Overall

I visited London in 1997 as part of a Trafalgar Tour Package. I have always wanted to visit London and you could say I was pretty excited about my trip. We arrived in London at the ungodly hour of 5am. But I didn't care-I just couldn't wait to get out of the airport and just let the feeling of being in London sink in. A couple of bad experiences soon followed-first the weather-too cold. Then our hotel-the Swallow Hotel, was a nightmare. It was like being in a Fun House-I literally got lost inside since the layout of the hotel was a mess. But the bellhops and concierge were very nice and helpful. To make up for it's dissapointments was an afternoon trip to a shopping district called Kensington High Street. There we saw the real London-truly a city with a myriad of cultures and races-Indians,Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Australians, Filipinos, Chinese, Irish, Americans, Blacks, Whites, Moslem, Anglican, Orthodox, Catholic, I saw them all and that was by just standing outside a McDonald's outlet. Amazing!!! An afternoon trip to Madamme Tussaud followed. The night was capped of with an eerie and goosebumpy night tour of the Sinister and dark secrets of old London. We went inside Ten Bells, the infamous pub where Jack the Ripper stalked prostitutes, Royal Albert Hall and it's ghost and the dark alleyways that was the scene of the Black Death. The following day was everything London-Parliament, Westminster, Tower of London, Thames, Buckingham and the Changing of the Guard, St Paul's, Big Ben, Picadilly, Harrod's and Trafalgar Square. The night was capped off with an English dinner of Fish and Chips. It was here where I got my first taste of the forgettable and yucky Carbonated Water. London was OK. Part of the charm of this city was knowing it's dark past. Until now, I get goosebumpy everytime I think of my visit to Madame Tussaud's Chamber of Horrors because everything shown there happened. And I was surprised to actually witness that Old London's once dark secrets still exists. Truly memorable, I can't wait to go back.

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5 June 2005 | A Yahoo! User

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