My wife and I visited U.K. from 07-May-2018 to 20-May-2018. I have begun this blog post on 28-May-2018, exactly a week after we returned. Just yesterday, my wife remarked: "The U.K. trip was like a dream come true !" We had planned a trip to Kolkata last year, but that did not happen. As the departure day neared, we hoped and prayed that this trip would be successful. Thankfully, it did turn out well, leading to my wife's comment.
We saw some "must visits" during our trip, particularly in London. The surprise was in the rest of the tour, which threw up unexpected sights and experiences. One example is the wonderful flowers that we saw in front of the "Experience Barnsley" museum and the Barnsley police station.
The rest of this blog post discusses about the visit. I am sure that this will be a long blog post ! The hyperlinks will provide supplementary information. They are worth visiting, if time permits. The photographs in this blog post have very few people in them. Like in all of my blog posts, I have avoided mentioning names. It is just a habit of mine ! I have shared photos with people in them with friends and family separately. To view those photographs, please email or contact me separately.
From the last few months, whenever my wife spoke to her brother who lives in England, he asked her: "So when are you coming here ?!" Thus, it was partly due to his urging that we eventually got around to planning this trip. His wife practices in Barnsley, south Yorkshire. We decided that a weekend should be spent with them. On his part, my brother-in-law organised a weekend trip to the Lake District and a three day bus tour for my wife and me alone to Edinburgh, Scotland.
We booked the air tickets early to get a good price. I took a day off for completing the visa formalities. "We will have to mind our language in England", I told my wife ! "Lo kar lo baat", she quipped ! The reference is to a scene in the Hindi movie "Namak Halal" starring Amitabh Bachchan. In the scene, a manager (played by Ranjit) asks Amitabh whether he knows English. Amitabh begins his reply with "Lo kar lo baat !" and follows up with a hilarious narration of cricket incidents in English ! The video is available online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p65E83Ez9hs for viewing. As we prepared and packed for our U.K. trip, I have lost count of the times that my wife and I told "Lo kar lo baat" to each other, particularly when each felt that the other was talking too much in English !
Two useful inputs that set up our trip were provided by two persons we met during the trip. First, a friend asked me what I was interested in, to plan the London visit. Immediately, I told him that I was interested in history and culture. The question set me thinking, though. My knowledge of British history is meager. So what was I interested in during this trip, really ?! As I pondered over the question, I realised that I was actually chasing images of U.K. read in the books of P. G. Wodehouse, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, authors of classics like Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy and the children's author Enid Blyton ! I found glimpses of the descriptions made in their books in my visit, but the passage of time has made a difference. The second useful input was from my cousin. She advised: "Buy an Oyster transport card to travel in London. You can top it up, as you like. Search for sandwiches in convenience stores and coffee shops. You will find vegetarian options." Both these tips were extremely useful. We had taken khakras with us. Along with the sandwiches and fruit, this was lunch for us during the trip.
We took a suitcase that was 18 k.g. in weight. It was quite heavy to lift above the waist. On the night of our departure, we tried to sleep for a couple of hours, but that was in vain. At around midnight, our taxi arrived.
The heavy suitcase and a lighter one were checked in. The 3.5 hours flight to Dubai was completed soon. We arrived in Dubai airport at 7:30 a.m. While booking the flight, I had seen the time as 11:30 a.m. for the flight to Heathrow. 4 hours was manageable, I thought. It was only later that I saw that 11:30 a.m. was the check in time ! Departure was at 2:30 p.m. So, my wife and I had 7 hours of waiting in Dubai airport. We ate breakfast at a Starbucks outlet. There is a small Zen garden. We spent some time there. I kept our phones for charging. In the comfortable lounge chairs, my wife and I took turns dozing on them. We noticed that showers are available in Dubai airport, but our towels were checked in.
Eventually, 2:30 p.m. arrived. This flight was full, just like the previous one. Probably due to the minor turbulence, snacks were served nearly two hours in to the flight. One co-passenger complained about the delay and received an apology. I watched some of the movie "The Black Panther" in this leg of our flight.
As we landed, we could see swathes of greenery and the river Thames beneath us. Immigration took us only a few minutes. We got our checked in luggage soon. By 7:30 p.m., we were in a taxi, headed to our hotel. Most of the buildings in London are brown or with a brick facade, including those constructed recently. Inside, one may find the most modern amenities like CCTV, fast lifts, etc. The front of the buildings appear as if they were built in the 19th century. Probably, this is a deliberate policy. We saw many such buildings in our taxi journey.
This taxi journey cost us more than £60 ! My tendency was to convert it into Indian rupees by adding two zeros, but I would not recommend this to travellers ! A lot of the joy of the trip is sucked out if one does this ! The first day, the cost of items rankled. After a couple of days, I realised that the experience was just as rich as the price we were paying, if not more ! I still did the conversion, but it was with a view of monitoring our expenses.
