London

Trip to London

London is the capital of Great Britain. This is one place not to be missed when I am travel to Britain. The trip to London is only slightly longer than the previous trip by a night. This is because I could not afford more time for traveling due to upcoming quizzes. To complete all the attraction in London will cost quite a bit and also will take at least 6 days recommended by the city tourist board. Since I am there only for 2 days and 2 night, I could only visit a fraction of it’s attractions.

These are the places that I have visited.
Chinatown
Westminster Abbey
St Paul’s cathedral
Tower Bridge
Tower of London
Buckingham Palace
Regent Park
Hyde Park (speaker Conner)
Green Park
James Park
Parliament Building
London Eye
Trafalgar Square
Downing Street
University College London

Took pictures at
Sherlock Homes Museum
Madame Tussaud



London is a beautiful place but it is not as crowded as I would think. In fact at night it is just as bad as other city in Britain. Only a few streets such as Chinatown and those with pubs and clubs are slightly crowed. Over at London the Chinatown is much more alive because it has more shops, restaurant and of course people as compared to that in Manchester. But yet Manchester claims to be the largest Chinatown in Europe. Probably only the Chinese arch. Otherwise I don’t see how it is comparable to that in London. Also there is a wide variety of Chinese food and but still quite expensive. There is one particular Chinese restaurant that sells food very cheap and I believe has the largest number of seats. It occupies up to 3 levels. The food is Cantonese style so is the service. And so this is the restaurant I have my 2 dinner at.

Most of the attraction can be reviewed from travel guide however I will only talk about two attractions which is Buckingham palace and also London eye. There are 3 main things to see at Buckingham palace. First is the queen. Unfortunately that is quite impossible. Second is the change of guards. During the much anticipated moment, the spaces in front of the gates are flooded with people who are trying to catch a glimpse of the ceremony. Due to the crowded, I cannot see much therefore nothing much to comment on. The last is of course the Queen’s jewelry. This can be found in the queen’s gallery. However only a few sets of jewelry is being displayed. I guess she kept some to wear for occasions huh. Actually the main jewelry is being held at London tower. These were the one use during her coronation back in 1953 I think. And they are very nice and pretty. Other than the jewelry at the queen’s gallery, there is also a display on art work by the Dutch from the 16 – 17 century. These arts are very good and mostly to be price as priceless (Then again maybe not since it is on display to the public). Anyone interested to know how the work looks like, you can do a bit of research by googling the net for the information.

The last attraction I will be talking will be London eye. The tallest architecture in London, stand at 135 meters above river Thames. It is also the world largest fairies wheel. It take about half and hour to complete one revolution. The ride itself is very smooth. I did not even feel that it is revolving unless I look out of the glass panel. The view from the top of the eye is fantastic. I can see almost the whole of London if not because of the night. But even in the day, London itself is quite foggy unless it is a clear day which is quite rare. Overall the ride is very relaxing which is comparable to the ride down river cam in Cambridge.

Next Stop Edinburgh

Cambridge and Oxford

Oxford and Cambridge are reputable university in the world. If one is able to graduate from any of these colleges, they are normally regarded as the cream of the crop in the society. And I have planed to visit these two great universities between 22-23 Oct.
I took a “virgin” train from Manchester to Oxford. The trip has not been smooth sailing because another train broke down along the same track resulting in an hour delay for my trip. In all, it took 4.5 hours to get to oxford. The train station is right at the edge of the cit y centre. And of course one can expect the university right in the city centre. If not, it will at least be very near to it. This is only natural as shops and other commercial building are built around the university to tap on the huge student population.

University of Oxford is the oldest university in England and it consists of 39 different colleges. Now how is it possible? Well this I am not sure as the history is quite complicated therefore if you are interested, you can go to the university website to read up. The city is actually quite vibrant as expected from a city of students. There are many pubs and restaurants and other retail shops selling clothes and other stuff. The city also has quite a fair bit of tourist attraction such as its own colleges, church, museum and other attractions.

Today the city is actually much crowed because there is a graduation ceremony for one of the colleges. I read from some where that says that the graduation ceremonies are very traditional and it is still being held in Latin. My first visit was to the colleges and their architecture is indeed quite nice and also very old. In fact each college design looks just about the same from the others and I got bored very quickly. The design consists of a rectangular wall to form up the parameter with a relatively small entrance to the college. Upon entering there is usually a large courtyard with very nice grass like those in the golf course and probably a statue right in the middle of it. Then of course there are rooms at the parameter of the courtyard.




I also visit the famous Oxford Museum. It showed case a lot of exhibits. With themes from the Roman Empire, Egypt dynasty, Japan, China and of course England’s very own heritage. The exhibit is just too much to describe so I will not be elaborating it.






