FEBRUARY 16, 2011
So. Hump day. Woke up for my 10am lecture, then returned back to my place. I was a little bummed since we didn't have a football game today per usual.. it was 11am, I didn't really have anything pressing to do for the next couple hours: no more lectures, not really any plans until later in the day. I looked out of my window and it was a surprisingly beautiful day in London. Huh.
Might as well go for a walk!
.. or in my case, a 2.5 hour adventure through the areas of London to the east of my apartment - sections I haven't shown you guys yet! To put things in perspective, if you look at a map of London and you look right at central London, where the River Thames turns southward, that's where my apartment is. Right next to the London Eye and across the river from Big Ben. Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Apollo Victoria Theatre, all the places I went on that original walking tour back in January - that's all west of me. Piccadilly Circus, Covent Garden, my campus - that's all north of me. Iceland, Sainsbury, Waterloo Station - that's south of me (apparently there's not much else south of me..).
SO. I'm going to take you east! Starting by my campus and moving eastwards along the north bank of the Thames..
From Waterloo Bridge, looking down at Victoria Embankment
Intersection of Waterloo Bridge Road and The Strand. My campus is around the corner to the right
A neat building right outside my campus
There it is.
The Australian High Commission..? I thought it was the embassy, but who knows
More cool London buildings, walking down the Strand towards Fleet Street
No idea. Nice architecture though
.. same thing
Looking down Fleet Street, St. Paul's on the horizon.
An old pub called 'Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese' that I really want to check out sometime.
Some business buildings, I think looking up New Bridge Street
St. Paul's Cathedral, from the west. Massive building.
Statue outside of St. Paul's.
The clock tower
Beautiful architecture
Love the pillars
Walking along the south face of St. Paul's
Looking up at the dome
Some building across from St. Paul's
A WWII memorial
St. Paul's from the south
A great modern structure, near such a great old one.
Some more London buildings. Walking along Cannon Street
I liked these buildings. Neat styles
More busy London streets
Some more buildings. Felt more like a 'business district' around here
Looking down towards the river and London Bridge, I think
The Monument.
Closer view of The Monument. I think it's to the Great Fire of London.
An old church
More neat buildings that I have no clue about
All Hallows-by-the-Tower, an ancient Anglican church
'The Hung Drawn And Quartered' pub. Gotta love the names of the pubs over here..
Tower of London shopping center..? No idea, cool building though. So much glass.
I think this is another view of All Hallows-By-The-Tower
The Tower of London, from the west
.. another view. Just a massive place
Tower of London and the River Thames, along with some south shore buildings.
More neat structures by the ToL
The walls
I think the little placard said this was where a gate used to be..? Don't remember.
The Royal Mint Court, whatever that is..
Another view of the ToL, from the east
Approaching Tower Bridge from the north
Walking along Tower Bridge!
Viewing the south shore from Tower Bridge
Westward on the River Thames
.. and eastwards
Neat bridge
On the south end
From the south shore
Tower of London, across the river
London!
Some cool business buildings
Tower of London
Some random battleship
The Hays Gallers, I think. Neat place - restaurants/shops/bars
London Bridge
Walking along London Bridge
Eastward from London Bridge
This is going to be a sweet building when it's finished
Southwark Cathedral
Borough High Street. That road to the left of the fork takes you to Great Dover Strett where there's more Kings College housing
Borough Market!
Neat place, although it wasn't open today. It's open Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays
Lots of fresh seafood. They have everything here - meats, seafoods, breads, alcohol, flowers. Whatever you want!
It's much busier when it's open
I don't know if you can tell in the picture, but those are random pink lights under the bridge.
St. Paul's Cathedral on the horizon, from Southwark Bridge
Walking along 'The Queen's Walk' on the south shore
Shakespeare's Globe Theatre!
The Tate Modern!
The Millenium Bridge and St. Paul's Cathedral. You might recognize the bridge from the 6th Harry Potter movie - it's the one that gets destroyed in the beginning.
Walking along the Millenium Bridge!
City of London school.
Walking along the north shore again..
Some neat buildings.
Looking back to the west, London Eye in the distance. I think this is from Blackfriar's Bridge. So many bridges.. It's almost like Pittsburgh
The Seacontainers House, whatever that is!
No idea what this is, but it's cool
Back along the south shore, a nice area near Gabriel's Wharf
Looking towards campus across the river
The National Theatre. Nice little walking area
Cool place
A monument to some actor, I think
A random book market! Very cool
A TON of graffiti and some bikers
.. and skateboarders. Neat little area, right along the south shore.
I think this whole area is called the BFI Southbank..? It's all restaurants and cool bars along the south shore. It stretches down towards the London Eye
The National Theatre, from below
A new advertisement every couple of weeks on the IMAX by my apartment. Crazy that they take them off and put new ones on so often. Man.
Waterloo Station
And then I came back home! Two and a half hours of some quality fresh air and sight-seeing around jolly ol' London. Good times.
Once I was back home, I ate lunch and did some work/internship research . Eventually got 2-for-1 pizzas with Elana and called it a night. Probably worked on the blog for a bit while watching an episode of Lost. Watched the movie 'Memento', which I'd been meaning to watch for some time. Really good movie - very stylistic, with a great performance by Guy Pearce. One of Christopher Nolan's best. It's about a guy who has no short-term memories and can only remember a couple minutes at a time. It's pretty cool, as the scenes play out chronologically backwards. Neat stuff. Called it a night after that..
Good music to walk around London to:
Josh Ritter - "Roll On", off his album 'Golden Age of Radio'
Great song and album. Love his song-writing.
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Alrighty, still playing catch-up, but that big update should hold you over.
Cheers!
