伦敦行

My husband and I went to London and Paris last week. My husband has been to London for business trips many times already, but this was my first time there.

I heard that the people in London are arrogant, but it seems to me that all of people we encountered were very friendly. When we got to the airport, it was 10PM already, but luckily we didn’t have to wait any time for the train. After getting off the train we took a taxi to the hotel. Our hotel was in Lancaster Gate, Hyde Park, so the taxi fee was only five pounds, and I gave him 2 pounds for tips. He said “thank you” to us many times.

The Kensington Palace which princess Diane used to live is very close to our hotel, so the first day, we visited the palace. That night, I met my niece and her Fiancée who I haven’t seen for over a year. They live in Guangzhou, but come to Europe quite often. What a lucky couple. They happened to travel to England last week. That night my niece took us to a Chinese restaurant close to our hotel. The restaurant offered authentic Cantonese food that was even better than the food we got in our local Chinese restaurant in the D.C. area. We were very content for our meal that night.

The second day, we went to St. Paul church, London museum and the London Tower. The London tower was my favorite place in London. It is the oldest existing castle in Europe. Once, it was the palace for the king of England. There were many stories that happened in this ancient castle. I regretted spending too much time in the London museum because we were left with less than two hours to see the London tower.

The third day, we went to see the changing guard in Buckingham palace, I guess that is the common place of all tourists. There were too many people there, and the people who stood close to the gate stood on top of the concrete blocking most of the view. We stood there for about 20 minutes and then left. We went to the see to see the old church, Big Ben, and the Parliament house… etc.

We were supposed to meet my niece and her fiancée at 1PM to eat lunch in Chinatown. I thought the China Town was close to Oxford street, so I told my husband to get off the tube (subway) in Oxford street. After walking up from the tube station, we couldn’t find the Chinatown. We saw a young Asian gentleman pass by so I walked close to him, smiled, and tried to ask him the direction to Chinatown. I don’t know why it seemed he got offended, and walked away from me quickly. I felt a bit embarrassed. I asked the second Asian gentleman, he was very friendly, and gave us detailed directions. But we still got lost and had to ask several more people for directions. When we finally got to Chinatown, we were half an hour late. My niece and her fiancée still waited for us patiently. They already ordered the lunch for us. We were very sorry for that.

After lunch, my niece took me to see the most famous department store “HARRODS”. The clothes in the store were too expensive for me. I only bought a box cookies for my mother-in-law, and a couple chocolate bars for ourselves.

After dinner I took my niece to the local pub which was close to our hotel to have a girl/woman talk. While my husband rested in the hotel and her Fiancée went to visit his classmate who lives in London.

The fourth day, we took the train to Paris.

I enjoyed our London trip more than my husband since English is the only second language that I know, so I didn’t feel differently from traveling in the U.S.

The garden of Kensington Palace