In the afternoon of Monday, 22 July 2002, we left Paris, took the Eurostar, crossed the English Channel and headed to London Waterloo Station. We had planned to take the sleeper coach to travel to Scotland but was out of luck. While being stuck in London, we did not want to spend our precious pound sterling on a bed when we would in any event move on first thing in the morning for Scotland. We eventually found an easyInternetCafe and paid four pounds for a 24-hour pass. We cannot now recall exactly where we stayed in but the pass marked "Store Code: VIC", which probably denoted Victoria, where the city's largest coach station is situated at. After the longest night (when E kept falling asleep despite the guard's repeated reminders not to), we left King's Cross for Edinburgh, Scotland on Tuesday morning.
We left Orkney Islands, Scotland on 1 August at around 9 a.m., and only arrived in London the following day at around 11 a.m. Having left our backpacks in St. David's Hotel, Norfolk Square, we went to the British Museum. While we had been suffering museum fatigue after spending quite a few weeks in Europe, the visit to the Reading Room was a memorable and humbling experience. The Museum was holding an exhibition on the changing currencies in Western Europe (I almost forgot that Euro coins and notes were in use since 2002). Walking on Oxford Street reminded me of Hong Kong. In fact, many things in London, from her zebra crossings to char siu rice, made us feel like home. We were drowning in the ocean of books in Waterstones Piccadilly, which claimed to be Europe's largest bookshop.
On Saturday, 3 August, we went sightseeing in the City of Westminster, from Buckingham Palace, St. James's Park, Horse Guards Parade, the Westminster Abbey, Downing Street, the Cabinet War Rooms, the Houses of Parliament and the Big Ben.
On Sunday, 4 August, we went south through the Westminister. Across the River Thames, we saw the London Eye, then known as British Airways London Eye. We then went to Oxo Tower Wharf, Tate Modern, Shakespeare's Globe and Millennium Bridge.
It is not entirely clear from my little notebook what we did on 5 and 6 August, except that we visited Waterstones again (we bought quite a few books there) and the Institute of Contemporary Arts. We have kept a ticket which shows that in the evening of 6 August, we went to Her Majesty's Theatre for The Phantom of the Opera - E was impressed whereas I was lost. That day we probably tried to find the Notting Hill but ended up wandering around an unknown neighbourhood.
On Wednesday, 7 August, before we returned to Hong Kong, we decided to spend sometime in the City (none of us had ever imagined that both of us would be working in Hong Kong City firms some years later). At night, we had a good time at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club with Madeline Bell.
It is now not clear exactly when did we visit the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery, to the north of Trafalgar Square.
On Thursday, 8 August, we left London.
12 years thereafter, we returned to London.
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