15 May 2011

London trip: Day 5

Today's article would be my final article that about my trip to London, because day 5 is final day of our trip (in real term).


In the morning, we went to Emirates stadium which is the Arsenal FC's home stadium. One of my friends who went to London with is the big fun of Arsenal FC. And he wanted to visit the stadium, buy some goods at official shop... Then we went there. Unfortunately, the weather was not good at all on this day. But we could know how big it is! I visited some stadiums in Japan such as Ajinomoto stadium in Tokyo, but the Emirates stadium was much larger than stadiums in Japan, I felt.


If we could, we would like to watch the match there. But we couldn't do so as I wrote before.


After we visited the stadium, we went to Buckingham palace. We've already checked the schedule of changing of the guard. Fortunately, we could arrived there on time, and saw that. 


In front of the palace, we saw rainbow colored cab. We saw many cabs during our stay, but we didn't ride it at all. So if I have a chance, I would like to ride it.


After we saw changing of the guard, we went to Fortnum & Mason. I didn't know this shop, but my friend told me. According to my friend, Fortnum's is famous tea shop in London. When we arrived at Fortnum's, there were many Japanese tourists. They were buying so many teas and tea goods there, but I didn't have much money to buy such a many stuff there. So I bought one tea for my family.


I also didn't know the name Camden Market. At Camden market, there were many shops and I felt it's a little like Takeshita-dori where Tokyo's shopping district for young people.



But I felt it's much stylish, because I found two cool paintings near there. Of course, there are many graffiti also in Tokyo, but I felt most of them are looks so ugly, and I don't like most of graffiti in Tokyo.



We used Baker street station again and again during our trip, but we've never been 221B until the final day. So as our memorial, we get off the tube and went to 221B on this day.


Also, as our memorial we went to abbey road.
Well, we were not big fun of the Beatles, but there were fun of the Beatles who were taking pictures. Some of them were standing on zebra crossing to behave like cover picture of the Beatles' album "Abbey road".
But it's not look like cover picture, because the line on the road changed...


We had a lot of places where we visited on this day, and sky was getting dark. Yes, we needed to think about our final dinner during our stay.
Well, we were planning to take dinner at British pub during our stay at least one night. So, here it is. We went to pub near Hyde park. And this is the fish & chips. I felt it's so big!!


We ate this with British beer.

We mostly used undergrounds (or I should say tube?) during our stay. We bought Oyster card on first day, because it seems to be easy to pay our fares. In Japan, there are some similar prepaid card such as Suica. These prepaid cards are really useful because we don't have to buy tickets. The card automatically calculate the correct fee when we touched the gates.
I think, it's really useful, but I felt a little inconvenience. I felt a little inconvenience, because the gates sometimes didn't work right. And we needed to touch the card strongly to gates. Suica works so rapidly and we don't have to touch to the gates so strongly. Then I felt a little inconvenience. Anyway, it helped me to travel with undergrounds.


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I won't write about day 6 and day 7 as stand-alone article, because I don't have anything to write about that. Day 6, the day which our airplane leave London. So, we spend our time mostly at Heathrow Airport. Just waiting for the departure.
On day 7, we came back to Tokyo before noon. The airplane arrived at Narita Airport. And that is really far away from my house. I hope all of them will depart and arrive at Haneda Airport.

You can check previous articles that about my trip to London from:

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10 May 2011

London trip: Day 4

I think, I should change the title of today's article, because I was not in London on this day. In fact, I went to Edinburgh on day 4. I wanted to go to Edinburgh during this trip, so I told about that to my friends then we decided to go to Edinburgh.






We reserved tickets before we left Tokyo. I felt the price of tickets were cheaper than I expected. The airplane ticket for domestic line in Japan would be about 10,000 JPY (about 125 USD), it's not round-trip plane ticket. Of course, it's economy-class seat. But we could reserved the seat of round-trip plane London Heathrow Airport to Edinburgh Airport for less than 10,000 JPY!! And it's include tax! I felt it's really cheap. I don't know much about other countries' domestic line tickets, but in Japan airplane ticket would be expensive one even for domestic lines...



