London - Summer Sunshine & Trafalgar Square

London - Summer Sunshine & Trafalgar Square!

On Saturday (the 4th August), London finally gave us a glimmer of hope of some sunshine and the great summer warmth we were all waiting for (and wondering whether we had been delusional in thinking we would have a good summer here!) I mentioned in our previous blog that I had scored a job in a salad bar in Paddington. Since then I have been moved to their other store in Covent Garden (St Martin's Lane) but seriously close to Trafalgar Square - which was the inspiration for our outing today in the dazzling summer sunshine. Yay for London!

We set out and found our way to my place of work (which is surround by great places to eat and a number of theatres) perhaps for a salad at 40% staff discount. I changed my mind pretty quickly after spotting a "Sushi & Bento" and promptly dragged Steve in there to stuff my belly full of delicious salmon sushi..YUM! For those of you who remember, I ate sushi everyday until it came out of my ears back home in Melbourne before we left. Couldn't explain the craving, but I just kept eating and eating. After 3 months without sushi here I finally answered the craving here in London. ;o)

So, Ella and Steve started their mystery tour at Trafalgar Square which commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 a British naval victory of the Napoleonic Wars. If you ever find your way there you simply cannot miss Nelson's Column. It's HUGE... Nelson himself on top of the column stands at 5.5m tall, supported by a 46m Granite column and was built between 1840-1843 to commemorate the death of Admiral Horatio Nelson's death during the battle. Looking around Trafalgar Square, there is the National Gallery, South Africa House, Canada House, St Martin's Place, Whitehall, and Charing Cross station practically underneath it (where Ella gets off everyday to work!)

Around St Martin's Place a memorial stands representing Edith Cavell. This woman was a British World War 1 nurse and humanitarian. This magnificent lady helped hundreds of allied soldiers escape from the German Occupied Belgium to the Netherlands and in doing this violated Military Law. She was arrested in 1915 and executed. On St Martin's Lane there are also a couple of theatres around the place too, The Coliseum, The Duke of York Theatre & The Noel Coward Theatre. Right now there is a show playing in the Duke of York Theatre with Orlando Bloom and there are often mobs of crazy women waiting in the alley way waiting for a glimpse of him. The Duke of York Theatre was opened in 1894 and was originally named Trafalgar Theatre, it was renamed the year after to its current name in honour of the future King George V.

From Trafalgar Square, Steve and I made our way through the Arch of Admiralty to THE MALL. The Mall took us towards St James's Park, and around the back of the Horse's Guards Parade Grounds where the trooping the colours on the Queen's Birthday every year. On the grounds there are several monuments like that of Field Marshall Garnet Wolseley a British Army Officer & Earl Roberts. On Whitehall there are a number of memorials, buildings of political significance like the Cabinet Office, the Foreign Office, the Banquet House (the only remaining component of Whitehall Palace) and of course Downing St (the residence of the new Prime Minister Gordon Brown). I only zoomed in to take a photo of Downing St and its fencing as there was a mob of tourists loitering outside all squashed in like a can of sardines. Memorials of Spencer Crompton, Earl Haig, Duke of Cambridge, Governor General of Australia from 1953-1960, Viscount Alan Brooke &Viscount Montgomery line the Whitehall Avenue.

The sun was starting to toast my golden skin and fry Steve's English skin by this point, so we disappeared into St James's Park for some shade, ice-cream, the gardens and some big band music for the afternoon. We spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying what the park had to offer in entertainment, wildlife and picturesque views. Lovely. After a good couple of hours of rest, we picked our bodies up and wandered past the Queen's Chapel and St James's Palace to SOHO for dinner. We found a quiet little restaurant on Frith St and enjoyed a peaceful ambient dinner. One thing I have noticed about this city, its hard to find quiet places to eat where you can soak up the atmosphere and retreat from the hustle and bustle of a city this big. The meal was filled with flavours and the restaurant allowed us to talk without having to compete and talk above other sounds.

Recharged, Steve and I decided to take on the cocktail list at TGI Friday's in Leicester Square (or close to)! Not sure whether it was the brightest idea, I had the craving for cocktails and Steve suggested TGI Fridays..and they do have a fabulous cocktail list.. something for everyone ;p Still we had a good time and stumbled back home to Queen's Park and into our beds.. eventually... LOL

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