Awesome! London is immense!
Saturday, 21.07.2012
This day we got out of the very right side of the bed! – Well, except Tess. Soon after she got up she had to notice that her right foot was swollen, she couldn’t even tax it because it hurted that much. Poor Tess! That pain and yet she still wanted to prepare the breakfast, and so she did. Tess managed to make a delicious porridge with raisins. The more often you eat porridge, the better it gets.
Well, after we had our strenghtening we wished Tess “Get well soon!” and left to visit the London Eye. We had to collect our booked tickets there. As we left the tube at Westminster we had to search for the right line to queue up for our tickets. Of course we made some jokes about the matter that we surely were standing in the wrong line and would wait in vain for like forever. Whilst doing so we choose one queue and had to come to the realization this was really the wrong line (we should really stop cracking jokes about realistic things to happen – especially if it concerns us!). Luckily we weren’t waiting long so we quickly changed our queue. Also we did not need to stand there for so long – we really had thought it’d take ages for us to get our tickets – and after only a few minutes we were holding our own London Eye-tickets in our hands! Now we just had to get the line directly in front of the London Eye over and done with. Well, this also turned out easier and faster as we had thought in the first place. After 1,5 hours we eventually were in one of the 32 gondolas, each providing enough space for up to 25 passengers. Eventhough there was still enough place to enjoy the view.
London really is a beautiful city. And sooo huge!
At the highest point (135m) one had the most amazing view over the city.
This day we got out of the very right side of the bed! – Well, except Tess. Soon after she got up she had to notice that her right foot was swollen, she couldn’t even tax it because it hurted that much. Poor Tess! That pain and yet she still wanted to prepare the breakfast, and so she did. Tess managed to make a delicious porridge with raisins. The more often you eat porridge, the better it gets.
Well, after we had our strenghtening we wished Tess “Get well soon!” and left to visit the London Eye. We had to collect our booked tickets there. As we left the tube at Westminster we had to search for the right line to queue up for our tickets. Of course we made some jokes about the matter that we surely were standing in the wrong line and would wait in vain for like forever. Whilst doing so we choose one queue and had to come to the realization this was really the wrong line (we should really stop cracking jokes about realistic things to happen – especially if it concerns us!). Luckily we weren’t waiting long so we quickly changed our queue. Also we did not need to stand there for so long – we really had thought it’d take ages for us to get our tickets – and after only a few minutes we were holding our own London Eye-tickets in our hands! Now we just had to get the line directly in front of the London Eye over and done with. Well, this also turned out easier and faster as we had thought in the first place. After 1,5 hours we eventually were in one of the 32 gondolas, each providing enough space for up to 25 passengers. Eventhough there was still enough place to enjoy the view.
London really is a beautiful city. And sooo huge!
At the highest point (135m) one had the most amazing view over the city.
About 30 mins later the ride was over and we came down to the ground safe and sound. With the London Eye-ticket we still had a free 4D-cinema attendance left, which we – of course – did. But before we went to the show someone had to make a pic of us. I put on my deerstalker to look extraordinary cool which the photographer noticed. He asked us if we are Sherlock Holmes fans. ‘Sure thing we are – and how!’ He made a picture and we could enter the hall in which a lot of other people were crowded and already enjoyed the beginning of the short 4D-movie about Londons tourist attractions. Well, the movie itself wasn’t very catching and pretty short, too. Especially those 4D-effects did not reach us, standing in the very last rank. At least the little children in front of us had some epic fun and enjoyed the show to the fullest!
Our next aim we wanted to visit was the place of the homeless at Waterloo Bridge. This place appeared in the 3rd Sherlock episode The great game. But before we arrived there a young man asked us if we wanted to have some free icecream. Kadda impulsively said ‘YES’ and took the paper-napkin which he gave her – and walked on. I followed her and could only get a glance of the confused face the young man had as he gazed after us. I was little bit confused myself and asked Kadda why she did walk on. I turned out she didn’t really understand the question and had thought that he just wanted to offer her the paper-napkin – which she thankfully accepted. As I cleared the circumstances she looked a little bit sad, a free icecream would’ve been great.
