen Mary’s Doll house, it is a doll house build exactly to the scale of the real Buckingham Palace… Each room was made to detail with furniture’s fittings and even wall papers.. so beautiful… In the same room also it exhibit the toddler clothing and toys once played by the queen when she was young.
Next we walk to the connecting corridor to the State Apartment. The State Apartment are the formal rooms use for ceremonial, state and official occasions. A must see is the Waterloo Chamber built to commemorate the victory over Napoleon in 1815. There are also a series of Royal collection of Chinas and porcelain crockery used for a certain occasions. You can find some replicas of these in the souvenir shops, but it is very very expensive. A tea cup set with saucer can cost you £30….
There is another room called the drawing galleries, but not really displaying drawings inside, its more like a photo gallery.. and some of the royal collections are stored here, for example like the badges, trophies… All the rooms here do not allow photo… so I have nothing to show.
Finish exploring the Windsor Castle, it come to noon time.. we quickly return the audio kit and had a walk around the little town. Mum just can’t resist buying souvenir at anytime… she just love to buy souvenir for her colleagues… We stop by a small stall just outside of Windsor castle and she bought some fridge magnets, 6 Magnets for £7. Quite expensive huh?
After that, we decided to take our lunch at Mcdonalds. The Mcdonalds meal here is expensive, if converted lah….. £3- £4 per set.. I Bought a chicken wrapz set… After the meal. We walled back to the train station, and before that, we saw some pumpkin craving competition going on there in conjunction with the Halloween celebration coming soon. I just can’t resist walking into one of this boutique having sales, and spend sometime exploring the boutique and got myself some nice clothing..
After that, we toke the train back to the London central and continue to our next destination as plan…. There is a delay due to my shopping craziness in the boutique just now… we reach to next destination, Madame Tussauds at 3pm.
There is a huge queue for the ticket… We have to queue at least 30 minutes to purchase the entry ticket.
Madamme Tussaud is a wax museum with collections of some super duper celebrities, sports super stars, and world leaders. There are a few museums in the world like New York, Berlin, Amsterdam, Shanghai and Hongkong… But many claims that the best is in London, so it’s a must go even the ticket cost a bomb.
Madame Tussaud is originate from France, she was taught the skills of wax modeling by Curtius, whom her mom work for.
The entry ticket cost us £35, with a package of Madame Tussaud wax museum and the BA London Eye.. So expensive, but you’ve travel to so far… there are places you must visits even though its expensive.
There are crowd everywhere, its so difficult to take photos with the figurine… But the figurine its just so real.. They show the methods of doing it via video, but it is just so amazing seeing something so real in wax.. I mean, wax figurine we saw in else where is so fake, so, it definitely worth while to pay the price for this. Nothing much you can do here, just grab your chance to take photo with which ever figurine you know or even you dunno, since you’ve already paid for it.
The figurine is categorized in different rooms, celebrities, sports super stars, royal families and some well-known heroes, and lastly you’ll reach to the world leaders. After all the deadly wax figurine, you will come to an alive dungeon,called the scare tower, with some scares await you. It’s a dark dungeon fill with some scary figurines and of course, people dress in scary costume to scare the hell out of you. We were unlucky because we have 3 panic girls walking in front of us, why say panic? Because they scream at every thing, the ghosts are scared by their scream before they manage to walk near them… so, walking behind them with a short distance, we know exactly where the ghost are… no one manage to scare us at all… what a disappointment.
At last, there is a rotated cars that bring you to tour around a rooms with history of living of the British and revolutions of London and then it stop at the souvenir shops. Again, mum bought some coaster as souvenir. By the time we finish at Madame Tussaud, it is already 6pm, its all dark outside and all shops closed. We decided to go to Knightsbrisge to visits the famous Harrods. Since it is still early, we had a walk at Harrods, and trying to find the shrine for Princess Diana and her Bf at the basement, but couldn’t find it..
Things at Harrods are just so luxury and expensive…. So, the only choice we have is to look at the things in Harrods brand. I bought a famous Harrods Plastic Bag for £14.95…. SO EXPENSIVE!!!!! But, you know!! You been so far and you just need to get something from there as memory, so pain for my wallet!
Mum is already mumbling to get her dinner, we walk around the Knightsbridge area to find some food, surprisingly see a stall in a food court selling Malaysian food, a pohiah, those you see mak cik fried at the road side cost 60pence per piece…. Crazy!!! At last we decide to eat at the Japanese fast food chain called “WASABI” I chose a Beef curry rice and mum chose a Chicken Yaki Soba, each cost us £4.30, and do remember, they charge 17% VAT for any dine in, that’s a lot for us poor Malaysian…. But the portion for the British is just so big, we can’t finish it and ask for take away..
The night is still so young, I mean for us who used to sleep late, its only 8 something and all shops are closed, we have no where to spend our time and just went for walk at Sainsbury 24/7 super market… bought some chips from there… their chips is just so nice to eat..
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