Today we went by tube to Paddington (all right – like the bear ;)) where we took the train to Eton by changing train at Slough to get to Windsor Castle. This is a must see! The castle is in perfect condition – and impressively furnished. You get an audio guide which moves you through the area. The most impressive points of interest are Saint Georg’s Chapel, the State Apartments and Queen Marie’s Doll House which was my personal favorite.

It’s a giant doll-house built in the 1920s as a present for Queen Mary. Top artists and craftsmen of the time contributed their special abilities so the dolls’ house has an amazing collection of miniature items. Here are some pictures but you really have to see this by yourself!

After Castle Windsor we walked to Eton-College but it turned out that during schooltime admittance to the college-area is prohibited :( In compensation we got a look on a group of students wearing the traditional student’s uniform which is a black tailcoat, white shirt, white bow tie and winged collar – looked very serious and we’re not sure if all of them are happy by this dress-code ;)
Anyways – Eton feels like a good place to live – also if you’re a student ;)

By the way – for lunch we just had a quick stop at Waitrose supermarket to pick up a sandwich and tortillas and a second stop at Patisserie Valerie for cappuccino’s and a pice of cake – Yum yum :)

Regards,
Andrew >:o)

Today we had a long walk starting at the Tower of London along the Themse over Trafalgar Square up to Soho and China Town. Along the way we had a really great lunch at Jamie Olivers Italian Restaurant (just try the garlic-bread and you will understand ;) and a second stop for a snack also worth to mention at Patisserie Valerie. We live at vienna and we are very proud of our tasty confection of pastry, but this patisserie is on almost th same level – highly recommended – give it a try!

And here comes the visual stuff gathered along the way:

Sleep well ;)
Yours Andrew >:o)

Today we’ve been really tired so we left our apartment late in the morning to get tickets for the ‘Hop-on Hop-off’-Bus. This is a rather clever transport if you’re a London tourist. The bus moves on a route along the most interesting sightseeing spots of London and you can hop-off whenever you’re interested into a specific tourist attraction. You jut hop-on again when the next bus passes by. So you can visit a lot of interesting places by a pretty reasonable fee.

So we hoped-on the bus and got moved to Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Tower Bridge, Big Ben, St Paul’s Cathedral, Madame Tussaud’s, Kings Cross, Hide park and a lot more. I was so busy with sightseeing today that I didn’t take a lot of pictures. Just let me present you one picture which perfectly shows the heavy contrast between old and new you can meet very often at London. The large modern skyscraper in the back and the old houses in front … but seems as if opposite attracts ;)

Best regards,
Andrew >:o)

Today we took the ‘Circle Line’-tube to Padington and from there we went to ‘Warwick-Avenue’ where we took the boat (Jasons Original Canal Boat) to get to ‘Camden Market’ on the canal. We really recommend going by boat because it’s such an enjoyable experience to view all the different types of house-boats on the canal. Just look at some samples:

Camden Market is also a great place, a large choice of really good food and many crazy shops to buy all the ‘needful things’ you don’t need at all ;) Anyways, it’s a great place to meet a lot of happy people absolutely worth to visit!

Next stop was ‘Primrose Hill’ to enjoy the great view and after a short relaxing break we decided to spend some time at London’s Zoo which took just a 10 minutes walk from ‘Primrose Hill’. The highlights at the zoo have been the Gorillas and the free running Lemurs … you really have to see this!

So that’s it for today so back to our apartment … very tiered today :(
No surprise – Karin’s pedometer showed 21638 steps! :))

So good night and sleep well,
Andrew >:o)

Last night I slept like a rock :) After breakfast walk to Tower Hill to get the boat (City Cruisers) to Greenwich. At Greenwich a short visit of Greenwich Market for shopping and to have the best pork-/chicken-dumlings you can get for money!

After lunch we hiked up the hill to Greenwich Observatory to see the Prime-Meridian and to enjoy the great view over London. Later back to he boat and up the Thames till last stop ‘London Eye’. From there just a short walk to the National Gallery before we finally headed back to our apartment. On the way home we got dinner at Wasabi and went the last part of the way by bus ;)

And here a compilation of todays best shots:

Regards,
Andrew >:o)

Today we started our 8 day London vacation at 2:30 in the morning … really … taxi picked us up at 4:15. 15 minutes later we arrived at Vienna’s airport where we took off to London/Heathrow at about 7:00 am. Landing at Heathrow Airport at about 9:40 London local time.

We left our luggage at ‘Kings Cross’ tube station because we had to wait until 3 pm to get into our apartment. In the meantime we picked up our ‘London Pass’ and stopped by M&M to get a ‘nose’ of this yummy chocolate smell ;)

Later we got our luggage again from ‘Kings Cross’ and moved straight to our apartment: ‘GOnative service apartments, 3 America Square, London’ and the entrance to our apartment is the only picture I took today ;)

But don’t worry – you can expect better photographically results from tomorrow on ;)

Ciao, Andrew >:o)