London/Paris 2012

2nd Half of 13th April: After crossing the UK Border, we arrived in Paris via Eurostar about 3 hours later.

Upon reaching Paris, we took the coach to our hotel, checked in and rested for the day.

14th April:
It was an early morning and all of us gathered at the hotel’s basement to have our sumptuous breakfast.

After our breakfast, we boarded the coach, and headed towards Notre Dame, a Roman catholic church, completed in 1345.

Moving on, we proceeded to Eiffel Tower. As we had to wait 3 hours for the elevator, we decided to take the stairs instead, which took less than 45minutes of waiting time. However, we had to climb 700 steps to get to the top!!

The last few steps to reach the top of Eiffel Tower. There were many beautiful types of scenery around waiting for us at the top. It was tiring climbing the 700 steps but it was definitely worth it!

In the late afternoon, we went for a cruise along River Seine. We enjoyed the breeze and spotted many magnificent landscapes of Paris. Then, we went off for our dinner at a Chinese restaurant where we got to taste our own Asian food in a western country.

15th April:


First stop: Lourve Museum. It is a museum with many artifacts and paintings, some retrieved from the deep oceans, and some made as replications of the original pieces. One of the highlights of Louvre Museum is the Mona Lisa – one of the most well-known painting by Leonardo da Vinci.

Next, we went to Montmartre, a 130m high hill. It is famous for its Basilica of the Sacré Cœur, a popular landmark of Paris. Sacré-Cœur Basilica is a Roman Catholic Church, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We heard many interesting stories related to this Church, about how some people sacrificed their lives but were condemned by the people, and then being worshipped after a very long time.

16th April:


This is probably the day all of us looked forward to – EuroDisney! After our breakfast, all us hurriedly boarded the train and went off to EuroDisney Paris. As soon as we reached, we split up into our individual groups and went on and enjoyed ourselves. There were too many places to go, but fret not, we had the whole day to spend at EuroDisney!

17th April:

And that is the end of our London and Paris trip! It was a fruitful trip for all of us as we got to learn many business and financial knowledge from the talk. Last but not least, we forged a stronger bond between course mates from different classes and batches.

The last day of our trip! As our flight is in the early afternoon, we only had enough time to visit 1 place. It was an honor for all of us to be able to visit Thomson Reuters Headquarters Paris. We were given an introduction of Thomson Reuters and also a demonstration of Thomson Reuters’ latest product called Eikon, a set of financial tools used by financial professionals.

The London/Paris Study Trip

The London/Paris study trip was an extremely enjoyable experience. We departed from Singapore and transited at Doha before flying to London, Heathrow.

1^st day - Finally! After a tiring 15 hour plus journey we finally reached Heathrow Airport!!!

Immediately after arriving in London, we headed off to our first destination; Oxford. We visited Christ Church College and toured their campus grounds. They even have a small chapel within their campus.

Next stop, Bicester Village! Bicester Village is a designer outlet centre in Bicester in the English county of Oxfordshire, for several high-end brands, including Hugo Boss, Ralph Lauren, Dolce & Gabbana, Gieves & Hawkes, Gucci, Dior, and Prada, it also has a small number of restaurants and cafes.

Just as we were heading back to the coach, it started hailing!!! This was the first time I experienced a hailstorm!

2^nd day – After a very satisfying English breakfast from our hotel, we took the London Underground to our first stop of the day, the Bank of England Museum. Their tube trains are very small and packed as compared to Singapore’s MRT and their infrastructure seem very old and out dated, however it was a good experience to take public transport overseas.

At the bank of England we learnt about the history of the sterling pound and the role of the central bank in England.

Next, we went to the London Metal Exchange. It is one of the only few places left in the world that still uses the traditional trading pit. Even in Singapore, a few years ago they abandoned using the pit.

We took the tube to Covent Garden and had about 2 hours to ourselves to shop around.

We had traditional Fish & Chips at a pub before heading rushing down to London’s west end for a Billy Elliot musical.

3rd day – We attended an industry talk by Credit Institute of Securities and Investments (CISI) in the morning.

After the talk, we took the London Tube to the University College London (UCL) where we visited the undergraduates to understand more of what they learn and do at the university. After that, we had a talk about the university’s Reuters system which is similar to the one we have in TP.

4th day – The 4th day of the trip was also our last day in London. On the last day we went on a city tour of London to all the places of interest like Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, the Big Ben and the Tower Bridge.

Westminster Abbey is a Gothic church where the coronations of the English and British monarchs are held and it is also where royal weddings are held.

With the London Olympics round the corner, London has made a lot of effort to get ready for the event. They build new stadiums and apartment blocks to house the athletes during the games, and after games, the apartments would be sold to the locals as residential areas. This is part of their legacy plan.

Finally we made our way to King’s Cross St Pancras station to catch the Eurostar to Paris. As much as we were reluctant to leave London, we were also looking forward to having a great time in Paris! Overall, I think London was a very nice place and I would love to visit it again someday.