Over the window..

Long Time No See..

At the korea railroad museum, 18 Nov. 2007.

The darker sillhouette and bigger window size would be better, I thought, but I am so exhausted to do something..

The Maze

Yeah, there's no easier way in life. Should agree. One full year was needed for me to recognize such a simple fact.

I thought once I had been searching for a nice route for the rest of my life, but realized now that I was in a weird maze of which entrances and exits were the same. Those words, nice, easy, attractive, cool, and convenient may not be used for decorating or describing life or something like that.
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I had Plan A, Plan B and Plan C and I know it's time to wrap up those plans. Don't ask me what's the plan A and B. All of them are turning out to be failed right now. (Actually my heart is slowly and bit by bit breaking.. )

Only the plan C is available at the moment and I'll take it regardless of its bitterness. You know what it is soon. At this point, I should thank to my kids for their exellent withstanding against my rash and stupid test. I'm really sorry. I should also thank to my wife for keeping boring and hard dailiy lives with me without a complain.

However, Don't worry and no need to be disappointed at all.
I'll set up my new plans soon, and try to make it come true without a pause.

My son prersents this pretty coffee bar to his mom, who is a big fan of the popular drama "Coffee Prince".

He names this picture "a city life". I'm confusing with this drawing indeed.

The trip was once....

Hmm, I had complained about the trip in some of previous postings, and yeah, even though I had enjoyed *A LOT* the sightseeing tours in London and the first visiting Southampton, I had to admit that I couldn't enjoy whole the trip like normal overseas trips I always enjoyed.

Dockland, London

Lots of problems, unsatisfiable work handlings, and inconveniences. Actually I had written a long list of complains and critics, but abandoned it soon. Useless..Vain. In vain, really. The trip was finished, and no need to remind all of the unpleasant memories. Treat me BOTTLES of BEER if want to listen what happened to me. It should cost a little bit..

Hmm, one thing I'd like to comment is both of the long hour flights. I was really hard for the terrible services, and inconvenient for the facilities.. All of Service Is Always Not Available..

However, the UK itself was really cool to tourists like me..

Near Runnymede. UK.

Notting Hill and Winsor Castle

6. Royal Albert Hall and Memorial.

The Royal Albert Memorial was interesting to me because of its various sculptures carved in its four walls. Sculptures standing for four continents, embossed relieves for fields-agricultures, manufacturing, engineering and so on.. Remember Albert was the husband of the Queen Victoria..

The Royal Albert Hall, London



The Royal Albert Memorial

7. Notting Hill

The official name of this world-famous flea market is the Portobello Market, even though the name Notting Hill is more familiar to me due to the movie with the same title. Very crowded from the morning, and I bought some picture card for my kids.

Near the starting point of the market

The Street Stores

People.. on the market street

Miniatures.

(My son was crazy for this and changed his most favorate place to visit to London)

8. Winsor Castle

The Queen's winter castle was the last place I visited in the UK. The most impressed thing here was the flag of Winston Churchill in one chamber to memorize the brave British generals, because of the embroidery "Korea 1950-1951" on his flag. It probably means they joined in the UN allied forces for Korean War, but looked like saying he was one of conqueror for the country. Actually not comfortable one..

The Castle and the Church

The Long Walk in front of the Castle

A Guard in the Castle

Cafe in the street

The sightseeing was up to here. Then I returned to my home through another boring flight trip.

London Figures I Saw(2)

3. Palaces and Parks

The St. James park was also very beutiful and nice place. After looking around the Big Ben and the West Minster Chusch, I could arrived at the Buckingham Palace through the park..

The Horse Guards are departing for the changing ceremony.

A View from St. James Park

Another View at the park

Diana Memorial Pathway at the park

Buckingham Palace, The Queen's Place.

4. The British Museum

You know how wonderful its collections are, especiallyfor Egyptian and Greek arts. Only short time(less than three hours..unfortunately) was availabe, so we didn't have enough time to enjoy the FOREIGN arts..

Inside of the entrance, the British Museum

Old Kings ?

The famous Paraoh..

From the Athene Temple

Beautiful Poses

5. Go to LONDON EYE

After dinner, we wandered the street for minutes, and decided to go London Eye to feel the London's night landscape.

TheTrafalgar Square. I was wondering here why we didn't place our holy General Lee into some high place like Nelson in this picture..Yeah. the expensive London-Eye.

Pictures will be continued..

London Figures I Saw(1)

1. Dockland in the early morning.

Dockland is a new commercial/residential area recently developed in East London. What I heard about it is that it had been sitting deserted for a long time as a thrown-away old port and then a government company has started to develop the area for a modern city, and still being under development. What I saw is the so-called global financial complex, modern buildings and apartments, city airport and exhibition(convention) facilities and the millenium dom(BROKEN!). Of course, relatively cheap area, but clean and nice to live in. Perhapse we need to compare it with lots of city development projects in our country.