At 8:30 p.m. on our first day in London, we saw a nice sunset from our room. After showering, my wife and I went for a walk around Lillie Road, where our hotel was located. It looks like our hotel was in an area with fruit shops and eateries managed by people of middle Eastern origin. We purchased fruit from one such shop, which became part of our dinner.
The next day, we took the hop-on hop-off bus. We asked our hotel staff how we could get to the nearest stop. They recommended a bus, which we caught. I had purchased two London passes for my wife and me. I showed it to the attendant in the bus, who gave us two tickets.
The advantages of the hop-on hop-off bus are the flexibility it offers, along with the history lessons provided by the audio guide. One learns a lot not only about the history of the tourist spots but also about the roads leading to the spots.
Our first stop was Kensington palace. The website https://www.royal.uk/royal-residences-kensington-palace has more information on the palace. The Kensington gardens in front of the palace appeared fresh and green to our tourist eyes !
The London Pass was used to enter the palace. There are many stately rooms in the palace, including one for Princess Diana and her fashion design. Neither my wife nor I are particularly keen on fashion. So we did only a cursory visit in this section. Later, we took the hop-on hop-off bus at the same stop that we alighted to see Kensington palace.
In my personal opinion, the Mysuru palace is far better in terms of grandeur than Kensington palace to see. Particularly with the lights on in the night, the Mysuru palace is a sight to behold. Even the facade of Buckingham palace pales in comparison to Mysuru palace, but I am probably biased !
The hop-on hop-off bus showed us the prime shopping area of London as we resumed travelling on it. The audio guide informed us that the "circus" in Picadilly circus refers to the Latin word for circle. In fact, there is no circus, as I know it - I mean the one with acrobats and clowns ! We got down at Baker Street. The audio guide linked Paddington station to the movie of the same name.
For the last fortnight, I have been listening to "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" in the bus, while commuting to work. I liked watching the old television serial starring Jeremy Brett. There is a Sherlock Holmes museum on Baker Street. Since time was lesser, we skipped the museum. We got down at Trafalgar square next. The place is vast and has a couple of statues. https://www.london.gov.uk/about-us/our-building-and-squares/trafalgar-square provides the history of Trafalgar Square. The pigeons at Trafalgar Square were not too many.
We ate sandwiches before heading towards the city centre. Many tourist attractions can be seen at the city centre: the Tower of London, the London eye, the London Bridge, Westminster Abbey and the Big Ben. We went to the Tower of London first.
Today, the English people are civilised, like most other western societies. The Tower of London harks back to a time when cruelty verged on barbarism and the punishments more severe. The London dungeons are testimony to this time. We heard a guide, a beefeater (guardian of the tower) speak about how a drunk hangman executed a prisoner with difficulty, hacking him instead of hanging him since his other profession was that of a butcher !
In the tower, the main attraction are the crown jewels, including the famed Koh-i-noor, the "Light of the World". There is a moving ramp to view the Koh-i-noor. It is quite a spectacle.
In the lawns, there are four ravens. The story as mentioned in https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tower-of-London is that so long as these ravens stay in the tower, the king's rein would continue.
From the Tower of London, the London Bridge can be seen. We walked on the bridge. There is a glass sheet on the bridge through which one can see the cars move beneath. In the Engine Room, we saw the motor that powered the opening of the bridge. http://www.towerbridge.org.uk/Visit-Engine-Rooms/ describes it. The size of the motor is massive. We saw Hyde Park and the Westminster borough on the way to the hotel. Near the hotel, there was an Indian restaurant. We ordered a pullav as a takeaway for dinner. Curiously, take-aways are cheaper than eating at the restaurant in England, probably because the cost of labour and service is high.
The next day, we used the Oyster Card to take the train to Westminster. The Transport for London (TfL) staff are helpful. One attendant at West Brompton station told us how to use the card and how we could get to Westminster. We saw the British parliament building at Westminster and moved to the Westminster Abbey.
One fond book of mine is "The Da Vinci Code". Towards the end of the book, the author describes Sir Isaac Newton's tomb in Westminster Abbey. Once the plan to visit U. K. was put in motion, I was eager to see Westminster Abbey and Newton's tomb. The London Pass enabled us to enter the abbey. Photography isn't allowed inside. The structure is huge and grand ! The windows and the layout make for a grand sight ! Each visitor is given an audio guide, which needs to be handed over at the end of the tour. Tombstones on the floor indicate where famous English personalities like Newton, Darwin and Kipling are buried. My wish to see Newton's tomb was fulfilled ! It is not as big as I had imagined, but the description in the book is good. The architecture of Westminster Abbey and other facts related to it are available at https://www.westminster-abbey.org/about-the-abbey/history/architecture/ for reference.
"Where is the Big Ben?", asked my wife shortly after we finished our visit to Westminster Abbey. For a moment, I was flummoxed. In the hop-on hop-off bus the previous day, I remembered seeing it, but standing near the Abbey, it seemed to have vanished. "Let us ask in one of the shops !", I suggested. When we enquired about the Big Ben, a woman selling T-shirts near the Westminster Pier looked at us as if we were stupid. Right behind us stood the "Big Ben", London's famous clock ! Since restoration is going on, the clock face was hidden from us !