Now we were at the place of the homeless and had to notice that this place actually was one. Admittetly we did not see any homeless (most likely it was too early for them to appear or it was just too bright outside) but a shitload of cigarette butts.
Our next aim we wanted to visit was the place of the homeless at Waterloo Bridge. This place appeared in the 3rd Sherlock episode The great game. But before we arrived there a young man asked us if we wanted to have some free icecream. Kadda impulsively said ‘YES’ and took the paper-napkin which he gave her – and walked on. I followed her and could only get a glance of the confused face the young man had as he gazed after us. I was little bit confused myself and asked Kadda why she did walk on. I turned out she didn’t really understand the question and had thought that he just wanted to offer her the paper-napkin – which she thankfully accepted. As I cleared the circumstances she looked a little bit sad, a free icecream would’ve been great.
Now we were at the place of the homeless and had to notice that this place actually was one. Admittetly we did not see any homeless (most likely it was too early for them to appear or it was just too bright outside) but a shitload of cigarette butts.
We walked on along the Themse and discovered a huge book market. We looked around a bit and found the skatepark mentioned in episode 2 The Blind Banker. Some skaters trained there, but Kadda didn’t realize that, so she wanted to go into that skating area and explore it. I was able to prevent her from that. Together we watched the boys a little longer to check what they could do on their skateboards and then left.
We decided to place ourselfes to the little wall next to the Themse, enjoyed the nice weather and hoped for – maybe – some human bones to wash up here. Back in the days around 1800 many corpses were thrown into the Themse because people didn’t want to pay the dead-taxes. But nothing washed up, except a lot of trash (it’s terrible that mankind is able to soil nature that much!) A little bit further on the way we sat down on a small and comfy wall and ate our bananas. We disposed the peels in a bin, which was a quite hard task for us since so many bins had been removed due to the Olympic Games that year!
Actually we just wanted to see the place where the dead museum attendant was found in episode 3 The great game, but as we arrived there the Themse was at flood and therefore the place was under water.
Actually we just wanted to see the place where the dead museum attendant was found in episode 3 The great game, but as we arrived there the Themse was at flood and therefore the place was under water.
'Well, then we’ll just go and find another location!’
Said and done, we made our way to the Liverpool Street Station and from there we went to the Tower42, the bank which Sherlock and John entered in The blind banker.
Said and done, we made our way to the Liverpool Street Station and from there we went to the Tower42, the bank which Sherlock and John entered in The blind banker.
The Gherkin was in our close proximity and had – of course – to be watched at. Kadda tenderly touched it.
Before we headed back to Tess we went and bought eggs, apples and milk at a tesco market. Our ingredients for ‘Kaiserschmarrn’. As we arrived at her flat, Tess told us that her foot did not really become better, so she had called a doctor. Apparently one of her toes was fraktured. Somehow we had to brighten her mood, so we placed ourselfes in front of the stove and cooked for Tess (and of course for us too xD) the best Kaiserschmarrn ever made with selfmade apple puree!
Well, until we got the necessary recipe from our sisters, some time passed. It was really annoying. Kadda asked her sister, and she just got an internet link as answer. Yeah, that was really helpful since we had no internet access in the first place. My sister didn’t do any better. I sent her a short message and asked her about the recipe. There wasn’t any answer for a long time, then I called her. ‘I can’t give you the recipe right now, my laptop’s turned off.’ Well, thanks Lissi! Now Kadda got a second message. This time no internet link but nonetheless it was pretty useless. “Dough for Kaiserschmarrn is like dough for pancakes, you just have to rip it in the pan.” Yeah, great. -.- After some back and forth we eventually managed to get the necessary indications for quantity and we could start cooking! Pretty hard and exhausting without any mixing machine! Luckily Kadda is super strong and she was able to take my duty, to beat the egg whites until it was stiff, over now and then. The food was finished and we could consume our delicious Kaiserschmarrn. And Tess thought it’s great and that was the main thing!
