Honeymoon - London

London

• 4/23/2010 Friday
• British Museum - We only had 1 hour to visit and saw most of the worthwhile exhibits. It's a museum that you can spend 10 hours or 1 hour and still not satisfied. It was funny to see how British Museum defends its possession of the Greece artifacts (and later in Athen's Acropolis Museum, watching a video using the word "looting" to describe Lord Elgin)

• 4/24/2010 Saturday
• Tower of London - A bit boring to me but since everyone recommends it, here I am, to learn about Brisith history that I cannot remember. The White Tower was impressive and the Crown Jewels were gold-shiny!! We spent 3 hours here walking = tired legs
• Tower Bridge  - looks better on the outside than inside. We were also lucky to observe not 1 but 2 bridge "openings" to let a ship through
• Covent Garden - A crowded area (similar to Yonge & Dundas in Toronto) with lots of stores/restaurants/people
• London Eye - Initially thought it was closed at 8 pm but turned out it was 9 pm closing. We got on, took lots of pictures and came down. It was cool to see London from up top, but not that exciting really

• 4/25/2010 Sunday
• Harrods department store - Truly an world-class luxury department store. The inside is fancy, beautifully decorated, and a must-see in London for a tourist (in-store items are not must-buy though due to the high prices)
• Buckingham Palace - Walk from Harrods to Hyde Park, and then the Palace, took photos
• London Marathon - We were "lucky" to be in town for the Virgin London Marathon. Crowds all the way from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Bridge, stop-and-walk traffic throughout. Happy to see the city alive without interrupting our activities!
• Westminster Abbey - Impressive building structure, took photos
• House of Parliment / Big Ben - Usual must-take-photo buildings
• Thames River Cruise - Took the cruise from Westminster to Tower Bridge and back, with onboard commentary fun and informative

Notes

• We took advantage of the Days Out 2FOR1 offers wherever we can (actually, all of the above paid attractions)
• We purchased Travel Card 1-day pass (about $5.6~$7.5 depending on the zones) to use the 2-for-1 offers, and they allow us to travel unlimited on the Bus, Subway in Zone 1-2
• Due to the limited shorten time we have in London, we did not visit many restaurants to sit down and have a good meal (sorry honey), therefore doesn't have much comments on the food.

Overall

• London is indeed a great large city to visit for days or weeks, like New York, Paris, Taipei, or Toronto
• Bus is the best way to travel as Subway is not luggage-friendly and always crowded and hot
• People are friendly in London
• Things are okay-expensive in London
• I however probably am glad to say I have visited London (crossed off my To-Go places), and won't need to visit anytime soon

Honeymoon - Before Departure

Like my 2009 stories of meeting Wendy and getting married, my 2010 adventures continue to be memorable, before it even starts ...

FYI: My scheduled flight WAS Apr 21 5 pm (yes, yesterday)

Waiting on VISA and passport
Applied Apr 1, picked up Apr 21 1 pm despite a 2-week wait (while it's 2~3 days wait in Taiwan or Washington D.C. from my research)

Waiting for the cleaning kit to clean my D40 sensor dust ($50 CAD)
Dropped off at Nikon Canada in Mississauga Apr 19, picked up Apr 21 2 pm despite a "super rush 48 hours" effort

Waiting for the Volcano ashes to clear so my flight can fly
Waited all day yesterday hoping for on-time departure, nope.

• Original flight = Apr 21 5 pm, arrives London Gatwick Apr 22 5 am
• New flight = Apr 22 10 pm, arrives London Gatwick Apr 23 10 am

I am not in approval of this "let's delay everyone by a day so we can fly stranded people out" because this way EVERYONE got delayed. The proper way, like what other airlines do, is to fly scheduled flights and waitlist stranded passengers if seats are available.

Sad thing is, all the Air Canada or British Airways flights leaving for London last night all departed on schedule (so there is the disadvantage of booking with a charter airline)


Losses so far
- 1 day of hotel accommodation in London, $80 CAD
- 1 day of London, $?

Too much waiting, and last-minute excitements hours before my original flight
On the bright side, my losses are minimum compared to many stranded passengers.