The other venues that I visit are the church and some towers that claim to be more than 1000 years old. Well some of them are still in fact can be considered as still being the tallest around oxford as I am able to have a good view from around the town without obstruction.
My trip to oxford came to an end at about 6pm where I will be taking a coach to “the other side”. And the journey took me about 3.5 hours. I quickly proceed to my accommodation at a youth hostel to rest because it is late and there is nothing to see in Cambridge at night other than drunken students roaming the streets.













At Cambridge my itinerary is about the same after all both this towns are established due to the huge student population and thus have about the same stuff. However there is a huge difference in both the life style and architecture. In Cambridge, the city is not as vibrant as in oxford. I do not know the reason but I suspect because of the culture. Similarly, University of Cambridgeconsists of 31 colleges. The reason the place is called Cambridge is because there are many bridge over a tiny river known as the river Cam. The width of the river is probably not more than 20 meters and at most about 2-3 meters deep. (Even much smaller than kallang river) This river has a very long history as it was a major trading route during the Roman Empire and also when the Vikings were in England.

Cambridge was also involved in the civil war which results in many of its bridge being destroyed all except one. And it is still standing and has the privilege of being the oldest bridge. For the architecture of the colleges, many of them are very beautiful and easily surpass those in Oxford. Probably because they are not as old but still was built even before Sir Stanford Raffles discover Singapore. Each of the colleges is unique in design and is very huge. The most popular colleges are king, queen, trinity and St Johns College. Between these, Trinity is the richest and also has the most nobel prizes.

The best attraction is of course punting which is taking a small boat ride down river Cam and enjoy looking at the colleges which are situated just beside the river. The ride has proven to be very enjoyable and I highly recommend it. They also have museum that showed case different exhibits from all over the world. Except that those in Cambridge focus more on England and it’s own heritage. That is all that I visit in Cambridge because of the shortage of time and also because Cambridge is really a small town as well. Now I have to endure the longest journey back to Manchesterwith a 3.5hour coach ride and 4 hour train ride.

Next stop is London, Capital of England.

Trip to York

York has a very rich history by going all the way back to the medieval times. In fact some of the building still remains standing. They are the city walls and the minister. There are a few museums that show case the rich history of York and one in particular that I find interest is the exhibit of the Viking city Jorvik. Over here I learnt that the Viking actually successfully invaded York around AD966 (could be earlier) and ruled the lands around it. The city later become very prospers and holds up to more than tens of thousands of Vikings. In fact the city become so crowded they actually start to build houses with double stories. Bottom layer of the house was used to do work and the top layer used as sleeping and eating area. With such a big city, it invertible becomes a centre of trading. With goods from all over Europe and Egypt. The exhibit was quite detail showing all the stuff use by the Viking such as their clothes, utensils, weapons, housing, skeletons and etc. How do we know if all these data are real? Well back in the 1980s archaeologists discovered a large amount of artifacts dating all the way back to AD900s inside the city of York. In fact the museum is built on the site of the discovery of the artifacts. All these skeletons and artifacts are very well preserved under the moist earth which including leathers and even the Viking’s stools (shit).



After the visit to Jorvik, we walked around the city within the city walls and discover a lot of the shophouses are preserve or build to give the city architecture a feeling of the medieval times. Also there are also quite a few shops that sell unique services or products.





We were also lucky to see a small parade held outside the castle museum (not actually a castle but just some short building). The parade is to commemorate the victorious sea battle (Battle of Trafalgar 1805) won by the British against the French when Napoleon was king.


Of course the highlight of the trip was to visit the minister of York. But first I like to check if any on knows if there is any difference between church, cathedral, minister and other Christian building for worship? Cause the minister of York is actual a very big building for worship to Jesus. Now what make this place special is that the building actually stands on the foundation of two other building with the earliest dating all the way to the Roman Empirebetween the 9-10 centauries. This was only discovered when the minister was in danger of collapsing around 1990s? (cannot recall the actual dates)

A crypt was build beneath the minister to show some of the actual remains of the previous two buildings build on the site. The first dates back to the Roman Empirewhich is actually a huge barrack use to train the Roman troops. There were quite a few artifacts such as the famous Roman columns use to support the roofs of the building. There is even a cut of into the ground that shows the drainage systems that remove water from the city ground into River Ouse outside the city. And it is still intact and working today! The second was a big church build by the Saxons. I was a very simple but a huge church. Actually, I do not see the actual remains of the church. Except some glass panels and quite a lot of rocks that claims to be from that time. The glass panels are unique because back in the AD1200s (I presume because the current minister was build around 1400s) the Saxons were able to build colourful and elalaborate design on glass. The colours were every rich and even till today they are just as beautiful and rich.
And of course the current minister was build when the Saxons was defeated to showcase the power and influence of the feudal lord back then. And the story goes on and on. To know more about it, you can always read up more about it.

National Rail Museum is up next on the list where the story of the famous railway history is being told. It shows all the different trains that had served UK in the past. There are also exhibits on the present train such as the eurostar and the Japanese Bullet train.
This ends my trip in York and my next trip is to Oxford and Cambridge home of the top two universities in UK.

Cheers!!!