As a matter of fact Tess wanted to show us the London nightlife, but sadly it didn’t come off. Tess’ toe did still hurt. Nonetheless she said that we should go without her. Since it was still day outside we decided to search for another Sherlock location. Eventhough I didn’t really fall asleep in the train, I got a shock as Kadda cheerfully called “GET UP!” shortly before we arrived at Picadilly Circus. I looked at her rather puzzled and had my own thoughts about that matter.
Here I have to mention that the citizens of London have a pretty good underground system. Fare-dodging is very unlikely to happen because it is close to impossible. Everytime if one wants to enter or exit an underground station one has to show a validated ticket or alternatively pass through a kind of passageway. Well, as it is with machines, they are not always working properly. I just wanted to slide my travelcard over the scanner and pass through the barrier as it didn’t work. After unlimited times of trials it still didn’t work, the barrier would not lift! I just were able to see one employee slowly coming up to me. I panicked! Luckily I could slip through the barrier before this guy reached me. We finally were able to go to our aim, the Shaftesbury Avenue. This was one of the filming spots for the second episode The blind banker. There Sherlock and John meet out of the blue as they followed two different tracks.
Well, until we got the necessary recipe from our sisters, some time passed. It was really annoying. Kadda asked her sister, and she just got an internet link as answer. Yeah, that was really helpful since we had no internet access in the first place. My sister didn’t do any better. I sent her a short message and asked her about the recipe. There wasn’t any answer for a long time, then I called her. ‘I can’t give you the recipe right now, my laptop’s turned off.’ Well, thanks Lissi! Now Kadda got a second message. This time no internet link but nonetheless it was pretty useless. “Dough for Kaiserschmarrn is like dough for pancakes, you just have to rip it in the pan.” Yeah, great. -.- After some back and forth we eventually managed to get the necessary indications for quantity and we could start cooking! Pretty hard and exhausting without any mixing machine! Luckily Kadda is super strong and she was able to take my duty, to beat the egg whites until it was stiff, over now and then. The food was finished and we could consume our delicious Kaiserschmarrn. And Tess thought it’s great and that was the main thing!
As a matter of fact Tess wanted to show us the London nightlife, but sadly it didn’t come off. Tess’ toe did still hurt. Nonetheless she said that we should go without her. Since it was still day outside we decided to search for another Sherlock location. Eventhough I didn’t really fall asleep in the train, I got a shock as Kadda cheerfully called “GET UP!” shortly before we arrived at Picadilly Circus. I looked at her rather puzzled and had my own thoughts about that matter.
Here I have to mention that the citizens of London have a pretty good underground system. Fare-dodging is very unlikely to happen because it is close to impossible. Everytime if one wants to enter or exit an underground station one has to show a validated ticket or alternatively pass through a kind of passageway. Well, as it is with machines, they are not always working properly. I just wanted to slide my travelcard over the scanner and pass through the barrier as it didn’t work. After unlimited times of trials it still didn’t work, the barrier would not lift! I just were able to see one employee slowly coming up to me. I panicked! Luckily I could slip through the barrier before this guy reached me. We finally were able to go to our aim, the Shaftesbury Avenue. This was one of the filming spots for the second episode The blind banker. There Sherlock and John meet out of the blue as they followed two different tracks.
Right at that place there is a gift shop. Three young and handsome guys exited this shop. They were noticeably proud of their new ‘I love London’-T-Shirts, which was not easy to not hear. They even hollered a loud “I love London” in our direction and we answered with a badass “YEAH!”. They went on and the most handsome (according to Kadda, I didn’t pay that much of attention to them) turned around and pulled up his T-Shirt. Whatever that was supposed to mean. Most likely we will never find that out, but Kadda definitely had fun C: We ‘followed’ the guys a bit because we were searching for the bubble tea shop which we found after our Chinatown-schmozzle. We finally found it and just had to switch the side of the street. So we waited until the traffic became less for a moment and the three guys walked past us behind our backs. “Nice backsides!” That was the only thing we heard. For that matter we wanted to react with a cool “DANKESCHÖN!” (THANK YOU!), but – how it is in life – the really good stuff just comes to ones mind way too late!
