Our second day was dedicated solely to sightseeing around London and we had my mother's friend and her two adorable daughters to accompany us on this lovely day. Our first stop was to Covent Garden and I've heard so many good things about this place so I was really excited to be here.
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as "Covent Garden". The district is divided by the main thoroughfare of Long Acre, north of which is given over to independent shops centred on Neal's Yard and Seven Dials, while the south contains the central square with its street performers and most of the elegant buildings, theatres and entertainment facilities, including the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and the London Transport Museum. (Credit: x)
In Covent Garden, you can find loads of little push carts selling handmade items. You can find anything from photo frames, clocks, to blankets and cute pieces of soaps. I would say this is probably perfect if you want to buy gifts for friends and loved ones that are unique and can't be easily found any where else. We had a great time poking our heads into each and every push cart and having a little nosey around to see what amazing handcrafted items they had to offer.
Would you take a peek at the amazingly made pieces of soaps? I thought they were little cupcakes but no, they are actually pieces of soaps that were made to look like cupcakes of bouquets of flowers. Each and every one of them is so precious, I sure wouldn't bear to use one of these if I had one.
Meet Arianne, the cutest little 7 year old I've ever met. I'm not the best with kids simply because I find them scary, I don't know how to act or what to say around them but I managed to get along amazingly well with this little ducky. You'll probably see a lot of her in my vlogs because she clings on to me like a little monkey and I can safely say that it's been lovely hanging with her because she made me fear kids just a bit lesser right now.
Since it was still early, we decided to wander to Trafalgar Square. It wasn't very far away and the weather was lovely and sunny so it made walking around very pleasant.
There may be a lot of photos here that are seemingly random but I just really wanted to remember every single detail I saw of London so I was pretty trigger happy with my camera.
Trafalgar Square is a public square in the City of Westminster, Central London, built around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. Its name commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar, a British naval victory in the Napoleonic Wars with France and Spain that took place on 21 October 1805 off the coast of Cape Trafalgar, Spain.
The site of Trafalgar Square had been a significant landmark since the 13th century and originally contained the King's Mews. After George IV moved the mews to Buckingham Palace, the area was redeveloped by John Nash but progress was slow after his death and the square did not open until 1844. Nelson's Column at its centre is guarded by four lion statues. A number of commemorative statues and sculptures occupy the square but the Fourth Plinth, left empty since 1840, has been host to contemporary art since 1999.
The square has been used for community gatherings and political demonstrations including Bloody Sunday, the first Aldermaston March, anti-war protests and campaigns against climate change. A Christmas tree has been donated to the square by Norway since 1947 and is erected for twelve days before and after Christmas Day. The square is a centre of annual celebrations on New Year's Eve. It was well known for its feral pigeons until their removal in the early-21st century. (Credit: x)
We then proceeded to head to Chinatown to have dimsum for lunch at the Royal Dragon. Uncle Fei came over to join us as well and we had a really good lunch. I don't typically eat dimsum because most of the dishes have seafood in them and I don't eat seafood but the few dishes I could eat were pretty good.
Because all the ordering was done in Cantonese and I don't understand Cantonese at all, I didn't manage to catch any of the names of the dishes so unfortunately, this post will have to do without any food names or prices. Sorry!
The next stop of the day was St Paul's Cathedral which is probably top on my list of things to do in London. I am hugely fascinated with churches and cathedrals and the amount of detail that the architects and builders put in to build this amazing piece of architecture. What makes it all the more fascinating is that they did it without modern machinery and technology.
We decided to stop by Marks & Spencer for tea (or coffee really) and the girls grabbed a few sweet treats to go along with their hot chocolate. Everything looked amazing and were priced so reasonably that it was a real pickle trying to choose something to have but in the end, I decided to skip the sweets and just go for a regular ole' latte because I didn't want to put on a crazy amount of weight whilst I was on holiday.
Due to the 7 hour time difference, it is pretty tricky trying to find a proper time to FaceTime SH because I have to make sure he's home with wifi and that it isn't too late for him. This leaves me pretty much with FaceTiming him whilst I'm outside, in the middle of the day. The girls had a lot of fun talking to him and it warms my heart to see him getting along so well with them. I'm pretty sure when we do decide to have kids, he is going to be an amazing father to our little ones.
I was knackered by the end because whilst it's definitely a whole lot of fun playing around with the little ones, it is very exhausting having to keep an eye on Arianne to make sure that nothing happens to her, and attempt to soak in the surroundings as well. I was proper happy to go back and tuck myself into bed. Till the next one!
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