Trip to the United Kingdom Day 3 (12/06/16)

I woke up at 4am the next morning and finally took a nice long shower before I started blogging again. I had a good sleep at the Travelodge and the bed was comfortable after our long day out and about. After I updated the blog, I went back to sleep again as we were not leaving the place early. We decided to go out really late at 10.20am as buses and trains were all delayed that morning due to some engineering problems. Instead of taking the bus to Salisbury, we took a taxi to the train station to get back to London. Before boarding the train, we grabbed some breakfast from the train cafe. I was still feeling hungry after P and I finished the sandwich we shared, so we bought more snacks from the roving train lady.

Quiet station and people were encouraged to travel only if necessary

Coffee smell really good everywhere in UK and they provide no calorie sweetener

Due to the train faults, we could not get to London Waterloo station directly and had to get off at Woking Station which was about half an hour from London Waterloo. We waited patiently at the waiting room for 35min for the next train to come, it was supposed to be the one we could board to London but all passengers had to get off from the train instead. It was a nightmare from there as there were delays and changing of platforms and it was getting crowded with people from two trains all stuck and unsure of what was going to happen next. It was bad with two young kids in tow. I must say that I was quite impressed they could travel with us for such long hours the previous day, I cannot imagine my niece and nephew from SG doing that! I started to miss Japan efficient rail as well, its always on the dot to the minute and no messy miscommunication like this. However, I dont see the British cursing or swearing in anger, either they were too cultured to do so or they got used to this. We finally boarded the next train and everyone practically had to rush and squeeze into it to get to London, so we did not get a seat unlike the previous train rides.

Some cheesy shots we took

We were all hungry when we reached London, so we grabbed some pastry thingy from the shops at the station we alighted all. P love cheesy romantic films and he wanted to visit the Notting Hill bookshop that appeared in the movie 'Notting Hill' with Hugh Grant and Julia Robert. I felt shy that we took those cheesy shots at the bookshop and even at the station, but it turned out quite cute. 

We finally found the bookshop

Sushi sweets in the shopfront next to it

We walked through the Portobello market to get to the bookshop and it was a nice feeling looking at the knick knacks and stuff on those streets. There were tourists like us who flocked to the bookshop to take pictures there.

Loved this picture a lot as its really cute

Wefie at the bookshop

Another closer shop and the bicycle next to us make the whole picture complete

Some random shop at the market

The weather at London downtown is the warmest so far and its the only place I could do without my jacket. Unfortunately, it also started raining when we got to the next few destinations. We stopped at the Big Ben to take a close up picture, I lost track of the stations we stopped at and transfer as the London tube is quite extensive. Funnily, P and I were in awe when we saw the Parliament House next to the Big Ben as it looked really grand, we even thought that it was the Buckingham Palace!

 

Closer shot of the Big Ben

The London Eye from this side of the river

We wanted to go St James Park to get a picture of Buckingham Palace, but the access was closed from the station as the nation celebrated the queen's 90th 'national birthday' the previous day and they were hosting some event. We decided to just walk around random and eventually got to Picadilly Circus which was very busy and full of shoppers. We stopped at KFC to grab an early dinner as we did not have any proper meal since waking up in the morning, and we had done quite a bit of walking. 

The iconic Picadilly circus fountain 

British flags lining the streets maybe due to queen's birthday

The KFC meal was quite normal, nothing much to shout about so I didnt take any photos. In fact, I think KFC at ph tasted much better and more filling with more stuff that I liked like pasta salad, brownies, rice with gravy etc. Anyway, it was quite late and almost time to head back when we finish, so we only walked to the nearby Chinatown for Dan to grab some ingredients before making our way back to Euston to take the train home. We did not get to explore much as it was already quite tiring for a weekend trip, but P and I decided to make our way back to London on our and stay a night to explore more in one of the coming days. 

The Chinatown 

Foreigners fascinated with durians at this shop

We got to London Euston station around 8pm and took the 820pm train back to Manchester Picadilly station. I fell asleep on the train ride but woke up again when I felt that the train had stopped for sometime. We were stranded due to lightning striking a cable along the way and causing some issues. Fortunately I slept the most part of it during the 35min delay, but our train ride of 2hours+ became 3hours and it was already 11pm+ when we got to Manchester. We were supposed to get onto another train but the last one already left. Dan talked to the lady at the station and she got us free rides on two taxis to get home. Delays and more delays on national railway today!