LONDON - THREE DAYS AND A CONCERT
The LUSH concert and trip to Belfast (you can read about it here: https://www.summester.com/egy-hoszu-hetvege-belfastban) went so well that we decided to go again. My husband continued to listen to club music in the evenings and accidentally stumbled upon the Ministry of Sound Classical concert in London. When the kids were still young, Adele exploded into the music world with her album "21." We played the CD to death and I watched her concert at the Royal Albert Hall countless times. One of my dreams was to go to an Adele concert at the Royal Albert Hall. In April, we travelled to London for the Ministry of Sound Classical concert. The venue was the Royal Albert Hall. In August, we're going to an Adele concert, although it will be in Munich. :-)
The organization was not smooth because the tickets sold out and their prices skyrocketed on the secondary market. However, at a well-timed moment, 4 reserved tickets became available on the Royal Albert Hall website, and we successfully grabbed them up. Thus, our trip became a reality. We agreed to extend the trip by a few days, and we had from Thursday afternoon to Sunday noon to explore London.
On Thursday around 10, we landed at Luton Airport. From there, we took the Green Line bus to the hotel. Our accommodation was next to Regent's Park at the Danubius Regent's Park (about 1.20 hours from the airport). We were extremely satisfied with the hotel: ample breakfast, clean room, good view, and excellent public transport to the main attractions.
We arrived before check-in and our room wasn't ready yet, so we decided to drop off our bags and explore the area.
Next to the hotel stands the London Central Mosque, the Great Mosque of London, designed by Sir Frederick Gibberd. Its golden dome gleams from afar among the surrounding buildings. The building is capable of accommodating more than 5,000 worshippers. Ramadan lasted until April 9, so the mosque's significant community and religious role was clearly evident. The huge prayer hall sparkled every evening, and hundreds of worshippers gathered for communal prayers and dinner. Even on the street, various delicacies were offered on small tables. The mosque is located near the famous villas designed by Quinlan Terry. They are built in a classical yet distinct style and are said to be owned by several members of the Saudi royal family.
Not far from the hotel is Abbey Road Studios, the most famous recording studio in the music world. Since its official opening in 1931, countless representatives of both popular and classical music have walked through its doors to create their recordings. Ella Fitzgerald, Yehudi Menuhin, Pink Floyd, Spice Girls, Ed Sheeran, Kanye West, Lady Gaga, Amy Winehouse, and Adele have all been here.
Next to the studio, there is a shop where you can buy everything from T-shirts to fridge magnets with Beatles and Abbey Road themes - at quite a steep price.
Perhaps their most famous guests were The Beatles. Many people visit the area for this very reason, because the cover photo of the Abbey Road album was also taken here. The four musicians cross the street one after the other, with the white building of the studio behind them. Some conspiracy theories say that Paul is barefoot because he died in a car accident years ago and was replaced by a double. The march is a funeral procession, with George Harrison as the gravedigger, Paul as the deceased, Ringo Starr as the congregation, and John Lennon as the priest. The dry fact: McCartney's shoes were pinching his feet and he took them off.
In any case, the risk of road accidents is still significant in the area, as tourists try to recreate the famous photo: they march up and down the zebra crossing among the surprisingly patient drivers.
The short walk and the delicious bacon, egg, and avocado sandwich we had at Notes Coffee-Roasters (St. John's Wood), we returned to our hotel and finally checked into our room.
Meanwhile, our friends from Austria also arrived, but they decided to rest. We also took a little rest, but curiosity was stronger than fatigue, and we went into the city. We got off at Westminster Abbey. We really didn't want to go too deeply into sightseeing because we had planned to do that together with our friends, but rather just to taste the atmosphere of London. Therefore, we admired Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and the Parliament from the outside.
We walked across Westminster Bridge because we wanted to follow The Queen's Walk all the way to Tower Bridge, but we only made it to Southwark Bridge. On the way, we stopped at Wagamama for a ramen soup and pad thai and concluded that London had stolen our hearts. The plan for the next day was to first see the Tower Bridge and then head back along the Queens Walk. We took a combination of bus and subway to Tower Hill. Here, it quickly became clear that our husbands couldn't handle long walks due to their leg injuries, so we decided to tour the sights using a hop-on hop-off bus. After some haggling, we bought a 1-day child ticket (£39) for the TopView hop-on hop-off bus, which also included a boat ride. They are not the bus company with the most positive reviews, but we later experienced the advantage of that. There was always plenty of seating, even up on the open upper deck. We started from Tower Hill by bus, and our first stop was at the Big Ben / Westminster Abbey and Parliament stop.
