London

It was a beautiful week in London! Starting from the first day when we arrived to this city we couldn't believe “we are really in LONDON”!!! Every name of the building, of the street, of the museum meant so much to us, had its own meaning, was connected with many associations. We studied sights of London when we were at school, we read books by English writers where the main plot is taking place in London, we watched so many movies about it that it seemed like it's a part of Russian national culture. Every name we pronounced was familiar and made us exited about “just being here”.

We were lucky with the weather — it was sunny and warm week of the beginning of August — the best we could get from it. We were happy about the location of the hotel “Travel Inn” we stayed in — right across the Tames from the Houses of Parliament, next to the London Eye. We had the best travel partners we could think of — the family of our close friends the Hellers (Larry, Kim, Tyson, Max, Olya and Sergei). What else could we desire? It was all here — in London.

London

The first full day we had in this wonderful city we made the most spontaneous and right decision — to take a city tour with double decked buses. We experienced the view of the sunny city from the second opened deck of the bus, learning lots of new with the English speaking guide. We drove through the ancient part of London with its narrow two-three storied homes standing next to each other, then the high round Dome of St. Paul's Cathedral appeared far in front and in a minute its white walls partly covered with scaffoldings.

St. Paul's Cathedral

We crossed the Tames by the London bridge, charmed with the view of the Tower bridge on the left hand side, soon famous towers of the Tower bridge appeared above us on the background of the shiny blue sky (it was even hard to look up — it hurt eyes), finally the old walls of the Tower itself — the fortress, the Royal residence, the prison, the treasury and the museum — all in one.

The Tower

Then the glimmering view of the river bank, then needle-like Pseudo-Gothic style spires of the astonishing building of the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, headquarters of MI-5 and MI-6, Trafalgar Square with the world-known Nelson's Column, fountains where children walk and the National Museum, Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly Circus, Marble Arch, Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. All of it and many more was the city of London that we have discovered that day.

Dasha

The next day was not less interesting and full of impressions as the first one. We visited St. Paul Cathedral that I've heard so much about, especially mentioning it almost every day in my tour in St. Petersburg comparing to St. Isaac's as the second largest one cupola cathedral in the world. We got to see an impressive view of London from different levels of the dome of St. Paul's. With such a great sunny weather it was a real pleasure.

View From The Top of St. Paul's Cathedral

The same day we've made a “Royal London Walk” that was provided for free to us by the tour bus company that we took the first day. It was just a dream to see changing of the guard at the Buckingham Palace! Those famous guards with their red & black uniforms and high bear hats on — we saw them so many times on TV and in the books before!!! It was quite spectacular even though the very Buckingham Palace guards I got a chance to see only through the tiny gap in the fence of the court yard of the palace squeezing myself in between a crowd of other tourists and making one memory shot.

Buckingham Palace Guards

Another walking tour that we took with the same company the same day was “The World of James Bond”. We could have it for free but our tickets that were valued only 24 hours had expired by 1pm when this tour started. So we paid 5£ each and joined the group to explore the secret side of the capital and find out “Where is the secret door located?” even though we new the answer from the very beginning. The first thing we've noticed upon the arrival to London having a walk at night was the answer to this question. Enjoying the amazing view of the Houses of Parliament & Big Ben from the Westminster Bridge that evening we saw a deceitful door at the pillar of the bridge that we remembered so well from the last James Bond movie “Die Another Day ”. It didn't lead to the staircase into “the neglected metro station for the neglected secret agents” though — there was just a little service room behind that door which was a little bit disappointing to see.

Dasha Near The Secret Door

Nevertheless we've spent an exiting time walking in the city of international secret services, looking at the headquarters of MI-5 and MI-6 (where agent 007 is supposed to be working still), finding out more about life of Ian Fleming and intrigue of current “hidden” London.

By the way, it was so wonderful to listen to the tours given by different tour guides of this "Big Bus" company. Their professional level is quite high, their enthusiasm is catching, their personalities are bright and their love to the city is amazing. Being a tour guide myself I got to learn a lot from their way to look at the city and admire sights they see (even though they see them every day the same). It was just a pleasure to see their enthusiasm and wonderful attitude.

London Eye and Travell Inn County Hall Hotel

One of the most unforgettable experience was the London Eye. At first we didn't really believe it worth seeing. Then because London Eye was so close and we've heard so much about it on different tours — we've decided to go! We've specially chosen time so that we'd start when it's still light then it'll get to twilight when we're getting up and on the way down it'll be dark already — so that we can see the view of the city with all the changes of light and with night light at the end! And it was really amazing!!!

