Back in 2014, when I was living in Newcastle, London was a place to visit monthly; I’ve never get enough of this charming Big Smoke. When I return in winter 2017, I have a chance to hop on the Thames River Sightseeing Cruise to see London from a different perspective.
River Thames is the iconic waterway that represent this historical city. I have never did the water tour before, and the only sight of River Thames that I always view is when crossing the beautiful Millennium Bridge or at the Westminster Bridge. If you are a first timer to London, I highly recommend you to take the River Thames Sightseeing Cruise which takes about an hour, with live tour commentary and you may hop off at various point.
But for us, we got up from Westminster and enjoyed the breeze and view all along until Greenwich. The cruise is operated by City Cruise. My brother got the combo of Hop-On Hop-Off Bus & Cruise ticket but I went for the cruise tour only as I am pretty familiar with London’s sight. (Tips: For cheaper way of sightseeing London by bus, just get on the Routemaster No 15 and pay with Oyster Card, it circles all the heritage sight and you can read the tour guide via phone)
Father & son.
Price per adult is £17.90 (Oct – May) & £18.25 (June – Sep) for return ticket. We took the return, unfortunately we spent too many time at this relaxing Greenwich and we missed our boat. It wasn’t hard to get back to the city, we took River Bus – a public transport by TFL to Tower Bridge pier and got back to our foot journey.
Palace of Westminster Clock Tower was in scaffolding, unfortunately.Heading towards London Bridge with the Shard in the background.On upper deck, with beautiful Tower Bridge as backdrop.Clarice & Tower Bridge.When the chilly wind blows…Mom and dad could not bare the cold. Still remember it was about 9degree celcius that day.Good burger at Byron’s, Greenwich. Because of this meal, we missed our return boat.Nevermind, we still can take the River Bus.
Prelude: Major throwback of my travel story as I have plenty time to write about during this COVID-19 lockdown in Malaysia. Let’s randomly starts with my Short London Trip in Winter 2017. It was a quick 3-days-2-night trip in London before beginning my main Northern Italy tour. After visiting London many times in 2014 (when I was studying in UK), it had become my starting point of any European travel.
Did many travelling in 2014 and heard many stories about pickpocketing around European countries but never really encountered any of these pickpocketing event. In the UK, I felt much safer than other countries but this trip changes my thought totally. Yes, my brother got pickpocketed in this crowded and famous Portobello Road Market at Notting Hill.
Having living in the UK before for a year back in 2014, I’ve never put any vigilant note when I was going around this country actually. Wallet was on the back pocket, phone was in the jacket pocket some times. Thus, we were put-easy while looking at stuff along this congested street.
He was looking at beautiful vintage camera, and was about to reach his hand to grab the phone out to snap a photo; “Holy shit, where is my phone?”. Hand was quickly searching around all his pockets, in and out and into his camera sling bag. Nowhere it could be found. Me & him started to feel frustrated and I too, check my belongings to make sure it’s there.
A new iPhone X was taken away, without any notice and probably during his full attention on browsing the vintage camera. Nothing much could be done except to dash to the nearest police station right away and also to stop all Apple Wallet-connected services. Moment of disappointment expresses on the face, and heck, it was the 2nd day we arrived in London.
At the police station, another French tourist encountered a similar crime and they’ve got a CCTV footage from a store showing the entire process. “Nothing that we could do”, said the policewoman and asked us to make the police report online. It’s a very common crime at this market which we were not aware of.
Well, lesson learned and brother managed to recover the phone amount via insurance claim. Feeling sad? Better not as it’d ruin the rest of the trip. Just be vigilant, really and buy a travel insurance, really, don’t play with luck!
Nevertheless, London is still beautiful and PICKPOCKET is a real thing in Europe! I heard (stereotype thinking) most of the time is the Gypsies. Yeah, I heard.
(Spring, 2014) – Thinking back, the night was pretty stupid yet crazy where we wanted to save a night of accommodation by taking the night bus from Amsterdam to Ghent. Didn’t think that the journey took only 4 hours and we arrived in Ghent very early at 2am. The 4hours of nap in bus was totally not enough after a full long day of exploration in Amsterdam. It was a motel’s carpark that we alighted and there’s no sight of public transport or cab at that hour. The motel’s reception was closed too and not a proper place for us to sit.
2am. Heading to Old Town.
No maps, no internet access. But still had a fraction of Google Map loaded earlier in Amsterdam and we were an hour far (by walking) from the old town where we would be staying on the following night.
Assuming that check-in time is about 1.00pm, we had like about 10 hours of not-knowing-what-to-do. ‘Should we just walk to the the old town?’ or ‘Should we wait till the sunrise for the public transport to take us there?’ It’s like 5degree celcius in this spring midnight weather. No where we could see a corridor or corner that we could sleep like a homeless and it’s cold.
