London Local Custom Tips by irisbe

Catch that bus!

It is funny, in my country the busses are running quite on schedule. When they stop to let passengers in, it goes all so fast that it is not worth running for the bus: it will be gone before you crossed the street.

But here, in UK, it is all so different!
I smiled when I saw all those people running but it took me only a few days before I did just exactly the same! It is worth running because people here still pay mostly with money, only a few have a card, so it takes a lot of time at each stop before the bus can go on.

Even VT member Azer told me a little secret: he sometimes stands a bit away from the bus stop so that he can run the little distance to keep in good condition `-)

Leave a Comment

Local Customs: Street animations

Tip Rating:

Written by irisbe

on Jun 29, 2004

Street animator at London

Not all guards are real guards! But kids sure love these ones the most: the one with the red nose!
On sunny days you will see street animators performing.

Leave a Comment

Local Customs: London's most romantic meeting point?

Tip Rating:

Written by irisbe

on Jul 1, 2004

Waterloo Station meeting point

"Meet me under the clock."
Waterloo station, the biggest train station in London, easy to get lost? Difficult to find your friends?
Many people have found each other in this huge train station meeting under this beautiful Victorian clock.
It hangs in the middel of the hall of the station.
Some say it is the most romantic meeting point in UK.
I would not be able to tell as I was not going for romance but for traveling :-)

Leave a Comment

Local Customs: Melting for each other???Ice-cream dream.

Tip Rating:

Written by irisbe

on Jul 2, 2004

Ice and steel can be heart melting

I just couldn't help it but the building seems to melt like real ice-cream!

I found the communication between the plastic ice-cream balls of the car and the modern building leaning over really heart melting :-)
They are both dreaming they are real ice-cream balls !

Leave a Comment

Local Customs: Many wars to remember

Tip Rating:

Written by irisbe

on Jul 2, 2004

A war remembrance statue

Nothing has changed, the world is still at war. In the past England has participated in many big wars, South African, Korean, 2 World Wars, Falklands...
It is not suprising then to find many war remembrance statues all over London.
They are well maintained and fournished with flags, and flowers.
I just hope there are no new ones needed to be erected.

Leave a Comment

Local Customs: Absolutely not useful for a real VT-er!

Tip Rating:

Written by irisbe

on Jul 2, 2004

Every spot is a photo spot for a

VT-er!

I thought it was funny to find this pillar with "photo spot" on it.
Like if we cannot chose where to take our best pictures `-)
And for those who are VT-adicted and surplus for those who know --->me!, they will have no problem to understand why I had to laugh with such a sign :-)

Actually, I was walking the street with Azer and we were both puzzled what there was so special at that point to put on a picture, except the sign itself!

Leave a Comment

Local Customs: To p or not to p, "where" is the question!

Tip Rating:

Written by irisbe

on Jul 3, 2004

St. James Park "public-P" spot

In England you can easily find public toilets.
I didn�t check whether they were clean or not, but at least they exists and it might be a good idea to prevent people from �wild-peeing�.
In St. James�s Park my eye was caught by this sign on the picture and it is funny that in Winter time you are allowed to use the toilet hours earlier then in Spring or Summer. I wonder why is that?

Leave a Comment

Local Customs: Queen's parade and official birthday

Tip Rating:

Written by irisbe

on Jul 3, 2004

remainings of a royal offical

birthday celebration

The Queen's official birthday took place this year (=2004)on 12 June 2004. The official birthday is usually one of the first three Saturdays in June. The tradition of celebrating an official birthday is thought to date back to the reign of King William IV. It has become customary to celebrate on a day other than the actual birthday, as often this has been inconvenient, or, in the case of King Edward VII, because the sovereign's birthday occurred in the winter months, with the greater chance of bad weather.

The lane towards Buckingham palace was decorated with flags. Maybe it was the remaining of the Queens official birthday that took place this year on the 12th of June?
The birthday is usually celebrated on one of the first three Saturdays in June.

The idea of an official birthday celebration goes back to William IV.

During this celebration the Queen and members of the Royal Family attend the Trooping the Colour ceremony on Horse Guards Parade in London.
The Queen will be saluted from thousands of guardsmen who parade the Queen's flag.

I seemed to have missed out another nice event because it was 20th when I was there and only the flags were left to be removed.

Leave a Comment

Local Customs: The Guards Memorial Statue

Tip Rating:

Written by irisbe

on Jul 10, 2004

Guards Memorial Statue

At the St James park you will notify this rather huge war memorial statue.

It is the Guard�s Memorial Statue.

This memorial statue was original erected in 1926 to honour the 5 royal foot Guards regiments that have fought during WWI.
The statue is made out of Portland stone and the bronze figures, each representing a regiment, are made from guns taken from the Germans during the war.
You can observe the 5 different regiment emblems in bas-relief; accompanied by 5 wreathes, bearing the same emblems as the ones on the statue.

Later on, after WWII, an additional text was encrypted to commemorate the regiment soldiers who lost their lives during that WWII.

Leave a Comment

Local Customs: London VT meetings

Tip Rating:

Written by irisbe

on Jul 18, 2004

London 19th June 2004 VT meeting