In the previous article, I talked about how we arrived at one of the largest ports in the UK, the city of Southampton, and what option for traveling to London we chose. If you watched the video in the article, you probably remember how it ended. That’s right, we’re traveling in a train carriage.
We were on the road for an hour and twenty. We arrived at one of the central railway stations in London – Waterloo. It is the busiest station in England. It has 20 platforms for boarding and disembarking passengers. To make it easier to find our guide Denis, we agreed to meet him near platform number 10.
London Sights
Nice guy, 34 years old, originally from Saratov, has been living in Britain for 10 years. Has an international license as a guide-translator. Met us at the agreed place and time. We met, discussed the route and set off. I really liked Denis’s flexibility and loyalty.
At any moment we could ask to go to a store, a pub, or step aside a little. The main thing is not to deviate too much from the center of London. In addition, Denis spoke very interestingly about everything we encountered along the way. I immediately felt that a professional was with us.
The main sights of London that we saw during a 4-hour walk:
- London Eye
- Palace of Westminster (now the English Parliament), Big Ben
- Westminster Abbey
- St. James Park
- Buckingham Palace
- Trafalgar Square
And along the way we came across less significant, but no less interesting places.
London Eye – London Eye
After walking 200-300 meters from the exit from Waterloo station, we found ourselves near the London Eye.
This is the largest Ferris wheel in the world, 135 meters high.
Located on the south bank of the River Thames.
From the top of the wheel you can see the whole of London within a radius of 40 km
Let me remind you that we had exactly 4 hours and 5 minutes before the train departed back to the port of Southampton. In such a tough regime, we wanted to cover as many attractions in central London as possible. The 40 minutes it takes to make a circle on the London Eye turned out to be an unaffordable luxury for us.
Denis suggested going to the ticket office of the famous attraction “London Eye” and watching a short video in 4D format. The effect is amazing!
The feeling of being completely present in the cabin of a Ferris wheel. Virtual reality is so natural that you automatically extend your hand to a seagull flying up to you.
Walked along the embankment to Westminster Bridge across Thames.
At the other end, The Palace of Westminster with its famous towers
was clearly visible
- Elizabeth Tower (Big Ben)
- Victoria Tower.
Crossed the bridge.
Palace of Westminster — Parliament of England
The famous palace on the north bank of the Thames.
Until 1529 it was the summer residence of kings.
The grandeur and pomp of the palace — spoke for themselves.
The British Parliament now sits in this building
In the courtyard there is a monument to King Richard the Lionheart
Big Ben
At the time we were in London, the Elizabeth Tower (Big Ben) was under reconstruction. All in the “forests”, only the clock was visible.
Later we bought a souvenir — a miniature copy of this tower.
Victoria Tower
Archive for documents
According to the architect’s plan, the Victoria Tower was built as an archive for documents of the House of Commons and House of Lords of Parliament.
Front entrance
This tower is located on the other side of the Palace of Westminster. It contains the main entrance for royalty. The tower itself is square and 2 meters taller than Big Ben.
Westminster Abbey
A very beautiful abbey building is located across the road opposite the palace of the same name. Westminster AbbeyIt is famous for the fact that all English monarchs have been crowned here since 1066. They were buried in the same church until 1760.
The funeral ceremony of Princess Diana took place here in 1997, and in 2011 the wedding ceremony of Prince William took place. We can say that this is the church of monarchs.
St. James’s Park
On the way to St. James’s Park, we asked Denis to stop at the nearest pub to try the vaunted English Ale beer.
Light beer prepared by top fermentation.
We went to the pub, ordered a glass of this beer and… complete disappointment.
This beer tastes like a Zhiguli beer that has been left open for a day, that is, the taste of a completely exhausted beer.
A little more and we are in St. James’s Park. This is a small park with a lake, but very long in length. A huge number of birds walk around the park and swim in the lake. Ducks, geese, seagulls, pigeons, and squirrels running through the grass. The park ends with access to Buckingham Palace.
Buckingham Palace
The Queen was in the palace as the standard was flying on the roof. We didn’t come to visit, we didn’t have time.
But seriously, Buckingham Palace and the monument to Queen Victoria in the square — cause admiration.
We took pictures, shot a video and continued along the planned route towards the royal stables, and then to Trafalgar Square.
Royal stables
The palace, which now houses the royal stables, was built in the 17th century on Whitehall Street. At one time the headquarters of the commander of the British army was located here.
Now at 10 am every day the guards hold horse parades on the square in front of the stables. And at the entrance there is a guard in a very beautiful uniform.
Trafalgar Square
On the way to this attraction, we stopped by a souvenir shop. What’s not there? The prices are of course decent, because this is the center of London, a tourist Mecca. We bought ourselves a miniature Big Ben tower with a clock, by the way, it works.
Trafalgar Square was built on the site of the old stables. This is a large transport interchange of three central streets of London. On the square there are monuments to the great British, a terrace with swimming pools. Beautiful place!
Waterloo Bridge
Near Waterloo Bridge there is the London Eye Ferris wheel, I wrote about it above. On the way to the bridge, we met on one of the streets an exhibit of an old London bus from 1965.
And next to him we saw the Sherlock Holmes cafe. On the second floor there was a museum of the famous detective.
From the bridge Waterloo there is a wonderful view no matter which way you look. Everything around smells of history and only the bridge design and the Ferris wheel return you to modern reality.
We crossed the Thames River and stopped at a mobile cafe, which was located inside an old truck.
We drank something and after 300 meters we ended up at the train station Waterloo, from where we returned to the city of Southampton.
There, at the port, a snow-white cruise ship was waiting for us. Our journey through northern Europe was coming to an end. The next morning we were to disembark in the city of Le Havre, in northern France. That’s where we boarded the ship.
So, a trip to London without a visa is quite possible, provided that you visit the capital of Great Britain as part of a sea cruise.
But it would be just the perfect trip. In fact, a fly in the ointment was waiting for us ahead. Read all the details of returning home and the troubles that befell us at the end of the cruise in the next article — End of the trip to Northern Europe
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