After 30 minutes of hesitation, ‘fuck, let’s just do the walk and look for any corner that we could just rest ourselves’. We past by a street of pubs that was very happenings, but a 24h fast food restaurant selling fried chicken caught our attention. Ordered a set and share among 5 of us, we tried to spent as long as we could in the restaurant, and each of us tried to close our eyes on a rotating manner, but later we were shoo off still. We were 45 minutes away from the old town, and we found a real subtle corner that we thought we could spend our night there till morning. Bags down, and we’ve tried to nap through the dirty floor and cold night. I couldn’t do it, it’s too cold, but a friend snore right away on the floor and 4 of us were just wide awake. ‘We are so homeless right now’.
5.30am it was and we only rested for like 30 minutes in this homeless corner of ours. The sound of bird chirping could be heard and drunk party goers started to make their way back. It just doesn’t felt safe and very tired, we were.
St. Nicholas’ Church (Sint-Niklaaskerk)
Dawn arrived and we were at the fringe of old town. Nothing to see at this wee hours and we didn’t even feel excited arriving at the old town because check-in time was still far away and the backpacks were heavily tiring us.
Not far into the old town, the hotel was just in front of us! Dashed into the hotel and the warm atmosphere and sofa greeted us. ‘Well, having able to sit on the sofa is better that by the road side right?’ Thinking that European hotel is stricter than Asian’s hotel, I went upfront to reception just to check what was the earliest time we could check-in, ‘Oh, you could check in as early as you want, right now.’ Shocked to hear about that which we probably think that the hotel was pretty empty.
Because it’s a room for 2 and we had 5 in the company, 3 of us spent a bit time wandering around at the lobby before sneaking up to the hotel room.
6.45am, we were in the hotel, getting ready to have a good sleep till noon before beginning our tour of Ghent, Belgium. What a journey and we got ourselves an extra free night!
The hotel (Ibis Ghent Centrum) was just too spacious for 5 of us, 1 big king-size bed and 1 sofa bed. Perfect!
17-Days Eastern Europe Trip Itinerary Recap – Finally my blog posts about my Winter Trip in 2013 has finally comes to an end, here’s a recap of everything I’ve posted for your reference if you are planning for a trip to Eastern Europe. Don’t forget to include Cesky Krumlov if you are going to Prague and perhaps add another day to Lake Bled which is quite near to Vienna. You can also add in another couple days for Hallstatt too! Cheers!
18 Hours Ride From Prague To London By Bus and Sunrise At French Border – My Eastern Europe Winter Trip blog post series is coming to an end right now with this last post that shows me travelling back to London from Prague in a superlong 18-hours bus ride! It would take just about 2 hours to fly from Prague to London, but we opted for the long way because flying back 3 days before New Year costs like £100 and the bus we took was like about £55 and it’s the cheapest way!
It’s surely a long ride and we didn’t know how we could survive it but yeah, we managed to reach London, happily with a little smile on the face and tiredness. The long-distance bus started from Prague, calling at a few stops – Plzen, Nurnberg, Heidelbern, Dover and finally London! We packed a fried rice for each of us from a nearby Chinese restaurant for dinner and armed our tablet with movies and music to pass the time. Surprisingly, most of my time was spent sleeping!
The only part that was not so happy was waiting at the French border for like 2 hours, it’s like a massive traffic jam at the immigration but the unhappy moment was counter by a good welcome of sunrise! Immigration was quick at the French side but the immigration officer questioned me a lot at the English side and tried to use a magnifying glass to look close at my English Student VISA as if it’s fake. WTF, but never mind, I knew about this early already.
Astonished that the bus went into a train and then the trained travelled in the sea through the English Channel in Channel Tunnel. I thought it was gonna be the ferry that took us across, but luckily it was the train as it’s faster, else have to spend another 2 hours on the bus. Reached London at 11am and yeah, we survived the long bus ride.
At Prague’s bus station – Praha Florenc.
Long long queue at the French side.
Bus into train, through Channel Tunnel, into England! Amazed!
Eastern Europe Trip // Prague: Prague Castle – Last day in Prague and the Prague Castle was truly the highlight of our visit to the city. Rest atop a hill overlooking the beautiful Vltava River and the old centre of Prague, it is extremely difficult to miss the beauty and impressiveness of this symbol of Czech Republic.
No exact date of when it was founded but many ‘think’ that it was founded sometime in 880. Since then, it has suffered a long history of changing regimes and a few wars. The castle had served as home for the Bohemian kings, Roman emperiors, Nazi leaders and communist government officials! Nowadays, it functions as the residence and office for the President of Czech Republic and continues as a popular attraction for visitors like us!
Without using any public transport, we took our slow time up to the castle, and I can assure you that it looks far, but it’s really easy and fast to get on top.
Eastern Europe Trip // Prague: Grand Cafe Orient, A Cool Cubist Cafe – Ola! I’ve just came back from my Spain & Porgual summer trip and it was a fun and hot one! Back to Newcastle right now and I’ve plenty of free time to share with you about my travel experience. Continue on what I’ve left previously where I was in Prague during my Eastern Europe Trip, here I want to bring you a cool cubist cafe in Prague – the Grand Cafe Orient.
If you are wondering what is cubist, cubisim is an early 20th-century avant-garde art movement by Georges Braque and the famous Pablo Picasso and the interior of this cafe is styled after the cubism.