We went on the Thames River Cruise. A boat takes one under five bridges during the cruise.
One of the crewmen provides a running commentary of the history and sights along the cruise. Our guide was witty and helpful. "Please wave to the people standing on the bridge. If they wave back, you know that they will not spill anything on you. One little git poured ice-cream all across the boat a few days ago", he announced on the megaphone ! One of the five bridges that we passed was designed entirely by women. Incidentally, that was the bridge that was completed on time ! That drew the applause of all women and men on board our boat ! We passed the London Eye and the reconstructed Globe Theater. Our guide also pointed out : "If you look really closely, you will see a beach where a couple of girls are sunbathing. Baywatch was shot here actually ..... No, it wasn't actually : I am kidding !" The guide held a bucket at the end of the cruise where passengers could drop coins as tips. I think this particular guide must be one of the big earners among the crew, purely for his humour ! We filled cool water available at the pier that was welcome along with our lunch.
Our next stop was Trafalgar Square. It was a sunny afternoon at the square. There are a few poor people who beg in England. Typically, they carry signs stating "I am hungry." Otherwise, some play musical instruments or perform acrobatic stunts, much like the "madaari" in Indian cities like Mumbai. We saw pavement art at Trafalgar Square and guitars being played. While we were admiring the street art seated on the side of the National Gallery, a man approached us and performed a magic trick with playing cards. "I am an ex-army man. If you like my magic, you can give whatever you like", he urged me. I handed over two coins to him. He thanked and left us quickly. My wife advised me : "This is a sign that we should finish National Gallery soon. We will soon be scammed out of all our money otherwise !"
The National Gallery has good paintings by renowned artists like Rembrandt and Ruben. I remembered my visit to the museum in Cleveland. Like in that museum, we saw many paintings of flowers and fruits. After accompanying me in one floor, my wife said : "You go and see the paintings. I will sit here." I thought this was a good idea, but the catch was that one room led to another. Soon, I feared that I was lost. I managed to find my way back, though.
We were back at our hotel by 6 p.m. since I was expecting my friend. Some time later, we met him at our hotel reception. It is amazing to meet a friend after 23 years and pick up the threads of our lives. WhatsApp, the popular messaging app on smartphones has helped people from our college batch get together. Since the last two years or so, the interaction has primarily been through the app, discussing cricket scores and commenting on Indian team's successes and failures ! In person, he has not changed much, still retaining his affable nature. We ate dinner together at our hotel. Following dinner, my wife went back to our room while my friend drove me around the city centre, pointing out the shopping areas. We discussed old common friends before he dropped me back in the hotel.
The next morning, we went to Regent's Park. When the flowers are in bloom, the park must be quite a sight. Now, we saw greenery all around us but few flowers.
There is a small pond that looked pretty and a waterfall within the park. It was surprising to see that many such parks are present in the heart of London. https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/the-regents-park/about-regents-park/landscape-history provides background on Regent's Park.
From there, we took the Underground to visit British National Museum. The museum is a place that one can easily spend four hours in. There are statues and relics from all parts of the world. "You will have to manage time here", warned my wife. If I had to look at each exhibit, I would indeed have needed half a day. Instead, we consulted the map and decided to spend more time in a few key areas.
There is an Assyrian section in the museum, which I found unusual. The Rosetta stone can be seen in the museum.
We visited the South Asia and China section too. One might have seen Chinese paintings that are vertical (tall), with different sections, as it were. I saw a brief animation which explains that the sections represent various perspectives of the same landscape, using one painting as an example. So, in fact, these paintings are like the "Google 360" view of ancient times in China ! The animation explained the landscape wonderfully ! The collection in the British Museum is available online at http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx for viewing.
While planning our trip, I had told my wife: "If time permits, I want to go to the Charles Dickens museum." When we were searching for the National Museum, we saw a board indicating that the Charles Dickens museum was also close. After our visit to the National Museum, we set off towards the Dickens museum.
"Set off" is the key phrase here ! Except for the couple of boards indicating that the museum is nearby, there are no detailed directions. We consulted the map that we had got from our hotel and moved back and forth on one road thrice !
Finally, we found the museum, which is a house that Charles Dickens stayed in. Since it is a house, there are few signs. In general, the number of hoardings and advertising boards are more in the city centre. There is not much "in your face" advertising in London.
The Charles Dickens museum has artifacts from his life. Since it is a house, one can see it in 15 to 30 minutes. The woman attendant asked us to make ourselves comfortable. She seemed knowledgeable about Dickens' life. "How did Dickens write about life in Paris so vividly in 'A Tale of Two Cities'?", I asked her. "Dickens used to meet friends in this house and read a lot. Thomas Carlyle was one of his favourites. It is surmised that he got information about the French revolution from Thomas Carlyle.", she replied. www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/2cities/baysal1.html suggests that she is right in this respect.
