The Parade

Lonely but sucessful Sightseeing Day

As my friend who was doing his internship in London was too exhausted to spend another sightseeing day with me, I would discover the city on my own that day. After a quick shower I packed my things and left the house - as the first morning I stopped at the TESCO and looked for some cookies or at least something to eat and drink during the day. Then, I continued to the train station and had to wait some more time for my train as the day before, but it was okay. There was no place to sit, so I stayed next to the doors and looked outside the windows in front of me.

Tourist District - simply too expensive

Arrived at London Bridge I took another metro and arrived almost directly in front of the London Eye - I wanted to discover the "real touristic" places a bit that day, because during my trip in school we had only visited historical important places and sights my teacher liked. So I had arrived at London Eye which was really impressing. Before, I had only seen it from far away, but if you're right in front of it, it looks amazing! Unfortunately they had put Coca Cola publicity everywhere (which had not been there before) and it looked a bit like a large advertisement, but it was still quite interesting.

I thought shortly about the idea to buy a ticket for it, but forgot it when I a) realized that there were about 250 people waiting and b) the ticket was about 36 pounds, which are more than 45 euros! So I took some pictures and continued my way along the riverside. It was another very nice day and the sun was shining - really not typical for London, but very nice for a sightseeing day. So there was the London Dungeon, where you could get as scared as you've never been before (tried it in Hamburg), a kind of Shrek exhibition/adventure place and London Sealife. I would have loved to go to Sealife, but all of these adventures had the same price as the London Eye and London had already been expensive enough, so I just took some pictures and continued my walk.

As my breakfasts weren't the most delicious ones, I started to get hungry again and ate something at McDonalds (the easiest and less expensive decision) and had a short break there. After that I continued my tour and arrived soon at the bridge that was leading to the British Parliament, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey - it would really become a touristic day!

Veteran's Parade - Positive Surprise

When I crossed the bridge I captured some wonderful pictures of Tower Bridge and London Eye, because the sky was so blue and there were some amazing white clouds that made it looke like a painting. So I continued my way and suddenly I noticed a lot of people. Not just like "a lot of tourists are visiting London every day", but like a large crowd of people next to the Parliament. And even the roads were closed and there were a lot of policemen. I wondered what was going on over there and walked a bit faster. I couldn't see anything because of all the people, but as I was alone it was easy to make my way through all of them.

When I came nearer I saw that the road was closed for everybody and that there was a kind of parade going on. There were flags from all countries around the park in front of Westminster Abbey - I had seen them the day before with my friend when we were walking around, and (very old) people in wheelchairs crossing the street and waving while the crowd clapped enthusiastically. It took me a while until I understood that it was Veteran's Day because of the second world war and those were all people that had been in that War and survived.

I decided to watch the parade completely, because I wasn't able to cross the road anyway and I wanted to go to St James Park which was just at the other side of the street. They opened the street about 30 minutes later and immediately everyone tried to cross. It was a chaos and there were just too many people. It was even worse at the small footpath to St James Park, because one wasn't allowed to walk on the street (policemen were watching that) and there was not enough space for everyone, we were stuck for about 20 minutes until I finally reached the entrance to the park. It was prepared for a large VIP Veteran's Party (a large closed area and a stage showed that), or more a tea - those people won't party I assumed. And really, when I walked through the park next to the fence I could see them sitting there, drinking tea and chatting. And I even saw Charles and Camilla in there! I am usually not quite enthusiastic about the Royal Family but anyway, when I'm in London for me it's something special to see one of them.

Crossing half of the City - Leicester Square

Unfortunately, the Queen wasn't in sight, so I continued my way until I reached a part of the park that was a bit calmer and sat down in the sun to relax a bit. The crowd had been exhausting! When I had gained some energy again, I continued my way until Buckingham Palace and the famous large street leading to Trafalgar Square. Everywhere was something going on related to Veteran's Day and I was a bit puzzled because I hadn't heard anything about that before. I walked until Trafalgar Square, but as I had been to the other things nearby already the day before, I decided to look for a metro station nearby and go to Leicester Square - the kind of Times Square of London.

Red Carpet Experience

It took me a while until I had found the metro but I arrived at Leicester Square quickly. When I left the metro I saw a crowd again - what was going on that day?! So I went in the direction of the crowd and saw that it was a red carpet in front of the cinema - obviously there was a movie premiere! I was excited because I had never seen that before and in London it was absolutely possible that there would be somebody important. But soon I recognized that it was a teenager movie and there were only stars like "wannabe-Justin Biebers" that I didn't know at all.

But anyway, I stayed there for some time because it was interesting to watch how the teens around were screaming and how the teens at the red carpet acted as they were real stars. But after a while I lost interest and continued my way until the M&M's World. The M&M's World is like one of the most exciting shops I had ever seen in my life - it's huge and it's all about M&M's! It's decorated more than cute, you can find really everything with the logo on it and you can buy M&M's assorted by colours. Of course, it's extremely expensive but I just like to be there and see all these things, I don't need to buy anything.

So I walked around in that huge shop a bit, bought some souvenirs for friends and my boyfriend and left the shop again. Then, as the last time we had to return after that shop, I continued walking down the street to discover what I would find there. I found - surprise - a lot of other Shaun the Sheep and took pictures (it had become a kind of ritual: I took a picture and a selfie of every Shaun statue I found in London, ideally with the sight on the photo, too) and some nice shops.

Sightseeing is exhausting

After I had walked down the streets for a while I became hungry and tired, so I decided to look for a metro station and plan my way back. I bought something to eat in a supermarket and some sweets and chips for my room in the evening and started the Metro Marathon - it wasn't that easy to come to the place you want, usually you have to change metro, walk through the underground for hours, take steps until you finally arrive. And so it was. Finally, I was in the train to the little village outside London where I stayed and I just wanted to take a hot shower and get into bed where I would watch some series via Internet.

But when I arrived, my host told me that unfortunately there was no warm water. So I didn't shower, I just went to bed and hoped that it would work the next day in the morning (even if I knew that it was a wish far away from reality). I watched the Parade in the news in TV a bit before I finally fell asleep - sightseeing and walking around the whole day is exhausting!

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