Big Ben: Big Ben is actually the Elizabeth Tower of the Palace of Westminster, the Clock Tower, an iconic building of London and a symbol of the city. As we get closer, we feel its monumentality. It is 11 stories high, about the same height as if we stacked 11 London buses on top of each other. You have to climb 292 steps to reach the clock face and 334 to reach the belfry. The tower was built as part of the new Palace of Westminster after the old one was destroyed by fire in 1834. Although Charles Barry was the palace's chief architect, Augustus Pugin designed it. The building rests on thick concrete foundations, is built of bricks clad in sand-colored limestone, and is topped with cast-iron roof tiles. The section above the belfry is decorated with the national emblems of the four parts of the United Kingdom: the shamrock of Northern Ireland, the red and white rose of the English Tudor dynasty, the thistle of Scotland and the leek of Wales. The tower is open to visitors, but the official website had no available slots until July. :-(
Westminster Palace: The palace currently serves as the building for the Parliament. It was built as a royal palace, but over time, two fires led to its reconstruction. The design of the new palace was led by architect Charles Barry, who chose the Gothic Revival style. It has three main towers, one of which is Big Ben. The Victoria Tower is the tallest tower of the Palace of Westminster. It is named after Queen Victoria and was long considered the tallest and largest square stone tower in the world. Due to the tower's prominent location and its role in royal ceremonies, Charles Barry designed particularly rich carvings and statues for its interior. These include the statues of the patron saints of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, a life-sized statue of Queen Victoria, and the two allegorical figures of Justice and Mercy. At the base of the tower is the royal entrance. The stairs from here to the Norman Gallery are known as the Royal Staircase and are the first points of the procession taken by the monarch. According to tradition, this is the only route by which His Majesty can arrive at the House of Lords. Admission is granted ONLY once a year! The Central Tower is the smallest of the three significant towers. The Parliament building is best seen in all its glory from the Westminster Bridge.
Westminster Abbey was founded by Benedictine monks in 960. The original monastery was first expanded by King Edward. The Edward Abbey remained until the mid-13th century, when King Henry III decided to rebuild it in a new Gothic style. King Henry decided to rebuild it in the new Gothic style. According to the royal decree, Westminster Abbey was not only designed as a monastery and for worship services, but also as the coronation, wedding, and burial place for monarchs. King Charles is the 40th monarch to be crowned within the abbey's walls in 2023. Elizabeth's funeral was also held here, but she was laid to rest in St George's Chapel in Windsor. The abbey, which is stunning inside and out, closes fairly early, so it's worth buying a ticket - £27 - in advance. Queuing is guaranteed.
Next to the abbey, it's worth taking a walk to St. Margaret's Church. Margaret's church) and the Jewel tower - they are also worth a visit.
Parliament Square was established in 1868 to improve transportation in London. It is surrounded by numerous important buildings and is also the "home" of 12 statues of political figures linked to the history of the United Kingdom.
At the foot of Westminster Bridge, a relatively new "landmark" of London has emerged, the National Covid Memorial Wall. It stretches 500 meters along the Thames, directly opposite Parliament. The wall features more than 220,000 hand-painted red hearts, each one commemorating a person who died of Covid in the UK.
The construction of the Westminster Bridge originally faced significant opposition from the residents, but based on the plans of Swiss architect Charles Labelye, it was still built between 1739 and 1750.
If we're already at Westminster Bridge and have crossed it, let's not miss out on Queens Walk. The route runs along the south bank of the Thames from Westminster Bridge to St. Paul's Cathedral. The hop-on hop-off buses run along the other side of the Thames, and in fact, the pedestrian angle is complemented by the bus route perspective.
The County House's tourist significance has now been overshadowed by the London Eye, which opened in 2000.
The London Eye, or Millennium Wheel, is Europe's tallest Ferris wheel and was one of the attractions of the celebrations organised to say farewell to the 20th century. It was built as a true European project - temporarily - because its components were sourced from various European countries. The temporary status has become permanent, and the wheel, which offers a 360° panorama and a half-hour trip, has become one of London's symbols. The ticket here is also pricey (standard 30 GBP/person), but there are combined tickets and options to avoid longer waits.
