[L.E.P.A.K series: London] Chapter 25: Windsor Castle

June is here! And I have only but a handful of posts left for my L.E.P.A.K series. :( 

I’m bracing myself for the end of this adventure. *sobs*  Now where did I left off from my last L.E.P.A.K post? Oh right! The Changing of Guards Ceremony came to an end and we were once again off to our next location and it is no where within London city. 

What?!? 

 These two girls are barely back in town for less than 24 hours and they're crazy enough 

to head out again? 

Of course not! Don't be silly. 

 We rode the tube back to Westminster Station and from there bought tickets out to... 

to... Windsor & Eton Riverside! That's right. 

 We're heading to Windsor Castle. 

 Speaking of Windsor Castle, Cik Anai and I sort of owe ourselves to the place. Just the name itself was grand and influential enough to 'save' us. Hahaha. Here's what happened. Just the day before when we were supposed to ride the Eurostar back from Brussel to London, we naturally had to go through custom once again. The usual Q&A between the custom officer and us ensued. The difference this time from the one we had at the airport was the fact that we did not have my crazy-ass 32-pages long itinerary with me to do the convincing job. Not to mention we both looked totally worn out from our two days of adventure. Even our appearance was probably very suspicious looking. Hahaha. 

 Oh no! 

 And then it happened! Lady Officer asked me "Where will you be heading to London tomorrow?" in which I went on to answer, "We're going to St Paul's then to catch the Changing of the Guards and probably Windsor Castle but we're not too sure about that one." 

 SCORE! 

 Why? Because Lady Officer immediately perked up and insisted that we should pay Windsor Castle a visit in which I replied "Really?!" and we went on a little from there. She then looked over to Mr Officer at the next counter who was 'interrogating' Cik Anai and asked "How? Okay?" and we both got our stamp of approval to enter. 

 Weeee! 

 Because of that, we make sure we visit Windsor Castle no matter what. The reason for the initial uncertainty was that we had planned to catch Wicked (the musical) that evening and was worried we wouldn't be able to make it back on time. We did make it back on time after all yet we did not catch the musical. Big big bummer but more about that later. Right now let's head to Windsor!

Within an hour's train ride and we reached our destination.

It was certainly a beautiful place to step out to. A curve and a stroll later... 

(Just so you know, I'm fighting the urge to post every single photo of every single step we took so as to avoid being longwinded and have to actually have two separate post for this place) *must resist* 

 Therefore, a curve and a stroll later...

...we found ourselves in front of a cross-road. Hahaha. 

Silly pun that amuses no one else but myself. Sorry about that.

I love this shot of myself *shameless* except for the awkward sitting pose. :(

And then it was the start of pure awesomeness.

The Round Tower is one of the signature architectures of the castle which 

you will see in many photos.

Here's one last pretty shot before I turn on my story-telling mode again. I love this shot of Cik Anai. It's certainly nice to visit on a weekday with less crowd around. That is if you don't find wondering around a grand and old castle that bit spooky. 

 Now, the best part about Windsor Castle is what's inside it and unfortunately, just like in St Paul's Cathedral, no photography is allowed. Windsor Castle is actually the Queen's weekend residence. Yes, there is actually the possibility of you walking around castle grounds while the queen is at home. 

 According to the Royal Windsor website, Windor Castle is the largest inhabited castle in the world. It is one of the Queen's three official residences and is often said to be her favourite. To know whether the Queen is at home, check the flag that flies over the Round Tower. The Royal Standard flies when the Queen is in residence and at other times, the Union Jack flies in its place.

Within those walls are the royal apartments and I must say, walking inside it will simply leave you in awe with your jaws hanging, literally. Hahaha. It is so grand, so luxurious and so well-aged. Though of course Her Majesty's private apartments are never open to visitors but one can imagine how life would be in here.

There is one amusing thing in this scene. Look very closely. 

 Can't see it? Wait, Cik Anai will zoom in for you.

Here you go! 

No no, I'm not talking about my weird facial expression. 

Look at what's on my right. 

 5 

 Yes, 5! Hahaha. That's the speed limit. 

For cars and bikes I hope, not pedestrian walking speed. Funneh.

At the very last leg of our self-paced walking tour is St George's Chapel. 

 The beauty of St George's Chapel is very much different from St Paul's luxurious appeal nor is it comparable to Notre Dame's classic charm. If I were to find the perfect description for St George's Chapel, I would say 'serene beauty'. It is very haunting and for a lack of a better word, eerie. Not in a bad way but you can't help bowing down and be respectful of the place. Maybe because it is the resting place of many Monarchs.

