Hello London After 8 Years

Never thought that after 8 years, I back to London again. 

Well, my main intention going back to London is to participate the International Girl Guides and Girl Scouts camp which held in Leicestershire but because of the two students which I guide and lead never been to London before, hence we decided to fly earlier and have some pre-camp tour activities.

Overall, we spent a short 3 days 2 nights in London before entering the camp and here are the few main attractions we managed to cover during our stay in London:  

1) Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace is the home for the queen and an office for the Head of State. Although the palace is in use for the many official events and receptions held by the Queen, the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace are open to visitors every summer. We were there during the summer but the queue is overwhelming and by looking at the entrance fee, shall we give a pass. 

#1: Sun-drenched Buckingham Palace

#2: See the crowd also make me no mood to view the changing guard.

#3: Right in front of the Buckingham Palace gate

How To Get To Buckingham Palace
There are five main tube stations that surround Buckingham Palace but bear in mind, you still need to walk merely around 10 minutes from the tube stations to the palace:
1) Victoria Tube Station (under Victoria, Circle and District Lines)
2) St Jame's Park (under Circle and District Lines)
3) Westminister (under Circle, District and Jubilee Lines)
4) Hyde Park Corner (under Piccadilly Line)
5) Charing Cross (under Bakerloo and Northern Lines)

2) Borough Market

Located very close to London Bridge, Borough Market is most renowned wholesale and retail food market in London. It is London's one of the largest and oldest food markets. Here, you can find more than 100 stalls and stands selling wide range of products including fish, meats, vegetables, cheeses, breads, coffees, cakes and patisseries.

#4: Borough Market, not far from London Bridge

#5: Fresh seafood but I'm not interested 

#6: Can't resist the owl biscuits. So cute!

#7: More cakes

How To Get To Borough Market: 
London Bridge Station. Borough High Street Exit (West Side)

Opening Times
Monday - Tuesday: 10 am to 5 pm
Wednesday - Thursday: 10 am to 5 pm
Friday: 10 am to 6 pm
Saturday: 8 am to 5 pm
Sunday: Closed

3) Tower Bridge

Do I still need to introduce this? However, quite number of people has mistakenly referred this bridge as London Bridge but it was not. London Bridge does exist but it just a pretty normal bridge and it's situated very close to Tower Bridge. 

#8: Too bad it was cloudy and no clear blue sky 

#9: A pose with the iconic bridge is a must, although I took before 8 years ago

#10: Across Tower Bridge

How To Get To Tower Bridge
1) London Bridge Station (under Northern and Jubilee Lines) and short walk away toward Tower Bridge
2) Tower Hill Station (under District and Circle Lines)

4) Big Ben

#11: Big Ben, another famous iconic of London shouldn't be missed by anyone

#12: The red double decker

How To Get To Big Ben
The nearest tube/station/underground is Westminster. Once you come out from the main exit, Big Ben Towers are just right above you. So incredible!

5) Piccadilly Circus

The busy square in the heart of London but the main reason we were here mainly for the giant and bright iconic advertising hoarding. When my friends and I were in London 8 years ago, we couldn't make it here cause we're ran out of time but seeing this place couple of times in postcards and Internet, I know this is one place I shouldn't miss if I return to London for second time. 

#13: Giant and bright iconic advertising hoarding at Piccadilly Circus 

#14: The famous statue of Eros, this is well-known for its popular meeting point

6) Chinatown

From Piccadilly Circus, my students and I walked down to China Town cause my two students were craving for rice. Truly Asian these two gals! All along the way, there are many souvenirs shop selling all those typical knick-knack such as T-shirt, fridge magnets, keychains and more. Of course, you need to survey from one shop to another cause not all the price are the same. 

#15: Chinatown for the second time

7) Oxford Street

In between our trip, we did stopby at Oxford Street, a famous shopping street with more than 300 retailers from designer outlets to department stores. Initially I plan to shop at Primark here (all their clothes are super duper cheap) but I have no mood to shop at that particular moment as I was just went through a rough breakup. 

[Photo Credit]

8) Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter

This studio tour was upon requested by my two students and since I did watch all the seven series of Harry Potter, I thought it was a great idea to put this as one of my London itineraries. Although it's quite far away from London city where we travelled by our own by taking subway, then switch to train and bus which took more than a hour, but no regret of coming here. Not just me, even many people are envy with my students who managed to visit Harry Potter studio. My blog on The Harry Potter Studio Tour London here. 

#16

#17

For more info about this studio tour, do check out their website here.

Where We Stayed?

Thanks to my blogger friend who is also a frequent traveller, Tommy Ooi for helping me to book Novotel Paddington cause it's quite hard for me to find a room for three at the very last minute. Although it was slightly pricey, but my students and I thought we might need a little bit of comfort sleep and rest before entering the camp for a week. A real camp where we sleep inside a tent with sleeping bag for exactly a week. 

#18: Novotel Paddington with breakfast along

You can check out my old post about London where my friends and I went 8 years ago. 

• London Walker [Part 1]
• London Walker [Part 2]

Last but not least, spot any differences of me 8 years ago and 8 years later? Still chubby chubby

This blogpost is specially dedicated to one of my Instagram followers as she requested for London itinerary.