Day 2 - Walked Here, Walked There
So far so good. I started on the west side London on day 2 and where better to start but the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum. I’d say it’s an older, more poorly designed version of the one in Washington, DC. I’m glad I got there nice and early (15 min after opening). A lot of the exhibits were very old and dated looking; like they were created 20-30 years ago. I also noticed that a lot of the exhibits were really cheesy - full on styrofoam visuals and fake animals galore. I was going through the building at very quick pace until other people started to show up. That’s when I realized that the design of the place was total shit. Narrow walkways and ridiculous queues. The dinosaur exhibit was the most frustrating one cause it was busy and there was one path and one direction to see it. I wanted to run through it but ended up plodding through with hundreds of other people. It was hot and slow and it totally sucked. I think I went through the entire place in about two hours. I think I enjoyed the physical building more than the exhibits. Look how beautiful this place is:
From there, I was quite close to one of the Royal Parks, so I went to check out Hyde Park. I didn’t really expect to spend more than 15 minutes taking a stroll in the park, but ended up spending over an hour there. I discovered that the Diana Memorial Fountain was there so I went to check it out. I was expecting a typical fountain but it turned out to be a stylishly modern structure:
I had read about the the Jeff Koons art show at urbanjunkies.com and was happy to stumble upon it on my way out of the Park. It was free, so why not check it out? I wasn’t allowed to take pictures of the pieces inside, but I did sneak a shot of the art from an exterior window afterwards.
Stupidly, I thought I would be smart and take a shortcut to Brompton Road, only to find out that there were no thru roads to it from the residential area. What a waste of time. Luckily, Brompton was a great road with tonnes of shopping and stuff to see. I was so tired and hungry by the time I made my way around though. It’s a long story but I was actually looking for a specific Polish restaurant that was mentioned in my Lonely Planet book. It turns out, that I read the street name wrong and it ended up being right next to the underground station that I came from. And the menu was disappointing and it was way more expensive than I thought it was stated in the guide, so I didn’t end up eating there.
Next stop was the House of Parliament. I got some great pics of the building, including Big Ben and the London Eye on the other side of the river.
I’m saving the London Eye for later in the week so I didn’t cross the Westminster Bridge to see it up close. Instead, I went to Westminster Abbey. It started to rain and I was really tempted to head back to the hotel from a catnip but I kept going and walked up to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. It was a bustling area with lots of people just loitering. I went into the National Gallery and was blown away by the art. I spent 3 hours there. I was totally impressed by the paintings on display. I wonder if there are any artists in our time that are as talented as the ones from hundreds of years ago. Too bad I couldn’t take pictures of them but I guess many can be looked up online.
Next up, Picadilly Circus. What a cool place. It was full of people, eateries, bars and theatres. I walked around there for a solid 90 minutes. I had a quick beer near the tail-end of my walk. It was warm, but I was tired and thirsty and I killed it in about 3 minutes. I called it a day and headed back to the hotel. All-in-all, it was 10 hours later and I was thrilled to sit down in the comfy confines of the hotel room. I rested for an hour and went to the local bar for some dinner: Beer and fish & chips with peas. It’s a weird combination but it was sustenance and much needed at 9PM.
It’s actually Thursday morning now and I’m aching all over. But it’s time to get the day started. Time’s a wasting. ~AC
