Ah September how time flies? It's incredible that we bid farewell to the dreaded winter and now basking in a 35-degree spring! Summer is rushing over Sydney but I'm not complaining! To be honest I love the hot weather and longer days. My body just naturally feels better with sweat haha.. Anyway I thought I'd write about our London trip last May! Our Europe trip was supposedly done last 2019 but due to the pandemic, our travel plans rescheduled. This is by far the most expensive trip I've ever spent on. Aside from Euro, British pounds and Swiss francs being strong currencies, the Aussie dollar has been weaker than ever. Also In a span of 3 weeks we went to 5 countries which are England, France, Italy, Switzerland and Vatican so that's why we went full broke!
Off to London! Did you know that the longest direct flight in the world is Sydney to London? Imagine sitting in a plane for 23 hours? My butt was exhausted in that economy seat! We didn't even take direct flight! We chose to stopover to Singapore for a bit of rest, (also we love SG food!) and yet the flight was tiring. I'd take US trip coming from Manila than Sydney any day. Everywhere feels much farther from Australia.
London first day was a leisurely stroll throughout the city (clocked in 30k steps booya). We were lucky the city roads were closed due to marathon or fun run. We had the city to ourselves and got good photos of Tower of London, London bridge, the Big Ben, London Eye, Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey! We also went to the British museum and highly recommend you visit as well. I wanted to see Winston Churchill museum but we had no more time. I plan to come back to watch Wimbledon one of these days so it's in the list.
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| Due to jetlag, we were awake at 3am and roaming the city at 6am! |
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| London bridge is even more beautiful up close |
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| The London Eye! For me it's not that special anymore since almost everywhere in the world now has this. |
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| Trafalgar square fountain |
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| Only in Australia, Jollibee is NOT found. What gives?! |
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| Proof you went to London! |
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| Old scriptures in the museum |
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| Rosetta stone! Happy to see it! |
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| My fave actually is Westminster Abbey, love the architecture inside. |
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| Zombie apocalypse?? No one/cars towards the Big Ben! |
The next day we went on a tour to see Stonehenge and Unesco Heritage site - Roman Baths. It's a preserved site of thermae in Baths, Somerset during the Roman times when they rule Britain. You can see the spring, Bath house, Roman Emperor statues and museum trinkets. No aliens though!
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| I thought I'd see aliens but... |
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| There's a small museum for facts and trivias |
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| Hmm more of these alien rocks.. |
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| This is Roman baths during AD period. You can't swim but some people tastes the water! |
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| I ran into W and B! Small world, we used to work together in Hewlett Packard! |
Baths was lovely, lots of shops did a bit of shopping. Plus it's the same place where Bridgerton was filmed. Our tour guide pointed out the Duchess of Hastings' mansion in the tv series!
The following day we went to Harry Potter Warner Bros studios! I'm a Potterhead so I absolutely marvelled the movie props here! I only wish I saw Emma Watson in person!
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| The dragon prop in the 4th movie was colossal! |
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| Hogwarts candle lit! |
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| Sortie? I'm house Gryffindor for sure! |
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| The ladders are moving! |
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| Gryffindor common room! |
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| Trip to Albus' office? |
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| Some green magic happening here! We paid for this so we have a scene wherein we're flying in a broomstick! Until now, we haven't opened the file! |
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| Chamber of secrets! |
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| Buckbeak! |
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| Off to school! |
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| Only a true Gryffindor can pull out this sword! |
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| Amazing how some movie magic make this Hogwarts shot big! |
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| Chess pieces outside the studio! |
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| That night we went to see Lion King and M fell asleep on the entire play coz she is sick |
We went to see the Lion King play but M got sick. Even when we were touring Stonehenge she already fell ill. Surprisingly almost everyone was coughing in the train and no one is wearing masks. We tested for covid but it was negative so regardless we join the European army of sickies!
On our last day of our Europe trip we flew from Rome and back to London as we have our roundtrip flight tickets to Sydney. We saw the insides of Westminster Abbey and went to Notting Hill because it's one of my favorite movies! Such a classic.
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| Hello Ben we meet again! |
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| Westminster abbey is beautiful inside |
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| Fun with flags |
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| More of British monarchy inside |
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| Beautiful day, sun shining inside the abbey |
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| Baker street! If you're familiar with Sherlock Holmes! |
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| The famous blue door of Notting Hill movie! |
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| Where is Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant!? |
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| Our scrumptious meal at Qantas business lounge! We are members #frequentfliers |
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| I did miss you Aussie skies! This was taken before landing to Sydney! |
And there you have it! This post is just one chapter of our European adventure - stay tuned for the next one in Paris!