The concrete building of the National Theatre dominates this section of the Thames. Laurence Olivier founded the company in the 60s and it is still one of the most important centres of the performing arts and cultural life of London. The building boasts unusual title: it is voted the ugliest building in the city every year. :-)
Next to it, another "cultural" center has developed, a meeting place for skateboarders.
The OXO Tower was built as a power station for the Royal Mail, and then in the 19th century, it was purchased by the company known for OXO beef cubes to be used as a cold storage facility. The company was not allowed to advertise, so the three windows of the tower were arranged to spell out the company's name. Next to it, Gabriel's Wharf has also remained in its original state, and design shops have moved into its walls.
There are several bridges over the Thames, but the interesting thing about Blackfriars is that during the construction of the new bridge, the old piers were retained, and the new bridge was built on piers placed at the same span as the old ones, next to the old bridge.
Although it is not part of the Queen's Walk, it is definitely worth crossing one of the nearby pedestrian bridges, such as the Hungerford Bridge, which was renovated for the II. It was renovated for the Jubilee Year of Elizabeth and opened to pedestrians in 2002 as the Golden Jubilee Bridges, or the London Millennium Footbridge.
The next famous stop on the Queen's Walk is the Tate Modern Gallery and the . The Tate houses international modern and contemporary art. A huge, abandoned power station has been transformed into one of the world's most visited art galleries. In the few days we had, we didn't plan any museum visits, just the Tate Gallery. If I have any regrets, it's only because we didn't manage to see this.
The old Globe theatre was home to a company of actors, including Shakespeare. The current building on the banks of the Thames is as close as possible to the original: the walls are made of oak planks and beams covered with lime plaster, and the roof is made of reeds.
We boarded the Hop-on, Hop-off bus and continued through the city, with our second stop near Buckingham Palace. Before exploring the palace area, we had lunch at the Royal Quarter Café. We originally only planned to have coffee, but the menu's offerings convinced us - and we were not disappointed.
The Palace is the administrative center of the Kingdom. A metropolitan house was the starting point for the current building, which was constructed for the Duke of Buckingham and purchased by George III. The building has undergone countless transformations and has become a symbol of the monarchy today.
Of course, one of the tourist attractions is the changing of the guard ceremony. It's not every day and every hour. We missed out on this, although we were part of a changing of the guard. By the way, we were lucky because even though there were many people, the crowd wasn't bothersome.
Next to Buckingham Palace, St. James's Park spans 23 hectares, which, in addition to its natural values, is home to numerous statues. The Queen Victoria Memorial is located in front of the palace and commemorates the queen's death. It is 25 meters high, made of white Carrara marble, and decorated with numerous statues alongside the queen. It forms a unity with the Canada, Australia, and Africa gates located around it.
The Memorial Gates were unveiled in 2002 during the golden jubilee celebrations. It commemorates the 5 million Africans, Caribbeans, and those from the Indian subcontinent who volunteered and fought alongside the British in World War I and II. During the World War.
The Wellington Arch commemorates the Duke of Wellington, who achieved a historic victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. For a short time, the prince's equestrian statue stood atop the arch, but it was deemed so ugly that it was replaced with the current horse-drawn carriage.
The Constitution arch leads into Hyde Park, London's famous public park. The first unified layout plan was created by Charles Bridgeman for Queen Caroline. He also created the park's famous water feature, the Serpentine. The park hosted the first world exhibition and numerous famous music concerts. Today, it is a popular venue for recreational activities.
At the park, we boarded the bus again and went to the Tower Bridge. On the way, we saw Trafalgar Square with the National Gallery, the Ritz Hotel, Piccadilly Circus, and Soho.
Tower Bridge: The London city council faced a huge challenge in finding a solution to building a bridge over the river that would not interfere with river traffic. Several designs were submitted to the competition and it took eight years for the bridge to be built from the drawings. Of course, the main attraction is the mechanics - in action - and the glass bridge connecting the towers. In the evening, we returned and admired the lights of London from the bridge.
From both the bridge and the ship, we can see the Tower, the HMS Belfast warship, and London's ultra-modern financial center, the City, from a good spot.
Although we were quite tired, we still went to Soho and Chinatown. First, we wandered around Chinatown, nostalgically smelling the familiar scents of the cooking food, and in the shops, we joyfully discovered our favourite Chinese treats.
