16 Days Europe Tour – White Christmas Day 15 London
This morning, being the last day of our Europe vacation package and a free day, we took the opportunity to sleep in a little and had breakfast in our hotel,
London Hilton Olympia Hotel, at 0900 hrs. Here we met our tour manager, Ricky Tiang from Chan Brothers Travel, who asked if we would like to visit Covent Gardens.
We agreed and thus met him and the group after breakfast to take the public transport to Covent Gardens.
Holiday Travel Tips:-
Since we were going to be requiring the public transport for a return journey, our tour manager recommended us to purchase the London Travelcard. Purchasing the Travelcard enables you to not pay for single tickets, which will allow you to enjoy great savings considering the cost of such single journey tickets.
We took the bus from just outside our hotel on the bustling Kensington High Street and saw numerous London sights along the way.
The Queen Elizabeth Gate on the boundary of Hyde Park at Hyde Park Corner
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| Queen Elizabeth Gate |
Passing by the Kensington Gardens, we managed to see the Albert Memorial from the bus.
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| Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens |
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| Queen Gate |
Here is another tourist attraction of London:- Ripley's Believe It Or Not!
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| Ripley's Believe It or Not |
Covent Garden Market
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| Red Telephone Box |
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| Covent Garden Market |
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| Apple Market decorated with X'mas decorations |
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| Gaily decorated Covent Garden Market |
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| St Paul, Covent Gardens |
Humanity Statue, Trafalgar Square, London
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| Humanity Statue |
The Duke of York's Theatre, a West End Theatre in the City of Westminster, previously known as the Trafalgar Square Theatre and then the Trafalgar Theatre.
Trafalgar Square - a public space and tourist attraction in central London, England, United Kingdom
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| Statue of Abraham Lincoln in Parliament Square |
The Cenotaph that stands in Whitehall, London, is probably the best-known cenotaph in the UK and commemorates all of the dead in all wars in which British servicemen have fought.
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| The Cenotaph, Whitehall, London |
Big Ben Clock Tower, famous icon of London
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| Big Ben Clock Tower |
London Eye Wheel is the world's tallest observation tower
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| London Eye Wheel |
Westminster Abbey, a Gothic church, where important events take place from coronation to high profile weddings and funerals
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| 20th century martyrs at Westminster Abbey |
Downing Street, one of the most well-known streets in the world
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| Downing Street |
We then proceeded to
The Red Lion Dining Room for lunch. As it was Christmas eve and the outlet would be closed for the next 4 days, there was no lamb shank which some of us had wished to try. Thus we ordered the gammon and egg, fish and chips as well as the steak. Food was not too bad though we preferred the fish and chips in
Volendam, Netherlands.
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| The Red Lion Dining Room |
And whilst finding our way back to our hotel, we passed by St Luke's Church in Radcliffe Gardens
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| St Luke's Church, Radcliffe Gardens |
Next, since we possessed the London Travelcard, we took the Underground tube back to our hotel in Kensington High where we did some last minute packing and checked out before leaving for the airport.
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| Underground tube - Westminster Station |
Though we had heard news of flights being cancelled due to the extreme weather condition and even saw signs to avoid travel to Heathrow, our flight from London Heathrow Airport to Paris left half an hour later than scheduled and our connecting flight from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport to Singapore left two hours later than scheduled. What a pity!
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| Avoid travel to Heathrow Airport sign |
We had hoped that there would be some flight cancellations so that we could at least spend more time and enjoy some great Boxing Day sales. However, it is always good to be home!
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