My parents' trip to United Kingdom (Part 2) - London

London, Day 1 (23/07)

After the graduation on Saturday (22/07), I took my parents down to London. Yeah, London that was. Some of my coursemates said, hey there are much more to see in UK like Edinburgh, take them there. Like OK, draw a map to the logic here; My parents were in UK for the first time and they opted to go and see highlands and not LONDON? So I do not think that was wise, thanks but no thanks.

I decided to be in London for 4 days. Yeah, too many days to spend in London unless you think of camping in Harrods during the Summer Sale (which ended yesterday (29/07), LOL). The reason why I spent longer time in London, my parents are old and they have difficulty to walk fast and the idea of being surrounded by millions of other summer tourists and the heat-wave, made it almost impossible to manage. So I was right at spending longer time in London for them, it was for their own good.



London, Day 2 (24/07)

Although we arrived at Malaysian Hall (yes we did stay there, funny, they do not have rooms for couples, I can't comprehend this), we only started the tour on Monday, 24/07. We went to Buckingham Palace, and luckily I read the guide book that the procession for Change of Guards happens at 11 am daily, so I made sure that we'd be able to see that. So we were lucky, we got there on time and we managed to see it all (except the Queen, well I am sure there were 'queens' in the crowd that day, LOL)

We moved down to visit 10 Downing St where John Major used to live as PM (I do not know why I associate 'that house' with Major. I guess since I think the image of him signifies the importance of that house, as far as my awareness to British politics is concerned). We then walked along to visit Westminster Abbey and House of Parliament. My parents were amazed with the ancient intricate designs of all the buildings. I was lucky enough to have been in the House of Parliament and to get a tour on the House of Commons where Bills are debated etc. That is whole lot of other stories altogether.

London Eye was next! We did not go for the ride, it was enough from far. Not only it is extremely expensive, but to walk there and then made a trip back to the tube station was not entirely good for my parents. Instead, we took a slow walk along the Thames to Trafalgar Sq, and then went into the National Gallery to check out the paintings in Sainsbury Wing. It was fantastic. I managed to tell them the story about crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his resurrection since my mom was asking; "Ni gambar sapa ni?" ("Who is this man?"), after seeing way too many images of Jesus in the gallery, especially the moment he was crucified and then the resurrection! When we were around there, we were lucky since there was this tourist (a student in London), who were with us to take out photos. Since he was all alone, I took his photos too. So that was a bit of help when he could take photos with us three in it!

To be continued...