The essence of Soho is the nightlife of London. The Chinese red lanterns have been replaced by "Happy Ramadan" neon lights, and on the street, cultures, languages, styles, and ages have mixed in a Babel-like chaos. I think this was probably one of the best things we saw in London! We loved every minute of it.
We planned our next day to be relaxed because we were going to a concert in the evening. In the morning, we took the subway to the foot of London Bridge. The bridge is not a beauty, but its past has some interesting twists. The mediaeval previous structure was under construction for almost 30 years, and some parts collapsed several times during the building process. Its unusual feature was that shops were built on it, and there was also a toilet operating on it. The southern gate became famous for having the heads of traitors sentenced to death displayed on it. The 19th-century bridge handled huge traffic and was in a state of increasing disrepair. The city came up with the strange idea of selling the structure at auction instead of demolishing it. The buyer was Robert P. McCulloch was an American oil magnate. The bridge was dismantled into numbered pieces and shipped through the Panama Canal to California, where it was rebuilt in Lake Havasu City.
Near the bridge, the bustling center of London with a 1000-year history, Borough Market - the London equivalent of Budapest's Vásárcsarnok - is nestled within the old railway buildings. It first prospered in the 1800s thanks to the railway, and by the 1950s it had become London's leading fruit and vegetable market. The emergence of supermarkets cast doubt on its legitimacy, but the Food Lover's Fair exhibition restored its former glory. If you love the atmosphere of a market, if you love street food, then this is the place for you. Beautiful goods, delicious food; flavours, people - a like a bustling anthill. There were fresh oysters, seafood paella, fresh strawberries with thick layer of Nutella, and doughnuts. After Soho and Chinatown, this is my next favourite in London.
After visiting the market, we went to another special place in London, the Notting Hill district. It is located in the western part of London, and in the 60s and 70s, the less wealthy people moved here. The Portobello Carnival gave the area its hippie, multi- and subcultural roots. The drastic change was brought about by the films Notting Hill and Love Actually. The neighbourhood became trendy and is now home to the wealthier. Millions of tourists visit the houses and locations featured in the film every year, sometimes making life impossible for the residents. The hippie vibe has almost only remained around the Portobello market - but even so, Notting Hill has a unique atmosphere.
The Portobello Road Market is considered one of the largest antique fairs, and although there are undoubtedly antique dealers and shops offering true treasures, the market is now more about tourism. It takes an expert eye to pick out the value among the many useless items.
Notting Hill became special to us because of the bookshops. We definitely wouldn't go into any of them if we didn't get a request from home to buy some special books. So we were looking for bookshops, and only later realised that one of these was the famous one that appeared in the movie, where the two salesgirls were particularly unpleasant. We ended up in an old-fashioned bookshop with a delightful and helpful salesperson.
We finished our shopping day relatively early because we had an appearance at the Royal Albert Hall at 6 PM for the Ministry of Sound Classical concert.
The history of the building begins in 1851 with the Great Exhibition, which was patronised by Prince Albert. The event was so successful that Albert proposed the creation of a public utility complex, which was named Albertopolis. The concert hall was completed in 1871, its shape reflecting the atmosphere of amphitheatres. The dome was made of wrought iron, and during the on-site assembly, only volunteers were allowed to remain in the building in case there was an error in the calculations and the structure collapsed. The room's acoustic problems soon became apparent. It was said that the Hall was the only place where a composer could be sure of hearing their work twice. The floor plan is elliptical and adorned with a terracotta mosaic frieze illustrating the triumph of the arts and sciences.
On the upper floor, we danced through the entire concert from a private box. In the joy of obtaining the ticket, we didn't even check where we would be sitting. In addition to the box, there was an extra surprise that the ordered food and drinks were brought "to the spot."
The concert was frenetic, and the 1.5 hours flew by quickly. The most special experience was the Faithless song "Insomnia", enhanced with organ playing.
Opposite the RAH, in Kensington Gardens, there is a monumental memorial, the Albert Memorial. Don't miss it from your list, because on the one hand, it has the best view of the Albert Memorial Hall building, and on the other hand, the monument is fantastically detailed. The memorial was commissioned by Queen Victoria in memory of her husband, with numerous references to Albert's life and work: at the top, the cross symbolises Christianity; at the top, four figures represent moral values, and four represent Christian values; the roof-shaped peak symbolises the four arts; above the four arches, four quotes related to Albert can be read; at the columns supporting the arches, statues representing the sciences are placed; in the center, there is a statue of Albert; at the four corners of the pedestal, statues of applied arts are displayed, and at the four points of the staircase, statues of the continents that contributed to the World Exhibition organised by Albert are shown.