After our struggle to locate the museum, we took a coffee break, relaxed for a couple of minutes in a park and then took the Underground to Green Park station. We saw people hiring beach lounge chairs to bask in the sunshine in the park ! A short walk away, we reached Buckingham Palace. The building is historic, but again, I feel that it is not as majestic as some of the palaces in India.
By this time, we were ready to call it a day. We walked to the Marble Arch Underground station and headed back towards our hotel. Again, I bought pullao for dinner at the Indian restaurant near our hotel.
The next morning, we asked our hotel to book a taxi to Victoria Coach station. The bus station is slightly cleaner than bus stands in India. Bus departures are indicated in electronic sign boards. Like in India, food is a little costlier in the bus station. My wife bought a bottle of water that was priced at £2. In the Hindi movie Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, the character played by Farhan Akhtar is shocked at the cost of a premium hand bag. He calls the bag "Bag-vathi" ! Having purchased the water bottle, my wife felt the same way about the bottle of water ! "Treat 'Neer-vathi' with care !", she warned me ! Rest assured that I took better care of Neer-vathi, cushioning it adequately !
We headed towards Barnsley. Lush green fields were seen on both sides of the road. We saw yellow rapeseed fields whiz past us. Roads in London are typically with two lanes. The motorway has three lanes, one way like the national highways in India. The quality of the roads and the lane marking is better in England. Frequently, we could see "Services" boards, which indicate places where drivers can stop, eat snacks and take a break. We saw many sheep grazing. Sheep appear to be the most populous domestic animals, followed by cows and horses. All the cows and horses were well nourished.
In the '90s, I used to listen daily to programs on BBC World Service radio (short wave band !). At 6:15 p.m. our time, sports news would be broadcast. Part of the bulletin went in narrating the Premier League football scores of all divisions. Various towns and their football teams would be mentioned: Leeds, Huddersfield, Bradford, Chesterfield. During our bus journeys in U.K., I saw signboards indicating these towns ! I had never imagined as a student then that I would one day pass these towns !
One item I relished in the hotel breakfast was the plain yoghurt. It was creamy, thick and tasted fresh. Combined with berries, breakfast became special for me. It is no wonder that with the cows being so well fed that the dairy products like cheese and yoghurt were so tasty !
Wi-Fi was available in the bus. We reached Barnsley at 6 p.m. My father-in-law and my wife's nephew had come to Barnsley Interchange. The interchange is the transport hub in English towns. Both rail and bus stops are available at the interchange.
Barnsley surprised us. The way we had heard about the town, we expected a lonesome town with perhaps one main road. It isn't so ! All towns have a High Street which serves as its shopping centre. In the towns that we passed en route, we invariably saw an Indian restaurant, a Chinese restaurant or take-out, a McDonald's and a barber's saloon (with appointment !). Barnsley had most of these options. The flowers near the "Experience Barnsley" museum and the police station look wonderful. "They were in full bloom a month ago.", informed my father-in-law.
Their house was about half a kilometer from the Barnsley Interchange. We walked the distance, pulling our luggage along. It was a happy reunion for my wife ! She described our trip so far to her parents and her brother's family. Her older nephew was thrilled to see her. The younger one (about a year old) took to her in a matter of minutes.
We woke up early on Saturday morning to head to the Lake District. My mother-in-law had prepared chapatis for lunch by the time we left. My brother-in-law had reserved the last row in the bus for us. This was a good idea as it gave the older son some space to move about.
At around noon, we halted at Lancaster. The Lancaster Castle is a landmark in the town. We walked to the castle. While waiting for our guided tour to begin, we are lunch. Lancaster Castle is a place where trials were conducted. There are prison cells in the basement. Coats of arms of nobleman who have contributed to the castle are presented in one of the rooms. We saw a wedding here.
By 5 p.m., we were in Preston. The hotel rooms here are designed well. There is ample space. My brother-in-law, his wife and I went for a walk. For the first time during the trip, I felt cold as the sun set. "Look at the sunset.", I said. The sun was a curious colour, a mixture of pink and gold. Preston appeared more silent and smaller than Barnsley, but I saw only a small portion of the town, perhaps.
Our driver had informed us that dinner was at 6:30 p.m. We were ready. There were three ladies in our table, who had also opted for vegetarian food. Our hotel had conference rooms named after Lancashire cricketers !
My wife's parents went to bed early. The rest of us spent time talking in one of the rooms.
After breakfast, we left for Bowness in the Lake District. The scenery in the Lake District is picture perfect. Greenery is one aspect. There are also hills and clear blue water, all in the same place. My eyes soaked in the scenery. My cousin says that in the flowering season, it is even more beautiful. I can only imagine how that must be like ! Now I understand how poets like William Wordsworth could write poems like "Daffodils" and "The Solitary Reaper". The author Beatrix Potter was from the Lake District.
We took a cruise from Bowness to Ambleside. The boat ride showed us more beautiful scenery. On the island, we saw a tree in full bloom, filled with flowers, in a park.
