Related posts: London Part 1, Part 2
This blog post covers the second half of our London trip (17th July to 20th July 2013). If you missed the first part, please click on the Part 1 link above.
Friday, 19 July 2013
I was considering between Churchill War Rooms and the Imperial War Museum. Since the Imperial War Museum is closed due to refurbishment (seriously? they do this in summer??), we went to the War Room. Churchill’s War Room is located right in the middle of the city, near Westminster. For a bunker, it isn’t very deep (it was just 2 levels below ground). The reason for this was that the whole bunker was set up in a hurry during the war.
Among the many maps displayed in the war room, I was pleased to see a map of Malaya (Malaysia prior to independence). The other parts of the museum showed how work was done during war time and the living quarters of the officers.
The interesting thing to note is that the War Room was abandoned in August 1945, right after the surrender of Japan. The British government only started converting it into a museum in the early 1980s. They definitely did a good job preserving their history!
By the time we were done at the War Room, we were quite hungry as it was way past lunch time. Aliaa suggested that we go to Serpentine Bar & Kitchen (website) in Hyde Park. It was a scenic restaurant overlooking the river.
Food was just okay. The fish finger sandwich (GBP7.75) was good, but the coffee, like most places in the UK, was just average. If you get the chance to visit this restaurant, I highly recommend the fish & chips. The guy at the next table ordered that and it looks way better than my sandwich!
Saturday, 20 July 2013
Today we went to London Zoo. For the past few days, we keep seeing the London Zoo advert everywhere: on TV, in the Tube, in malls, so we decided it’s a must visit.
London Zoo is quite near to Oxford Street. We took the tube to Marble Arch, and took the bus (number 274) from a nearby street. From there, it took about 10-15 mins to get to Regent’s Park. The zoo is situated at the north corner of the park. It was my first time visiting this part of London, and I was impressed with the park. We’re so used to Hyde Park that we tend to ignore the other parks in London!
The zoo was quite large, given it’s location in the middle of the city. There were a large variety of animals, and most of the big mammals have their own gift shop. It was a very organised zoo. The way the animal sections are planned make it easy to move from one section to another.
We had a good time at the zoo. That made me think, I haven’t been to the Kuala Lumpur Zoo for almost 20 years. A friend went there recently and said it has totally changed. Apparently it’s much better now. I’ll make a point to visit it in the near future.
From the zoo, we went back to Oxford Street. We met up with Alia Ishak and had coffee at John Lewis. The weather was much better today so we were able to explore the area around Oxford Circus more comfortably.
The following day is our flight to Italy. More on our steaming hot (the weather that is) Italian trip in another post!
Related posts: London Part 1, Part 2
Imran Jaafar 