View From London Eye

Being inside of the glass capsule of the London Eye where up to 25 people can easily fit you feel like rising above the city with the clouds or birds, not sensing any movement or any fear, just getting the prefect pleasure of looking at the creation of genius people glancing at the last rays of setting sun. Being there you have a true feeling how God can look at His world with smile on His face getting a joy from just watching His creation and loving it. We understood right away why it's getting popular now to have wedding ceremonies at the London Eye — because you feel like coming closer to God, as if your marriage is made at the sky not only theoretically but practically as well, besides you also feel as if the whole city under belongs to you two and your union is blessed by people under you and by God above you and you're in between — that makes the closest image of two in love that live in the clouds.

The absolute must for me & Kim was to visit the National Gallery — second largest museum of art in the world. We were very pleasantly surprised that it has a free admission which corresponds with the expression that Art should belong to all the people. I was especially happy to see beautiful collection of Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, and two of my favorite paintings there - “Bathers at Asineres” by Georges-Pierre Seurat and “Lake Keietele” by Akseli Gallen-Kallela. I could have spent all the time just looking at those two canvases! But the museum itself and the collection that was on display seemed less remarkable as the one in the Hermitage museum in St. Petersburg which can be just my partial opinion.

Thames Embankment

Of course, we couldn't be in London and not to visit Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey that also had made a great impression on us — such big places of Great Britain and World's History. But Madame Tussaud's museum seemed to be too simple and too expensive. The Boat tour that we took was very interesting but not as enjoyable as in Paris or St. Petersburg as it went only along the center of the Thames river and we saw same places as we've seen already.

Staying along for a couple of days in London Sasha and I went to see the Buckingham Palace which was extremely interesting to compare with Russian royal residences. The Royal residence in London has more austere, more classical decoration with less lavishness demonstrating the wealth of its owners but dignity and good taste. It was amazing to know how much the Queen does and what a hard job she has. Her Magesty takes care of all the little details of the reception including decoration of the table and menu, she studies biographies of all people who are invited to talk to them about things that interest them and to make them feel as if they've been known each other for many years. Which is really an exceptional amount of effort, memory and desire! And what if she doesn't feel well or doesn't have a mood — she still need to do it not to offend her guests! I wouldn't like to be a Queen — this is a job you can't choose nor resign. And that helps you appreciate what Elisabeth II does for the world and peace. BTW, we've had a chance to meet Her Majesty Queen of England personally!

Dasha And Her Majesty Queen of England

The other day we directed our steps towards the Baker street with the famous apartment of Sherlock Holmes, the most well known private detective character created by the imagination of Arthur Conan Dole. For us especially this character is important as the wonderful Russian movie “Sherlock Holmes & Doctor Watson” made all Russians to fall in love with the main heroes of the story and the book remains one of the most popular to read even today.

Sherlock Homes Museum

Going inside of the museum we had a unique feeling as if we know everything in this home — Russian director and actors with the ingenious inspiration had managed to create the true atmosphere of the epoch that we found to be similar to the museum one. What is really amazing is that no one from the staging team or actors had a chance to go to London at that Soviet time of “Iron Curtain” — so they had to guess and imagine mostly everything that came out to be so true as we learned being in the Sherlock Holmes' apartment!

One of the unusual things we didn't plan was to watch “Harry Potter 3” in the IMAX theater of London!!! It was really COOL and probably the was no better place to see the new production of this movie then in England in the most impressive movie theater of London. And it was great to see some parts of the movie where we could already recognize sights of London!

One of the tour guides in London helped us to find Great Peter Street in London! It was named after a Russian emperor Peter the Great who came to England to study shipbuilding and became very popular among locals for his likeness of common people and generosity he demonstrated in pubs to ship masters he worked with.

Sherlock Homes Pub

By the way, it's impossible not to mention famous English pubs with their unique atmosphere which is hard to describe. First we thought they are just places to have a drink, but then we learned they are great for food as well! Sasha still remembers a delicious foil baked chicken we tried in one of the pubs near the Trafalgar square. Looking at the pubs in the evening we understood that they are more then just food and drinks – they are clubs on interest, places to talk, meet friends, relax and just enjoy.

Definitely London was the most learning and exciting experience of our trip!

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Related links

Picture Gallery - London