By evening, we returned to Barnsley. My wife's brother showed us the Barnsley museum the next day. It was a relaxed day in our tour. He took us to a couple of shops as well. My wife liked shopping for souvenirs here. In the afternoon, all of us went shopping again. My wife's brother and I went for a walk, visiting his son's school and then going to a spacious park. Overall, we had a relaxing time in Barnsley, thanks to the fact that we had family here.
Morning saw another bright and sunny day. My wife and I set out with her brother. He had to go to Cambridge; we had to catch a bus to Leeds. We could see people travelling for work in our bus. We had to catch a bus to Edinburgh. The Leeds Bus Station is right next to a market. As we had time, we roamed about in the market. However, it was still too early in the day. Many shops had not opened. We ate home made breakfast in Leeds bus station.
Our bus came a few minutes behind schedule. There was one mother who was of our age accompanied by her young daughter, who seemed to be in school. Another couple who came from Bradford were older than us. The rest of our co-passengers and our driver were all senior citizens ! I observed another fact : it appeared that only I was clicking photographs and taking selfies. None of the others even seemed to have cameras on their smartphones. I suppose that it could be argued that this was the generation gap at play. My own feeling is that culturally, the British hanker less on selfies, etc. I could be completely wrong, though, since my experience is limited !
The border between England and Scotland is indicated by the white and blue Scottish flag in Scotland. Just before the border is a pub that calls itself the last pub in England ! We sped past it even as our driver announced that we were entering Scotland. Our bus driver was our co-ordinator for the tour. We saw single lane highways in Scotland. On the way back, our co-ordinator said that we would have to factor the one lane highway (on one side) which could delay us. For me, this was a surprise : I am quite used to seeing one lane highways in India ! In Edinburgh, he stopped at Waterloo Place, a square.. There is an old graveyard here.
On the opposite side is the Carlton Hill. The hill is a must-see, since it has historic monuments and gives a good view of the city. There is an observatory here. We spent around an hour at Carlton Hill.
We checked into the hotel at around 5:30 p.m. After eating salad and soup, we went for a walk. The Water of Leith is a small river that flows right next to our hotel. We passed it to go to Dean's Village. This is an area with nice houses. The Water of Leith flows along the village. There is a bridge for pedestrians. We used Google maps to explore Edinburgh that evening.
The next day our co-ordinator dropped us off at Waterloo Place again. We caught the hop-on hop-off bus here as well, which we had booked in Bengaluru.
The highlight of Edinburgh is the Edinburgh Castle and a road called the Royal Mile that leads from it to the Parliament. There are buildings in the Royal Mile that are quite old which made me feel as if I was in the 18th century. One can imagine the age of the city when I say that the "New Town" development began in the middle of the 18th century ! That gives us an idea of how ancient this city is ! Every building appears to be built in the 18th century !
Edinburgh Castle is an imposing structure of stone. We got down at the hop-on hop-off stop and walked the few hundred metres to the castle. The history of the Scotland King is explained in detail at the Castle. In particular, the story of Scotland's Crown Jewels and the Honours of Scotland are depicted well. The website https://www.visitscotland.com/about/uniquely-scottish/honours-scotland-stone-destiny/ narrates the legends connected with the Honours. The view of the city from the top of the castle looks nice. One can clearly see the city.
We bought sandwiches and ate them at Princes Street Gardens. The gardens mark the boundary between the old and the new town.
The Scott Monument is on one side of the garden. https://www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk/venue/scott-monument has more information. On the hop-on hop-off bus, I had heard that St. Cuthbert's Church had beautiful stained glass windows. I wanted to visit the church. We walked through the Princes Street Gardens to the church. http://www.st-cuthberts.net/visitors_brief_history.php describes the history associated with the church. We saw the memorial of John Napier, the inventor of logarithms. As we entered the church, we saw welcome signs written on the board. Incredibly, we read a Kannada "Hello" also on this board, which I pointed out to my wife ! The Hindi "Namaste" also welcomed us. I felt a minor sense of kinship in the church seeing a word in my mother tongue in this far-off church ! The stained glass windows tell the story of David confronting Goliath. When the light falls on them, they must present quite a sight. There is a frieze based on Da Vinci's "The Last Supper". Incidentally, Agatha Christie was married in this very church ! She is one of my favourite authors, just like Charles Dickens ! My wife decided our next stop, near the Royal Mile. She found a shop that had a clearance sale, where she purchased souvenirs.
From here, we went to the National Museum of Scotland. https://www.nms.ac.uk/national-museum-of-scotland/ contains details about the museum. It was exactly 4 p.m. when we entered the museum. I know, since music from the Millennium Clock in the museum indicating the hour was playing as we entered. We stood, captivated by the clock, around 30 feet tall ! The background behind the clock is stated at https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/stories/art-and-design/millennium-clock-tower/ for reading. There are many interactive exhibits for children and adults to try out in the museum. Life in various parts of the world is depicted. One section of the museum is dedicated for the senses. We spent about an hour, but like in all museums, it would have easily taken us four if we had to cover all sections to a greater extent.