Unfortunately, the weather in London was not so good on this day. But we were not worrying about that because we would leave for Edinburgh on this day. So, how about weather in Edinburgh?




The weather in Edinburgh on this day was really wonderful!!
And it was not so hot, and not so cold for me. Well, we needed to ride the bus to get to centre area of Edinburgh. We rode the bus for a while, and arrived at Edinburgh station. We walked to Edinburgh castle.



I think, it's under construction, but I felt it's really nice.

Also, the view from Edinburgh castle was really nice!



Inside the Edinburgh castle, we could learn a little about Edinburgh castle and history of Edinburgh. And I could meet him. lol



After we enjoyed Edinburgh castle, we went to the Scotch whiskey experience. It's near from Edinburgh castle, and we could enjoy Scotch whiskey there. Look at the photo below, there were so many Scotch whiskeys!



At the Scotch Whiskey Experience, we could learn about Scotch Whiskey and its history. Also, we could taste the whiskey. There was a shop of Scotch Whiskey, and I wanted to send some to my house. But I couldn't do so...

We decided to walk around the city of Edinburgh. The urban area of Edinburgh was really beautiful, and took many photos. If you interest, please visit my facebook account. I upload some of them.



We could stay long at Edinburgh, because we chose night flight to come back to London. So, we came back to hotel at night. Anyway, we could enjoy the one-day trip to Edinburgh. If I have a chance, I would like to go there again!

So, this is the end of my story on day 4.

You can check previous stories from London trip: day 1, London trip: day 2, and London trip: day 3.

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02 May 2011

London trip: Day 3

After the great earthquake that attacked north-eastern Japan on 11th March, I didn't think it's not good time to share my London trip report. But now it's already May, and I decided to write about usual things. From today, I would like to write about usual things. 


Today is about my London trip: Day 3. You can check London trip: Day 1 and London trip: Day 2


In the morning, we went to Baker Street station. We passed that station again and again on Day 1 and Day 2, but it was the first time to got off at this station. When we got off, we found Sherlock Holmes's statue in front of the station.



There were many people who were taking picture of the statue including us. We took some pictures with this statue, but it was not our purpose to got off at this station.


Our first destination of Day 3 was Madame Tussauds. I didn't know this place, but my friend told me on Facebook then we decided to go there first. Inside the Madame Tussauds, there were many wax figures such as Albert Einstein, Barack Obama, Justin Bieber and so on. We took many pictures there. That was really fun. Not only the wax figures, but we could enjoy "4D movie" at there! It's worth to go there!

After the Madame Tussauds, we went to Westminster.


When we were crossing the Westminster bridge, the weather was wonderful.

After we crossed the Westminster bridge, we went to McDonald's to take lunch there. We chose McDonald's because we want to know the difference of menu, prices, taste and so on at there. 


The photo on above is my lunch that I bought at McDonald's. Well, I felt it's bit expensive than Japanese price. But taste was not so different, and I felt the size was a little bigger than Japanese one.

While we were eating lunch at McDonald's, the weather changed so rapidly. The weather got bad like photo below.


Anyway, we walked to London Eye. While we were riding the London Eye, it was raining a little...


Unfortunately, the weather was not so good. But we could enjoy the London Eye.

After the London Eye, we went to Science Museum at Kensington. I went London with my 2 friends who are studying together at the college. We were all studying electronics engineering at the college. Which means we are really interested in Science and Technology. Then we were planning to visit such place. The Science Museum was exactly such place where we wanted to visit. It was really interesting place for me, and we enjoyed the whole afternoon of this day at there. We stayed there by closing time.

We took supper around there and came back to Wembley park.


On this day, there was the match Arsenal FC vs. Birmingham city FC. (We wanted to watch the match, but we couldn't get the ticket...) So, the stadium was lighted up and looks so beautiful.


We took some photos around there, then came back to hotel.

So here's the end of my trip on day 3. I will update my Day 4 story as soon as possible.

Thank you.
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