After a short yet informative tour inside St George's Chapel, we stepped out and were greeted by the royal guards. Unlike the crazy crowd at Buckingham palace, the numbers here were manageable, so we took the opportunity for a one-on-one photoshoot session with a fellow guard-on-duty.

Hahaha. Kacau aje.

We attempted to 'see' the most out of our half-day tour at Windsor by trying out luck at another route back to the train station. Different route, different things to see.

Which led us to the realisation that it was some Apple / Mac launch day! 

No wonder there was no one at the castle. They were all here. Hahaha.

Then we stumbled upon Mr Iduntalkmuch's famous ice-cream place.

Two doors down was Gadget Boy's boutique shop selling clothes for the ladies. Typical of Gadget Boy. Hahaha. Our biggest surprise though, came when we made a turn to the next road. Turns out Daniel ain't merely a boutique shop but a huge departmental store like business. Like HUGE. Hahaha. We joked among ourselves saying "Gadget Boy ho-liao!" 

 An hour's train ride later, we rushed towards Victoria Theatre to attempt to get ourselves tickets to Wicked. Crazy girls thinking of scoring tickets to one of the most on-demand musicals of West End! Na-da! Actually, there were still tickets, except they're priced at a whooping £90 each!! That's like RM450 our money. Cray cray man! Even if I'm crazy enough to splurge, I can't expect Cik Anai who's totally clueless about the show to spend that much. No can do.

We asked if there were no cheaper seats and the lady at the counter said yes, at £19 for a seat with blocked view. She said that the seats were good for those above six feet tall but not for us. Disappointed we left the place with broken hearts. I regretted oh so very much later that I did not grab those £19 seats and just kneel or did something to make myself higher to watch. But what's done is done.

Instead we found ourselves back at Piccadilly Circus with a night crowd as busy as in the day. Knowing how disappointed I was over most our unfortunate incident, Cik Anai proposed we catch some other musical. However, since its over 7.30pm, most shows have already started and we were left with a handful of musical to choose from.

And that's how we ended up with Mamma Mia! Not the biggest production nor the most interesting story. Seen the movie, know the songs. So it was not a musical filled with surprises yet it's still amazing to see how they work the stage and the whole story with one multi-rotatable centre piece.

And for some crazy reason, we rewarded ourselves with some ice cold Haagen Dazs 

on a winter night. Yup. We're definitely getting used to the cold. Hahaha. 

 And that wraps up our last night in London. Boohoohoo! :(

[L.E.P.A.K series: London] Chap 24: Buckingham Palace

The good and bad of travelling on your own is the fact that you can make it up as you go. Good in the sense that you have the freedom to do anything and everything the way you want. Bad in the sense that when things don't turn out the way you want and you hit the panic button with much time wasted. Though that itself is an experience on its own.

Getting lost is part of the frustration and joy of travelling.

Our initial plan according to my 32-pages itinerary was to catch our ride from Mansion House Underground (which was a few blocks away from St Paul's Cathedral) to Victoria Underground. It's an easier direct line with no interchange. From Victoria we were supposed to take a stroll to Buckingham Palace Garden. 

 Well, that was the plan. But here's what happened.

We opted to play it safe and use back Bank Underground as our start point. We decided we were more comfortable changing tubes than exploring new roads. We found our way to Victoria Underground with no problem at all. 

 Then we stepped out. Took a good look around to figure out our way. And gave up. Hahaha. We went back into the station and took the tube to an even nearer station, Green Park. See! We're making it up as we go.

It was not a bad turn after all because the park was a beautiful sight 

in a winterish spring kind of way. Hehe.

We were running out of time as the Changing of Guards ceremony begins at eleven. 

Since we didn't exactly prepared to take this scenic route, we took the leap of faith and followed the crowd, hoping they will lead us to Buckingham Palace.

Even with the time limit, we still can't help ourselves from stopping 

to take a photo with spring. Lovely (minus the lady behind me). 

Finally, Buckingham Palace was in sight. And so was the thousands of spectators!!

Even a newscaster was here! Come to think of it, we might have appeared in some random programme as one of the tiny little faces behind her. Haha. Should have gave ourselves 5 seconds of fame right there. Shameless.

Look at that crowd yo!

And so it begun! 

The band was loud, the horses were magnificent, the guards were dignified.

It's a pity it was winter, so all we saw was thick grey overcoats instead of their bright red uniforms. We were allowed to stand anywhere except the main entrance and on the road for obvious reason.

So how did we manage to get such a shot? *grins* Well, we were still allowed to walk across the entrance like any other pedestrian way, we just can't stop and stare. Which we did not. We quickly took the shot within the pause of a few seconds before we were urged to speed up and cross. Hehe.

Did you know that horses shit like nobody's business? Hahaha. Serious. 