Our co-ordinator had announced in the morning that if people were not back by 4:30 p.m., he would assume that they would make their own way back. We left the museum at 5 p.m. We got down at Waterloo Place, did window shoppng and walked to our hotel. Edinburgh has a modern tram service, which was a novelty to my wife. I had seen such trams in my trip to France. We reached in time for dinner. Thankfully, we found our co-ordinator eating there. He said that we would leave at 9:30 a.m. the next day.
We slept well that night. The next day, our co-ordinator dropped us at Waterloo Place again. We walked along the North Bridge and reached the Royal Mile easily. Our co-ordinator said that we needed to get back by 12:30 p.m. We had not planned anything specific. We roamed around the Royal Mile, soaking in its sights as the various shops started opening up. We saw many old buildings and a festive, lively atmosphere due to the tourists. One option for us was to visit the Scotland Dungeons, but the show lasted too long. There was a chance that we would be delayed. We saw an art gallery opposite. To spend time, we visited it.
The previous day, my wife had spotted Mary's Milk Bar where people were eating ice cream. She said that she wanted to go there now. Using the map provided by our hotel and remembering the location from the previous day, we walked towards the place. This was a good idea that had unexpected delights ! We saw a street that was the inspiration of Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter movies. It is a narrow winding road with small shops on either side. The buildings were all vintage ! The author of the Harry Potter series J. K. Rowling lived in Edinburgh while writing the first book in the series.
Searching for Mary's Milk Bar in the Grassmarket area, we stumbled upon the inspiration for Diagon Alley, besides seeing other quaint streets. http://www.marysmilkbar.com/ has more information about Mary's Milk Bar. My wife picked up a vanilla scoop that was awesome: I took a bite. I could taste the milk. She savoured the ice cream sitting in a small park. After all the walking, it was a welcome break ! By this time, it was already close to 12 p.m. "We had better get back", said my wife. Consulting our map, we headed back. Time was ticking: we had not realised that we had come a fair distance away from North Bridge ! To our surprise, we could see that we were beneath the bridge - and there appeared to be no steps nearby ! It was time to consult the map again ! We saw that we could cut across Edinburgh Waverley station, where the trains stop. We rushed to the station, took the overbridge and reached Waterloo Place. By the time in my mobile phone, we reached the bus at 12:28 p.m. The rest of our co-passengers had already reached by then.
Our co-ordinator gave us a couple of stops during this journey. I remember that I felt cold when we got off the bus. Probably, I had become used to the closed atmosphere in the bus.
We reached Barnsley in the evening. The next morning went in packing and saying our good-byes. My father-in-law accompanied us to the Interchange. At 2:30 p.m., we bid a final good bye to Barnsley town ! My heavy suitcase was now somewhat lighter. I told my wife : "Let us take the Underground." She agreed. We walked from the Coach Station to Victoria Underground station. There were a few steps where I had to carry my suitcase, but that was manageable. We had one change. We reached Canning Town at around 8 p.m.
Meanwhile, I had spoken to my cousin, who suggested various options for Saturday. This was the day of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding. All of the United Kingdom seemed to be agog with the royal wedding ! In the cities, we could see keychains, mugs and other souvenirs celebrating the union already. Sale of Union Jack T-shirts also seemed to be on the upswing ! I saw that discounts were offered in pubs and cafes. On the television, BBC Channel 4 had only details of the wedding being telecast right from Friday onwards. The newspapers wrote about the smaller details of preparation also. A few people had slept overnight in Windsor to ensure that they would see the prince !
My cousin, who lives in Birmingham suggested to me : "You have picked a good time to be in England ! The royal wedding will take place on Saturday. If you are tired and want to stay in London, I can come there. Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare's birth place is close to Birmingham. If you come here, we could visit it. Anything is fine with me. If you want to meet mid-way, we could meet at Oxford." To me, the last option sounded the best: we could see a university town. Distance wise, both she and I would have to travel around an hour. This was what we decided.
We took the Underground to Baker Street and walked to Marylebone station on Saturday morning after eating another filling breakfast. Wi-Fi was available in the station and in the Chiltern train. My cousin texted me that she and her daughter would be in the station itself. My wife and I saw senior ladies board the train. The group got down at Bicester Village, a luxury shopping destination. It was a surprise to see the liveliness of the senior citizens in U.K. They were shopping and touring wherever we went.
We reached Oxford at 10:45 a.m. My cousin and her daughter were waiting for us. She had Google Maps on her phone. "Every town here has a High Street, which is like the M. G. Road in Bengaluru. Oxford's High Street is walkable.", she said. We crossed a small bridge. My cousin pointed out famous colleges as we walked : "This is Trinity College. This is Magdalene College, where women got to study first." We went into St. Mary's Church. http://www.universitychurch.ox.ac.uk/heritage/history/ states that a church has been at this site for more than a thousand years ! It is a grand old building.