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The young men were gone and we entered the chinese bubble tea shop. I never drank a bubble tea before and therefore Kadda treated me for one. It took a lot of time until the salesgirl understood what we wanted. Kadda took over the talking and did a perfect job, but I guess the salesgirl just had no idea where she was or what she was offering. We got our bubble tea and…. Threw it away! Gross! You can’t drink something like that!
We came to a huge place and sat down for a moment to write some nice things for Tess as a farewell. Whilst we were doing so, some kind of Bollywood past by us. They really had some fun! Later we saw them again and again and the feastening mob grew bigger. They danced to indic music through the city. We decided to take a look around and since we were in Soho we found a lot of bars and pubs. We got hungry and our choice was sushi.
We came to a huge place and sat down for a moment to write some nice things for Tess as a farewell. Whilst we were doing so, some kind of Bollywood past by us. They really had some fun! Later we saw them again and again and the feastening mob grew bigger. They danced to indic music through the city. We decided to take a look around and since we were in Soho we found a lot of bars and pubs. We got hungry and our choice was sushi.
While we were eating we thought about the places we wanted to go. We decided to first go to the Big Ben to see it at night. Soon after we started to make our way and passed the Admiritaly Arch. There a huge place was cordoned off because of the Olympics. There were only a few soldiers left to watch this place, it was nighttime and therefore there were not many people on the streets. We walked past them and Kadda clamoured “Good evening” to the two soldiers. One answered likewise with a “Good evening”. I was totally confused and looked at Kadda warily. She, in turn, was confused by my disarray.
“What’s the matter, Janina?”
“Didn’t he just say ‘I love you’?”
“Eh.. no.”
Oh, I really had misheard this… We had to laugh lustily and sat down on stairs. There we relaxed a bit and tried to decode the roman number MDCCCCX (1910). As it was quite comfy there and not much of trouble around us, we wrote on on our novel-manga How to be…. We had so much fun and were laughing the whole time. The few people who walked past us or were in our vicinity looked at us in a curios way because we were so cheerful. Some time later we saw to girls who were dragging a raddled balloon behind them. The balloon had been laying in front of our feet the whole time and we hadn’t realised they did take it away. Strange…
“What’s the matter, Janina?”
“Didn’t he just say ‘I love you’?”
“Eh.. no.”
Oh, I really had misheard this… We had to laugh lustily and sat down on stairs. There we relaxed a bit and tried to decode the roman number MDCCCCX (1910). As it was quite comfy there and not much of trouble around us, we wrote on on our novel-manga How to be…. We had so much fun and were laughing the whole time. The few people who walked past us or were in our vicinity looked at us in a curios way because we were so cheerful. Some time later we saw to girls who were dragging a raddled balloon behind them. The balloon had been laying in front of our feet the whole time and we hadn’t realised they did take it away. Strange…
After the long sitting on the stone stair we got a little chilly and our butts started hurting. We took the underground to the London Eye because we wanted to see the big wheel and the Big Ben at night. Beautiful!
We walked over the Hungerford Bridge and heard some hauntingly beautiful music by a street musician. Of course we gave him a bit money. As we left the bridge behind, there was another talented musician. Kadda was so kind to give him |
some coins, too. We went on a litte and crossed Westminster Bridge. Perfect Timing! It was midnight and we heard the marvellous sound of Big Ben.
Now we wanted to see Tower Bridge at night. As we arrived the London Bridge Station some drunk guy started talking to us: “Do you know where…is?” We didn’t get to know where this man wanted to go for he was speaking way too fast and fuzzy for us to understand anything. “WHAT?!” He lost faith in us giving him any advice and went to ask someone else. He thanked us and pawed Kaddas hand at that opportunity. Luckily he was in a hurry and left. We entered the tube train and saw the drunk man again. Fortunately we had to get off that moment.