There were shit everywhere on the road as the horses delight themselves. *sweat* 

Don't worry, I will not show you poo-poo. =P

Instead I will show you one more zoomed in shot of the guards.

And just like that, the ceremony came to an end and the new guards were in position.

Bye bye guards and shameless horses! 

As for us?

We took the opportunity to continue camwhore around the vicinity. 

Here's me in front of the Victoria Memorial.

And here's me in front of Buckingham Palace.

Let's not forget about Cik Anai, shall we? 

That's her attempting an "Attention!" pose.

And that was our uneventful participation at the Changing of Guards Ceremony.

Next up! We're catching another train out to somewhere...

...not too far away from London. ;)

[L.E.P.A.K series: Amsterdam] Chap 19: Zaanse Schans!

Eeek! I got distracted from blogging once again. The enthusiasm to finish up
my L.E.P.A.K series had to make way for a new excitement in life. 

 Hehe. 

Hold it. 

Hold it! 

 :D 

 I BOUGHT PLANE TICKETS! 

 Yes yes. I’m flying again. Weeee… but it’s not till end of the year and this time it’s a family trip! Which means more responsibility. Yikes! So obviously, all that excitement got me into researching mode once again which totally eat into my blogging time. And I don’t even blog thaaaat often. *hopeless* But I can’t help it! I turn into this mad scientist, crazy planner, travel enthusiast whenever it comes to things like these. Though two days ago, I found out Cik Ipoh’s sister is at a whole different level from me. *respect* 

 So yeah. This blogging thing that’s happening right here. This is a result of discipline.
I told myself  “You gotta do it this weekend yo!” So here I am and here we go,
off to Zaanse Schans!

Zaanse Schans is only four stops away from Amsterdam Central Station and approximately 20 minutes ride by train. The station to hop off is Koog Zaandijk. I don't have the faintest idea how Dutch words are pronounced. How do you even pronounce 'dijk'? Hmm... 

 From the station, we just followed the signs, enjoyed our stroll and took in the views. But we didn't make it very far before we got distracted. Right next to the station was a field of gold, so pretty enough that had us two silly girls wondering into it for some silly shots.

Right out of a Hindi movie. Hehe.

There were many interesting buildings along the way.
From a cute 'tak-halal' house sign to...

...a vine-wrapped home that screams "Stay away!" with a sense of artistic appreciation.
Everything just seems a tad more interesting when you are away from home.

Finally we saw the first sight of a windmill! Peekaboo! See how empty the road is, that's the beauty of beating the morning crowd. It's like having the entire place to ourselves.

"Look ma! That's a windmill."

As we made a turn towards the bridge, we were immediately greeted by an outrageously beautiful scene in front of us. So outrageous that we can't helped continuously exclaiming our awe to each other. As for our inner thoughts... all I had was "You gotta be kidding me!"

How can a place be that tranquil and beautiful where everything is just so calm 

yet so breathtaking? We tried to capture this beauty with our cameras
but I doubt our photos can do this place justice.

Is this even real? *sigh*

One compulsory "I was here! This is amazing." shot.

Look at that smile on Cik Anai's face. She is at a photographer's heaven.
Her shutter just kept on going. *click, click, click*

*points* We are here! 

We actually downloaded this map from Zaanse Schan's website prior to our trip and had the print in our hands but to be honest you can just throw that away and explore the place on your own. It's basically one main trail that works its way around the entire village, so you won't actually miss anything. 

There was actually no one around so it was a pleasant surprise when we were
greeted by a 'local'. Well, sort of... hahaha

Meet our feline friend who came forward without hesitation as we approached the village. Very manja and totally not shy of strangers. Well, I believe it sees thousands of guests every day. We're probably very insignificant to it after all. :P

While we were busy entertaining the cat. Yup, definitely not the other way round. We finally met the first group of people here at Zaanse Schans. A group of young and joyful teens cycling merrily around the village.  

How much countryside can it get?

*hearts* 

 Notice the unique architectural style of the Dutch since the last post? From the signature tall and narrow buildings along the canal to these unique green cottages, you can easily get fridge magnets of all the different types of building as cute little souvenirs to take home with you. All I have to say is that I regret not buying more of these little fellas.

Even the trees are a tad eccentric, don't you think?

Here's one last picturesque shot before I end this post. *sigh in contentment* Cik Anai commented that this was the best 'walk' yet because it was the most relaxing and 'crowdless' of all which brings out the lovely countryside beauty even more. Because seriously, imagine this place filled with tourists at every corner you turn, it just ruins the mood don't you think? 

 So like how 'Tai-lou' Big Bird had said it,
"The early bird do catches the worm." 

Till next time! :)