Residential Houses, Dockland

The Millenium Dom and Moderen Buildings

Walking along to the bank

Hotels, Conventoin Center, Airport, and so on..

(You can find a flight and the leading lamps of the airpot if you look into the picture)

2. London Bridge's Falling Down, falling down, falling down.

A lot of stories there. Anne of the thousand days. The henry 8th and his women. Anglican Church and the Elizabeth I. Yeah, Tower of London. It's a sort of sightseeing complex. Tower Bridge, London Bridge, the Belfast, and msny of stylish buildings like the city hall.

Tower of London

A Guard helping tourist

Tower Bridge. Fortunately I could see the opening SHOW of the bridge!

The Stylish New Buildings and the Belfast..

The HMS Belpast.

It's hard to upload many pictures still. I'll try it again in tommorow night.

One and half day long London Tour

A mission-impossible: looking around a super-giant city like London in one and half day. You know, there're lots of historic places, cultural events and beautiful landscpes. Sightseeing for only a part of them could be possible in such a short time, but with an experienced guide, we could optimize our tour choices and routes:
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Day1


Tower of London, Tower Bridge & London Bridge/West Minster & Big Ben/Guards Arch, St.James Park & Buckingham Palace/LUNCH/The British Museum/Piccadilly Circus/London Eye/Hotel at Dockland through Waterloo Station thru the undeground(actually train).

Day2

Royal Albert Memorial and Hall/Portobello Road Market(Notting Hill)/Lunch(actually leaving London)/Winsor Castle & Runneymede.
==================================================================

It was a really compact and tight schedule but we could meet all the plan with the guide and the car we rent. All of the places I visited to were nice, and I'll upload pictures soon. Satisfied with the trip. (Actually I had been in London two or three times before, but I couldn't enjoy the big city in the previous visits)

A Visitor at the British Museum

A short trip to Southampton

A day after the island trip with 4x4 guys, I had a business trip to UK, another island. Instead of sailing on the ferryboat with seagulls and fresh wind, I had to sit down at a small and narrow chair in the darkness more than 10 hours, watching a couple of movies and feeding food-looking things with the name of meals .

I used to enjoy long-distance fligts for overseas travels so far but this time, it was not good actually. I'm not sure I am getting too old to enjoy the long hours flight now, but there were some accidents too. I'll talk about it later..

West/Watts Park, Southampton, UK

I'd spent 3 days at Southampton and had no time to look around the city actually. You know it's a business trip. But fortunately the sun had risen in the very early morning(around 4 am?), and I could take a walk to a few historic places near the hotel I stayed at in the really early morning-before 7 am..


What I'd learned about the city anyway were:

1. Southampton is a really old city, an old port older than 700 years
2. Actually it's a medieval city and I can find several medieval remains like a bargate, wall, and houses.
3. A very clam and pleasant city even though it's a sort of industrial complex-I mean factories like phillips and so.

Bargate, a symbol-like thing for Southampton

Medieval Wall, Southampton, UK

Old houses on the wall, Southampton, UK

Outside of an old building, Southampton, UK

(Merchant house or Martime Museum, I'm not sure)

A modern store through the Barget arch.

The Cenotaph, War Memorial, Southampton, UK.

I got more facts about Southampton after I returned to home.

It was the port(place) that the historic ship Mayflower had departed for her first trip to the new continent-America- with Philgrims. I would have tried to find more remains for Mayflower if I knew it earlier..

4x4: The Second Island Tour (2)

Children.

Chinldren seem to be crazy for water and clay for their play. In the sense, a beach can be a sort of perfect places for them to enjoy. Yeah, all of them showed their fatigueless performace for almost two days.

It would be unforgettable moments for them at least in a year, before the next island visit.

SW became a fan of Yonsoo. Actually a fan of Kaeun, too. Obviously they cared a lot of her..

Fathers often had their own time apart from their families. Usually in the cases, alcohol was a bait.

Well, SJ looked pretty nervous after a walk. He got that there's no icecream shop there..

The cute girl, an almost-professional model her father said. Actually Hyunseo and her brother Jihoon are really wonderful kids, so mild with good manners.

Hmm, couldn't have a word..

If I'd taken a little bit lower position, I might get rid of or put down the useless two objects in the picture. Lovely sisters. Actually SW asks quite often she want to meet and play with Yonsoo and Kaeun after the trip..

Waiting for the ferryboat to the land in tha late afternoon on Sunday, May 27th. Ready to leave. And dreaming the next island tour as well.