We were slowly approaching the end of our journey, with only half a day left, as we were flying back to Budapest in the afternoon. There was a strong desire to spend these few hours at the Tate Gallery. But common sense ruled, and we took the bus to the nearby Camden Market. At the market - unlike Borough Market - we mainly find shops selling crafts and clothing.
The development of the area began by the Earl of Camden in 1790, but it took nearly 100 years for the region to become a thriving center. For this, the construction of the Regent's Canal was necessary, which connected the district to the trade route. More and more warehouses and factories were built here until the cost of water transport became so high that the tenants moved out. The area fell into decay until three men saw potential in the empty warehouses in the 1970s: they bought them and laid the foundations for the market as we know it today. The project became so successful that Camden's fame spread worldwide, attracting millions of tourists each year.
The quality of the offered goods is variable; this is not where luxury brands are represented. It is, however, a certain fact that the designers and creatives did not spare any time in designing the stores. Some stores received absolutely fantastic "signs":
Of course, the zebra is not just black and white:
The steel structure of the halls is impressive in itself, but creativity also appears here:
The small restaurants and stalls couldn't be left out of the ideas either:
At the market, we focused on the vinyl record stands. Those who are experts and have been collecting records for a long time can spend days here. Out on the floor Records store is Camden's oldest record store. Of course, we stopped by as well.
The statue of Amy Winehouse, who passed away in her neighboring home, was installed in the market.
Camden was the last stop on our London trip. Our first impression hasn't changed: we loved London!
Why? Because it is a vibrant fusion of cultures, where everyone can find content that matches their own interests and tastes.
Addressing some stereotypes about London:
It always rains in London. Well, not. It only drizzled for a short time once during the three days. Although it was cool and windy, the sun did shine in some places. But it's also true that summer might only last a week, and there's a better chance of rain than sunshine.
Food: English cuisine is bad. Well, English breakfasts are particularly delicious. I can't comment on the rest because there isn't a country on Earth where there isn't a small restaurant or café in the city that you wouldn't want to try. So apart from breakfast, we didn't eat traditional English food. So, true culinary delights await you if you visit London.
London is expensive: slowly every country is becoming expensive, but it is true, that the entrance fees significantly increase the travel budget.
Transportation: The bus ticket was 1 GBP, we didn't pay more than that. True, we lived relatively close to the center. The subway is more, but it didn't reach 2 GBP. The trip from the hotel to Luton Airport cost £28 for the two of us. We didn't buy an Oyster card, Revolut/bank cards work perfectly. What is not very practical: You can only pay once with one bank card, so everyone had to use different cards to make purchases. Public transportation is good. If we got stuck, Google Maps was our friend, and with its help, we looked at the possible options and stops. The subway is understandable if you grasp its logic. In a larger junction, help is needed to figure out which way to go and which line the arriving train is on.
Uber: we used it - several times - because of the boys' leg injuries. It's not cheap, but not much more expensive than at home. I loved it because every day we were enriched with an interesting, and often shocking story. There was Béla, who is Hungarian. He Ubered in London for 3 months, then went home and came back the next year. It seems that it's worth it for him. We had a Sri Lankan driver who was from the north. We told him about our trip to Sri Lanka. We only went to the south, because due to the previous war, tourists were not really taken to the north. It was interesting to hear that he fled the country around the age of 18 and during that time he never went south because there was no guarantee that he would survive or avoid prison. We were also driven by an Eritrean driver who fled at the age of 16 to avoid being conscripted (which is compulsory there). He walked for three days through the desert in Sudan, starving and thirsty, and lost all his nails. He paid the people smuggler, who called the police on the boat to Italy, then asked for the smuggling fee again, and the second time he got them through the checks. And we had a third-generation Pakistani guide whose grandparents came to London. He was the only one who spoke without an accent. He drove for Uber, and his main job was in real estate financing. We analyzed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with him.
From just these few rides, one noticed the pains, cultural differences, and shared destinies that hold together and shape the everyday life of London.
April, 2024
