London Explored

A quick picture update from London.

 

My brother in one of the red phone boxes that are scattered around London. I don’t quite understand the tourist fascination with these. As far as I’m aware, there’s only one last TARDIS, but these are everywhere!

A sneaked shot from within Australia House, home of the Australian Consulate, where the Australian F1 in Schools teams were invited for breakfast. This hall, of course, was used as the set for Gringotts bank in Harry Potter. Apparently shooting for the Potter film took six weeks, for a scene that lasted just a few minutes.

   

Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guard. I was a little under whelmed by the changing of the guard, with so many people turning out to watch, with the police having to close off the street during the ceremony, there wasn’t much to it. The guards with band march in and enter the palace grounds. Music is played for about 20 minutes whilst the actual changing takes place, and then they march out again. It really was hard to see what was going on as the ceremony is effectively shielded by the palace gates. Unless you are standing right up against the gates, you really can’t see much.

 

Behind the palace is Hyde Park and Hyde Park corner where the Australian War memorial in London is. The memorial consists of a wall with every town and city from which people who have served for the Australian defence forces has come from (Australian towns or otherwise). Canberra, Tuggeranong and Nimmitabel all make appearances! Nimmitabel was a little hard to find, after about 30 minutes of searching, we discovered that it was in fact around the back of the wall where two panels had been hidden.

 

Harrods! Same feeling in Harrods as you get when visiting a museum. Everything is beautiful to look at, but you know its all too valuable to take home. The prices are just as much a spectacle as the items themselves (examples being 35 Pounds for a dozen oysters and a 95,000 Pound chandelier!)

Westminster and TARDIS – Part 2

As today was the last day in London before leaving for Cardiff (returning to London again in about a week), I decided to make a quick trip out to the apparent tourist Mecca of Westminster, home to the Abbey, the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace. As there are quite a few images to show, I’ve split the post up into 2 parts. This is part 2.

After leaving Westminster Abbey, I sort of made a loop around the Westminster area, which is very nice! (I saw my first Aston Martin DB9 parked in one of the streets). Definitely looking forward to staying near Pimlico, just a little south when I return to London.

I eventually made my why around to 10 Downing Street, which was a little disappointing as it is closed off to the public, with the building hidden away, I figure you’d probably see more of The Lodge in Canberra whilst driving past than you could see of the British PM’s residence.

    

About as good a view as is possible.

Continuing my walk around Westminster, I finally made my way down to Buckingham Palace, which was a little uneventful, as the changing of the guard ceremony had been cancelled for the day. Oh well, a good excuse to go back for another visit.

   

The grounds and gardens that surround the palace (especially St James’s Park) make for nice areas to walk whilst enjoying a view of the palace itself.

 

One thing I was amused to find was the Australian gate to the Palace forecourt (which I almost missed after actually entering the area through this gate, it was only after seeing the African and Canadian gates that I realised there would probably be an Aussie gate too). I thought it was funny that Australia was represented by a bloke with his arm around a kangaroo (there was a second with his arm around a sheep), as though that’s a normal thing for Aussies to do.

  

On the way back to Old Street, I decided to make a stop out to Earl’s Court where I knew there was only of the last remaining police boxes, aka a TARDIS! I attempted to have someone to take a pic of me with it, but I think she thought I wanted a pic of the pub behind it. Despite cropping the image, it didn’t turn out all that well, so I’ll have to make another visit once and make my brother take a better pic! It was also at this point that I realised I’ve left my Sonic Screwdriver at home…

I’ll leave my last picture from London for the time being as a shot of one of the Space Invader guys that appear around Old Street where I’m staying. It gives a pretty good indication of the kind of neighbour hood Old Street is. Kind of rough and basic, but being close to Shoreditch, the people are friendly, yet quirky, with lots of fashion/arts shops around the area. Its been a fun place to stay, but I’m looking forward to moving on to Cardiff and Wales tomorrow!

Westminster and TARDIS – Part 2

As today was the last day in London before leaving for Cardiff (returning to London again in about a week), I decided to make a quick trip out to the apparent tourist Mecca of Westminster, home to the Abbey, the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace. As there are quite a few images to show, I’ve split the post up into 2 parts. This is part 2.

After leaving Westminster Abbey, I sort of made a loop around the Westminster area, which is very nice! (I saw my first Aston Martin DB9 parked in one of the streets). Definitely looking forward to staying near Pimlico, just a little south when I return to London.

I eventually made my why around to 10 Downing Street, which was a little disappointing as it is closed off to the public, with the building hidden away, I figure you’d probably see more of The Lodge in Canberra whilst driving past than you could see of the British PM’s residence.

    

About as good a view as is possible.

Continuing my walk around Westminster, I finally made my way down to Buckingham Palace, which was a little uneventful, as the changing of the guard ceremony had been cancelled for the day. Oh well, a good excuse to go back for another visit.

   

The grounds and gardens that surround the palace (especially St James’s Park) make for nice areas to walk whilst enjoying a view of the palace itself.

 

One thing I was amused to find was the Australian gate to the Palace forecourt (which I almost missed after actually entering the area through this gate, it was only after seeing the African and Canadian gates that I realised there would probably be an Aussie gate too). I thought it was funny that Australia was represented by a bloke with his arm around a kangaroo (there was a second with his arm around a sheep), as though that’s a normal thing for Aussies to do.

  

On the way back to Old Street, I decided to make a stop out to Earl’s Court where I knew there was only of the last remaining police boxes, aka a TARDIS! I attempted to have someone to take a pic of me with it, but I think she thought I wanted a pic of the pub behind it. Despite cropping the image, it didn’t turn out all that well, so I’ll have to make another visit once and make my brother take a better pic! It was also at this point that I realised I’ve left my Sonic Screwdriver at home…

I’ll leave my last picture from London for the time being as a shot of one of the Space Invader guys that appear around Old Street where I’m staying. It gives a pretty good indication of the kind of neighbour hood Old Street is. Kind of rough and basic, but being close to Shoreditch, the people are friendly, yet quirky, with lots of fashion/arts shops around the area. Its been a fun place to stay, but I’m looking forward to moving on to Cardiff and Wales tomorrow!

Roppongi and the Imperial Palace

Last night I finally made a visit out to Roppongi, a place that is apparently popular with foreigners and ex-pats (according to my Tokyo guide). I can understand why; the main development in the area is Roppongi Hills, a huge shopping district, which has been highly westernised. Walking around the shops, I may as well have been back home. Not quite the reason why I travelled to Japan in the first place…

The area is very modern, and has some very nice, new, architecture (including a massive, daddy long-legs style spider), but it didn’t turn out quite as exciting as I was expecting.

   

This morning I made a trip out to Tokyo Station and made my way towards the grounds and gardens of the imperial palace.

Below is a picture of myself in front of the double-bridge leading to the gates of the palace grounds (the gate is above). Unfortunately the palace itself is set well within the grounds, with the gate being about as close as you can get without a prior arrangement.

Also below is a picture of the samurai Kusunoki Masashige, the apparent embodiment of the samurai hero who, out of loyalty to his emperor, still lead his men to certain defeat on the emperors orders.