Visiting London

The capital of England and the United Kingdom London has many interesting and even unique sites, but I will start with bridges. There are 24 bridges across the River Thames in London.

The oldest is London Bridge, which was made from wood initially, but afterwards rebuilt in 1209, 1831 and 1973. Probably, the most famous is Tower Bridge, which was built in 1894 and is known around the world.

One of the most interesting bridges, in my opinion, is the Millennium Bridge which is a pedestrian bridge, connecting St. Paul Cathedral and the Tate Modern Art Gallery.

A very beautiful scene appears if you look at the bridge from the art gallery to St. Paul Cathedral. However, you can cross the river using any of the other bridges (except a few railway bridges) and every time panoramic view will be different and equally interesting.

Parks and gardens

Despite being a large city, London is very green. There are lots of small gardens and large parks even in the city centre. The largest parks in the central area are The Regent’s Park (166 hectares), Hyde Park (142 hectares) and Kensington Gardens (111 hectares).

Those are also called Royal Parks because initially they were created for the recreation of the royal family. Many people are using parks for running and walking every day.

Birthday of the Queen

If you decide to visit London, every year there is a big public celebration of Queen’s or King’s Birthday. A crowd of people watch the parade. It is called Trooping the Colour – a tradition coming from the 17th century. It is held annually in London on the second Saturday of June.

After a parade of the British Army, the Queen travels down from The Mall to Buckingham Palace in a Royal Procession. It is very interesting to watch Mounted Troops and Horse Guards. At the end of the event, Royal Air Forces fly over the palace.

Pubs and events in London

In my opinion, English pubs are something special. You can enjoy excellent beer having lunch or without it. You can get a very special traditional dish on Sundays – Sunday Roast. But the most amazing picture you may see on Friday evenings. Before coming home from work, lots of people after working week are gathering, making crowds outside centrally located pubs.

This is like a forecast that the weekend is coming and people start celebrating the end of the hard-working week. And this celebration often ends only when pubs are closing around midnight. Every weekend, during summertime, there are events and various celebrations all around the city. One of the most popular and populated events is Notting Hill Carnival. This event is held each August Bank Holiday since 1966 and is the largest festival celebration of its kind in Europe.

There are lots of costumes, lots of noise from sound systems all around and much more public watching these activities. Altogether, around one million people are participating in this carnival. One of the most interesting attractions during this event is the steel band competition.

London sightseeing

Visiting London offers a huge amount of different attractions. For example, the River Thames is a very busy public transport route. If you wish to have a river trip, it’s worth choosing Greenwich as a destination and using the very comfortable services of Thames Clippers (they are now called Uber Boat). These high-speed catamarans are fast and services are frequent, have many stops and you can watch from the river many sites during the trip. Greenwich is one of the last stops of the Thames Clippers.

After visiting the Royal Observatory and surrounding area in Greenwich, you can return to the city centre using DLR – Docklands Light Railway. This is one more thing to be experienced – DLR is one of the first light rail systems in Britain and has one of the world’s most advanced automatic train control systems.

All DLR trains from Greenwich arrive at Bank Underground Station. These are just a few tips on how you can spend your time in London for an extended weekend. In reality, even 10 years of living in London might be not enough to get familiar with everything that offers this city.

English cities

The United Kingdom is a country, which you can visit many times and every time you will discover something new. The same applies if you are in London. Just to mention that London contains 4 (!) UNESCO World Heritage Sites – the Tower of London, Kew Gardens, a complex consisting of the Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey, St. Margaret’s Church, and Greenwich.

On this page there are just two very short episodes from many visits outside London, although we have visited many many more – check this blog for other places.

Oxford

Oxford is one of the most beautiful cities in the UK. The city is widely known for its medieval Oxford University. Buildings in Oxford demonstrate an example of every English architectural period since the arrival of Saxons, but especially impressive are the buildings of the University of Oxford.

There are roughly 100 major academic departments, which are overseen by the four academic divisions: Medical Sciences; Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences; Humanities and Social Sciences. There are 38 Oxford colleges, which are financially independent and self-governing but relate to the central University in a kind of federal system.

The best way to get from London to Oxford is by Oxford Tube bus company, it takes less than 2 hours from central London. A bit more expensive option is using a train. If you travel by train to Oxford, you have to leave from Paddington station by Great Western Railway or from Marylebone station to board Chiltern Railways.

Brighton

Brighton is a very popular seaside resort town located about 90 kilometres (50 miles) from London. Brighton is a festival town with many attractive events during the summer season.

Brighton has a 5.4-mile-long shingle beach all owned by the city council. Each year during May, the city hosts the Brighton Festival and Brighton Fringe, which is the second largest arts festival in the UK after Edinburgh (Scotland).

To visit Brighton from London, there are very many frequent train services (Southern and Thameslink) and it would take about one hour to get there.

To the south-west from London there is another, perhaps, even more popular resort town Bournemouth. The best way to travel from London to Brighton and also to Bournemouth, might be by train, however ticket prices during the holiday season may get very high. For example, a return ticket to Bournemouth may cost more than one hundred pounds.