(sprachgemäß auf englisch)

Vienna – Berlin – London - Vienna. Those were the stations of my Christmas holiday. Sounds cosmopolitan. But while Vienna and Berlin are my two hometowns, London was my vacation spot.

I’ve been to London before, but since this was a class trip and we were more concerned about how to have an all-night party at the hotel rather than what we could see during the day, it does not really count. Besides, we did not even know about all the wonderful museums with free admission. Hence we went to none but Madame Tussaud’s, which is honestly speaking more of an amusement center than a museum. On the other side, neglecting so many attractions during my first visit gave me more opportunities for my second one. Too many opportunities in fact, because I had only seven days time. But it is incredible how many things one can fit into one week:

We went to the National Gallery and saw the famous sunflowers by van Gogh, while the National Portrait Gallery is home to pictures of William Shakespeare, the Bronte sisters, Elton John, royals from past and present and a video clip showing in an infinite loop David Beckham sleeping. The most famous and oldest of all museums in London is the British Museum, where the Rosetta stone, the Elgin Marbles, a statue of Ramses II and the mummy of Cleopatra are on display. In the middle of this museum is the Reading Room, a circular room full of books that has been used as a study by many poets and thinkers since 200 years.
However, my favorite museum is the Natural History Museum. It consists of two main sections, the “Gallery of Life” and the “Gallery of Earth”. The exhibitions are very child-friendly, which means that special attention was being paid to explaining everything in an understandable and very lively manner. The exhibition about the ‚Human Body’ is completely interactive with many devices to try out for the children. A perfect place for learning and having fun at the same time. I just loved that.

Besides going to museums we also went to see where the real Charles Dickens lived and worked in the 1830s and where the invented Sherlock Holmes ‚lived and worked’ at the end of the 19th century, surprisingly right next to The Beatles Store. We also went to the British Library (which also accommodates a small exhibition, displaying the Magna Carta, a Gutenberg Bible and original documents of Shakespeare, Austen, Dickens, Woolf and many others), walked around Bloomsbury, went shopping in Selfridges and Harrods, took a picture of Piccadilly Circus (besides that there is not much to do at this famous crossing), walked over Westminster Bridge, London Bridge, Millennium Bridge and Tower Bridge, saw the Tower of London from the outside and Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral from the inside, heard the bells of Big Ben, saw the New Year’s Parade and watched the Changing of Guards in front of the Buckingham Palace. While we were in search of the Globe, we incidentally passed the original site of Shakespeare’s theatre, only indicated by a plaque. After they discovered the remains of the old Globe it was decided not to rebuild it on the exact same spot but close-by. Unfortunately, the theatrical season is only from spring to autumn, since the Globe is an open-air theatre. Hence we did the next best thing and went to a musical – “We will rock you“. As the title suggests it is a musical by Queen, written with the help of Ben Elton (better known for his novels and his scripts for Blackadder) and containing 31 songs by Queen. Since I knew almost all of them it was quite entertaining, and the plot was all right, too.

Needless to say that we also paid a lot of money only to be able to stand next to Tom Cruise, Kylie Minogue, Charles Dickens, Princess Diana and many others for once in our lifetime. The Princess of Wales is also commemorated in Kensington Gardens, firstly by a wonderful playground for children and secondly by a rather characterless fountain. At the south side of Kensington Gardens is the Royal Albert Hall. Facing the entrance is a huge golden statue of Albert, who actually never was a real king but only the husband of Queen Victoria. We also passed on our walks through London two statues of Queen Victoria, but surprisingly none of other famous royals like Queen Elizabeth I. or King Henry VIII. I have yet to find out the reason why there are no statues for them. Instead we easily found the statue of Captain Nelson at Trafalgar Square, the place to be at New Year’s Eve. However, we chose to watch the fireworks and were standing next to Cleopatra’s Needle on the embankment at midnight, having a wonderful view across the Thames to the London Eye, where the fireworks exploded.


Illuminated London Eye by night, one of our best pictures we took
Copyright: towe

On our last day we finally went up the London Eye, which is a huge Ferris wheel and gives one a splendid view over London. Unfortunately, neither the Tower Bridge nor the Tower itself can be seen from up there. For that one has to walk up 311 steps to the top of the Monument. It commemorates the Great Fire of 1666, which broke out in a bakery in the nearby Pudding Lane. Less than ten people were killed by the fire, but almost all houses north of the Thames were destroyed, including St. Paul’s Cathedral. The whole city had to be rebuild, which was mainly done by architect Sir Christopher Wren. He designed countless churches and other public buildings, among them the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. It was established in order to find a method to determine the longitude of a ship at sea. Today it is famous for the Prime Meridian and the invention of Greenwich Mean Time, after which the whole world sets its clocks. Greenwich itself looks like a nice little village with narrow streets, beautiful house facades, cheap bookshops and a pub selling delicious pies. Almost the same can be said about the Portobello Road, famous because of its market, antique shops and the movie “Notting Hill”.

If one has seen all those things, then they have seen pretty much of London. But there is still enough left for yet another trip to Britain’s capital.