With no idea which way to take to reach Tower Bridge we exited the underground and as we took a look around we spotted The Shard directly in front of us. It was Kaddas urgent wish to touch it and so we made our way to it. This building, it is really is huge!! But now we were heading for Tower Bridge!! WOW! Beautiful!
We sat down a moment and enjoyed the view. Next to the Tower Bridge there is the City Hall, townhall of London. This egg-shaped building is a real attention-getter. I’d like to have such a townhall, too.
Now we wanted to see Tower Bridge at night. As we arrived the London Bridge Station some drunk guy started talking to us: “Do you know where…is?” We didn’t get to know where this man wanted to go for he was speaking way too fast and fuzzy for us to understand anything. “WHAT?!” He lost faith in us giving him any advice and went to ask someone else. He thanked us and pawed Kaddas hand at that opportunity. Luckily he was in a hurry and left. We entered the tube train and saw the drunk man again. Fortunately we had to get off that moment.
With no idea which way to take to reach Tower Bridge we exited the underground and as we took a look around we spotted The Shard directly in front of us. It was Kaddas urgent wish to touch it and so we made our way to it. This building, it is really is huge!! But now we were heading for Tower Bridge!! WOW! Beautiful!
We sat down a moment and enjoyed the view. Next to the Tower Bridge there is the City Hall, townhall of London. This egg-shaped building is a real attention-getter. I’d like to have such a townhall, too.
It was shortly after 1 am and we decided to go back to Tess‘ place since it began to get cold outside. Especially with our short trousers this weather was far from ideal. As we reached the tubestation a building labourer (they worked at 1am in the night? Oo) told us that in London all stations close at 1 am and that only buses are in service. Well, now we had a problem. By taking the next best bus and forcing me to follow her, Kadda tried to solve it. In actual fact, going randomly by bus is fun, but not at 1am in the night when there are barely any possibilities to get home if one doesn’t want to walk. At some point we got off and looked around. We were a little bit desperate. But some nice looking guy walked by and asked – from the opposit side of the street – where we were wanted to go.
“To Manor House.”
“North?”
“Yes.”
“Well, then you have to take bus No. 42 and then switch to bus No. 141.”
My, he really was street-smart! What a luck we met him! So we waited for the bus to take us to the right station. We entered the next bus. But we didn’t know the exact name of the station and so we exited a few stations too early. Now we had to walk there! As we arrived at the right bus station we noticed that bus No. 141, which was recommended to us, is not a nightliner and therefore wasn’t available for us. Some realy desperation overcame us. But that was of no use, so we decided to take a bus which would at least take us into the right direction. Or to come close to the underground Manor House. However, that bus was late. In fact 45 minutes! We were so tired, were hungry and it was cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey out there. And additionally we were wearing short trousers! And if this wasn’t enough, there was that girl who constantly had a fight with her friends. They just were annoying. Luckily she got on a bus (definitely the wrong one) and we did no longer had to bear with her.
...
“To Manor House.”
“North?”
“Yes.”
“Well, then you have to take bus No. 42 and then switch to bus No. 141.”
My, he really was street-smart! What a luck we met him! So we waited for the bus to take us to the right station. We entered the next bus. But we didn’t know the exact name of the station and so we exited a few stations too early. Now we had to walk there! As we arrived at the right bus station we noticed that bus No. 141, which was recommended to us, is not a nightliner and therefore wasn’t available for us. Some realy desperation overcame us. But that was of no use, so we decided to take a bus which would at least take us into the right direction. Or to come close to the underground Manor House. However, that bus was late. In fact 45 minutes! We were so tired, were hungry and it was cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey out there. And additionally we were wearing short trousers! And if this wasn’t enough, there was that girl who constantly had a fight with her friends. They just were annoying. Luckily she got on a bus (definitely the wrong one) and we did no longer had to bear with her.
...