The very next day I paid the British Museum a visit. Just from the outside, as I already had been inside before. From here I strolled through Soho and Chinatown, the latter which I had been looking forward to returning to, since it’s quite picturesque and pretty.
From here I ended up at Trafalgar Square and the beautiful National Gallery – home to a few street performers and quite creative painted body artists.
While moving on towards Buckingham Palace, I landed in the gardens of Green Park beforehand. Everything was kind of green already (hence its name?) and I was not really reminded that it was still the middle of the winter. Buckingham Palace was of course completely overcrowded with tourists, as usual. I didn’t get to see the guard change, but I already saw it in 2011, so it was all good. Instead, I took a detour through the nice streets of Wesminster and marveled at the hanging flower pots here and there. Somehow I ended up at this cool red photo booth in front of Big Ben and had to take a souvenir photo of course!
Big Ben and its guards were amazingly nice, just like most people I met during my trip to London. I also got to see the London Eye again and walk around it, although that was a grave mistake. The London Eye during midday was simply crawling with every kind of nationality and I did not enjoy the masses of people as much.
As soon as I got to a side street close to Waterloo station I was able to take a breather and that was for the better. From here I entered the Central line and ended up on the wrong one or rather wrong direction. Somehow I still managed to make it over to Notting Hill, which had been on my list previously (but which I hadn’t made it to yet). Well, I don’t know what I was expecting really, but Notting Hill was a bit – disappointing? It certainly was not what I had expected from the same-named movie (Hugh Grant, anyone?) but rather a bit boring. I mean the houses looked marvelous and the streets were quaint but as soon as I was on the main stretch of it, there were only regular stores and shops and nothing much else. I was missing a quaint book store and some more flair but maybe I had just mistaken it for another place to live. If anyone can let me in on the secret of Notting Hill – I’d be forever grateful. Or maybe I just misunderstood the entire movie.
Either way, I walked back towards inner town London, through the noble Kensington Gardens. Here too everything was in full bloom. Quite a weird sight in the middle of February.
I spent another night in the same district I had been to before (eating great Italian food). I also got some great night shots of Big Ben and its surrounding area, which was fantastic this time around since it didn’t rain on that particular night (for the first time the entire week).
German-American Abroad 