Our next stop was the Bodliean library named after Sir Thomas Bodley. Its history is described at https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/bodley/about-us/history. My cousin booked a 30 minute tour. Our guide began the tour at Divinity School, a place where students answered questions posed in Latin ! The infirmary scenes in the Harry Potter movies were shot here. The actual library upstairs contains many ancient Latin manuscripts that students still refer. Our guide said that a copy of every book published in England is sent to the Bodliean library. The books are stored in Swindon town. They can be retrieved in a day's time. The library scenes in the Harry Potter movies were filmed here.
By this time, we were hungry. We stopped at an Italian restaurant for lunch. The restaurant gave complimentary lemonade to celebrate the royal wedding ! The pizza and pasta we ate were good. From there, we went to the Oxford Botanic Gardens. The gardens are again just like Lalbagh, but the glass houses contain a wide variety of plants including tropical ones and carnivorous plants.
My cousin bought her daughter a softie across the road from the garden. It was so hot that I was feeling uncomfortably warm in my full shirt !
We reached the station by 4 p.m. My cousin and her daughter got in to the train to Birmingham. Our train to London stopped at all stations. We could see a huge crowd at Wembley station, where the FA Cup final was due to occur. We got down at Marylebone and walked along Baker Street. We walked to the prime shopping area in London, Oxford Street. My wife found a store that had dresses and other items ranging from 1 to 8. I bought a T-shirt as a souvenir. At the end of an hour or so, she had to stop since my patience was running out !
We took the Underground to head back to Canning Town. Typically, we saw people reading books or listening to music in the Underground in most of our journeys. On this day, the FA Cup final had concluded. For a change, we saw a group of Manchester United fans in a surprisingly buoyant mood (Man U lost the final 0-1 to Chelsea). The group raised hurrahs to Ryan Giggs loudly and dispersed as their respective stations were reached. It appears that beer had played its part in the group !
It was time to depart the next morning. We asked the attendant at Canning Town Underground how we could get to Gatwick Airport. She recommended catching the Thameslink from London Bridge. This is what we did. Gatwick and Heathrow are both pretty old (set up in the 1940s and '50s), but to me it appeared that Gatwick is better. Security formalities were strict here. In the flight I realised that I had not booked vegetarian meals. We had to subsist on bread and fruit. In the second leg from Dubai to Bengaluru, vegetarian meals were available for us. In Dubai airport, we found a restaurant called "A Taste of India" which offered us biryani. Eating biryani at 1 a.m. in the night was an unusual experience !
The luggage took time in coming at Bengaluru airport. We reached at 9 a.m. The idli vada at Maiya and the chutney tasted extra special for us after 13 days of corn flakes and fruit and toast for breakfast ! I dozed from Hebbal circle to Gorugantepalya while we headed back home. Even in the afternoon, I fell into a deep sleep. When a phone call interrupted my sleep, I was a little disoriented. Was this a hotel room or was I at Barnsley, I wondered briefly before recognising my home !
Overall, the holiday was memorable. I remembered the first four characters of my password at work, but I had to think for some time to enter the last four characters ! That is always a sure test of how good a break is : if one forgets a password, it was a good break ! Did we cover everything in our trip ? The answer, of course, is "No" ! We had decided that we would not visit the famous Madam Tussaud Wax Museum in London, simply because it did not interest either of us much. Neither did we go on the London Eye, since we had visited the Singapore Eye. My cousin told me in Oxford : "See if you can visit the Natural History Museum in London. You will like it." We missed visiting this museum that contains the bones of a dinosaur.
However, at the end of the trip, I remember various sights and experiences that gladden me : first, the incredible convenience that the London Underground provides ; second, the taste of fresh, creamy yoghurt at breakfast ; third, meeting a friend ; fourth, Neer-vathi ; fifth, "Lo kar lo baat" which was one dialogue that is still being used between my wife and me ; sixth, rushing towards Waterloo Place at the last moment in an effort to be on time and finally, the wonderful richness of the flowers that have bloomed in May. What was good for my wife and me was that each of us got to do at least one thing that we wanted. She likes flowers : so she enjoyed the Oxford Botanic Garden and Regent's Park. I wanted to visit the Charles Dickens museum. Though the museum itself is rather small, it amazes me to think that I have visited a house where he stayed in London ! Above all, not many people can claim to have visited a typical English town and understand how life is lived there. Thanks to my brother-in-law, we got an idea of this aspect too ! Reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Dickens' description of the English countryside in books like David Copperfield and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, I now have a better idea of what those words represent. That and the idyllic fields that we saw during our bus and single train journey are among the fondest memories currently of our U. K. trip.
We saw some "must visits" during our trip, particularly in London. The surprise was in the rest of the tour, which threw up unexpected sights and experiences. One example is the wonderful flowers that we saw in front of the "Experience Barnsley" museum and the Barnsley police station.