During the trip, we were like addicted to cafe exploring after checking out the few in Budapest and Vienna. So we found this Grand Cafe Orient which is located in the House of the Black Madonna in the city. Amazed by the interior and atmosphere, but the beverage did not catch my attention. Well, Prague is a small city and we took the exploration slow and easy. Thus, an hour of short break in the cafe, enjoying cubism interior was relaxing!
Eastern Europe Trip // Prague: Walk In The Old Town, Jewish Quarter & Charles Bridge – Prague stands out as one of the few cities in Europe that emerged from World War 2 with its medieval old town still intact entirely. As you wander its cobblestoned streets of the old town, sometimes it can feels like you’ve been travelled back in time.
Prague is a little city, but equipped with a good network of public transport like tram and subway. Though, my favourite and cheapest way of transporting around is by walking and basically, the main attractions in the city are walkable. We joined a free walking tour which brought us through the Old Town, to the Jewish Quarter which the tour would be ended at the super famous and beautiful Charles Bridge.
The photo series below will brings you into the tour of Prague. Prague is small; although it’s the capital of Czech Republic, you could not notice any skyscraper in the city, 90% of the buildings have a long history behind them. Strolling along the street in the city will give you a relaxing sensation. It’s just so chill, calm and touristy! Basically, I find that Prague is like a living museum, with their unique culture, somewhat interesting, but not to the extend of awesome! Nevertheless, there’s a few thing that were quite magnificent and attractive to me – Charles Bridge, Prague Castle and the Prague Astronomical Clock.
Cut the crap and enjoy the photos of Prague below. Other note, I thought of finishing my blog post series of my Winter Eastern Europe Trip in this week, but then I failed to achieve my target as I was too busy with work lately. Well, I shall continue it when I come back from my short summer gateaway this coming week, so stay tuned and I am definitely going to wrap up the whole thing soon! Cheers!
Cool and funny installation outside Mosaic House.
Wenceslas Square in the morning with the National Museum of Czech Republic in background.
I know how it works. Wahahaha.
The famous Prague Astronimical Clock.
The Jewish Cemetery, the tour guide told us that they bury the body on top of each other, so it’s quite deep down there!
Prague Castle at background.
On the super awesome Charles Bridge, but with lots of tourist!
Eastern Europe Trip // Prague: Christmas Market At Wenceslas Square – After checking into our hostel, we did not hesitate much and headed out to explore the city right away. Though it was a slow walk into the city centre as we found that Prague is not as huge as other capital, in fact it’s small and definitely walkable around the main attractions.
Before I start with the pictures, I have to say that I am now kinda regret not including Cesky Krumlov into my Prague trip as the beautiful historical town with an awesome palace lies just two hours from Prague. So the lesson is, do more research before heading for a trip as we just went through briefly on the travel guide about Prague when planning.
Back to the post, we didn’t really do much research on Prague as we were just relying on the free tours and the guide map. Since it’s dark out there in the afternoon, the only thing we could do and enjoy was to check out the Christmas Market at Wenceslas Square. There’s two Christmas Market, one at the Old Town Square and another at Wenceslas Square. However, we only went to one at night because we thought that Christmas Market all looks just the same, moreover we would be checking the other one out during the free walking tour, so….. HAHA.
The road to the city centre was slow and quiet; the bustle atmosphere and chattering can only be felt when nearing the New Town. Since Prague is so small and relaxing, the night was explored slowly with no rush. =)
Beautiful graffiti in Prague. I like how they spray it well and not spray it like a mess.
Welcome to the Christmas Market at Wenceslas Square, the same Christmas Market’s food like sausage, candy, mulled wine and more.
Bata! Many people in Malaysia is still not aware that Bata is actually a Czech Republic’s company! It’s my favourite brand for white school shoes during my school days! =)
First try on hot mulled wine @ 2.5Euro per cup. Taste weird, but quite nice to drink in a cold weather.
Looks like a parliament building or administrative building, but no, it’s the National Museum of Prague.
Eastern Europe Trip// Prague: Hey, Praha! – After writing for so long time, finally the Eastern Europe Trip post series is coming to an end. Prague was the last destination of my Eastern Europe trip during last Winter and it’s time to put a period to it! I’ve met some tourist in Budapest who told me that Prague is his favourite place amongst all of the Eastern European cities because of the city suffered the least bombing during World War 2 and still preserved most of the old buildings. Somehow, don’t know was it because that the trip was coming to an end and we were tired of travelling for that long, arriving at Prague didn’t really give me a powerful feeling. It’s just old, small, and dirtier than Vienna and Budapest. Still, the city that had given me the OHMMMMM feeling on first impression was still Budapest!
It took about 4 hours +- to travel to Prague from Vienna on a comfortable Student Agency bus. The weather wasn’t that great and night was falling at the time we reached. Fare dodging was not that possible in Prague and we bought ticket off the convenience store (you can’t pay by notes at the machine) and headed to our hostel – Mosaic House! 😛