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| The flowers in front of Barnsley's Police Station and museum were a sight to behold ! When we arrived in Barnsley, we were a little weary. The sight of these flowers refreshed us immensely ! |
The rest of this blog post discusses about the visit. I am sure that this will be a long blog post ! The hyperlinks will provide supplementary information. They are worth visiting, if time permits. The photographs in this blog post have very few people in them. Like in all of my blog posts, I have avoided mentioning names. It is just a habit of mine ! I have shared photos with people in them with friends and family separately. To view those photographs, please email or contact me separately.
From the last few months, whenever my wife spoke to her brother who lives in England, he asked her: "So when are you coming here ?!" Thus, it was partly due to his urging that we eventually got around to planning this trip. His wife practices in Barnsley, south Yorkshire. We decided that a weekend should be spent with them. On his part, my brother-in-law organised a weekend trip to the Lake District and a three day bus tour for my wife and me alone to Edinburgh, Scotland.
We booked the air tickets early to get a good price. I took a day off for completing the visa formalities. "We will have to mind our language in England", I told my wife ! "Lo kar lo baat", she quipped ! The reference is to a scene in the Hindi movie "Namak Halal" starring Amitabh Bachchan. In the scene, a manager (played by Ranjit) asks Amitabh whether he knows English. Amitabh begins his reply with "Lo kar lo baat !" and follows up with a hilarious narration of cricket incidents in English ! The video is available online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p65E83Ez9hs for viewing. As we prepared and packed for our U.K. trip, I have lost count of the times that my wife and I told "Lo kar lo baat" to each other, particularly when each felt that the other was talking too much in English !
Two useful inputs that set up our trip were provided by two persons we met during the trip. First, a friend asked me what I was interested in, to plan the London visit. Immediately, I told him that I was interested in history and culture. The question set me thinking, though. My knowledge of British history is meager. So what was I interested in during this trip, really ?! As I pondered over the question, I realised that I was actually chasing images of U.K. read in the books of P. G. Wodehouse, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, authors of classics like Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy and the children's author Enid Blyton ! I found glimpses of the descriptions made in their books in my visit, but the passage of time has made a difference. The second useful input was from my cousin. She advised: "Buy an Oyster transport card to travel in London. You can top it up, as you like. Search for sandwiches in convenience stores and coffee shops. You will find vegetarian options." Both these tips were extremely useful. We had taken khakras with us. Along with the sandwiches and fruit, this was lunch for us during the trip.
We took a suitcase that was 18 k.g. in weight. It was quite heavy to lift above the waist. On the night of our departure, we tried to sleep for a couple of hours, but that was in vain. At around midnight, our taxi arrived.
The heavy suitcase and a lighter one were checked in. The 3.5 hours flight to Dubai was completed soon. We arrived in Dubai airport at 7:30 a.m. While booking the flight, I had seen the time as 11:30 a.m. for the flight to Heathrow. 4 hours was manageable, I thought. It was only later that I saw that 11:30 a.m. was the check in time ! Departure was at 2:30 p.m. So, my wife and I had 7 hours of waiting in Dubai airport. We ate breakfast at a Starbucks outlet. There is a small Zen garden. We spent some time there. I kept our phones for charging. In the comfortable lounge chairs, my wife and I took turns dozing on them. We noticed that showers are available in Dubai airport, but our towels were checked in.
Eventually, 2:30 p.m. arrived. This flight was full, just like the previous one. Probably due to the minor turbulence, snacks were served nearly two hours in to the flight. One co-passenger complained about the delay and received an apology. I watched some of the movie "The Black Panther" in this leg of our flight.
As we landed, we could see swathes of greenery and the river Thames beneath us. Immigration took us only a few minutes. We got our checked in luggage soon. By 7:30 p.m., we were in a taxi, headed to our hotel. Most of the buildings in London are brown or with a brick facade, including those constructed recently. Inside, one may find the most modern amenities like CCTV, fast lifts, etc. The front of the buildings appear as if they were built in the 19th century. Probably, this is a deliberate policy. We saw many such buildings in our taxi journey.
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| London (and in general, most of U.K.) is full of buildings like these. |
At 8:30 p.m. on our first day in London, we saw a nice sunset from our room. After showering, my wife and I went for a walk around Lillie Road, where our hotel was located. It looks like our hotel was in an area with fruit shops and eateries managed by people of middle Eastern origin. We purchased fruit from one such shop, which became part of our dinner.
The next day, we took the hop-on hop-off bus. We asked our hotel staff how we could get to the nearest stop. They recommended a bus, which we caught. I had purchased two London passes for my wife and me. I showed it to the attendant in the bus, who gave us two tickets.
The advantages of the hop-on hop-off bus are the flexibility it offers, along with the history lessons provided by the audio guide. One learns a lot not only about the history of the tourist spots but also about the roads leading to the spots.
Our first stop was Kensington palace. The website https://www.royal.uk/royal-residences-kensington-palace has more information on the palace. The Kensington gardens in front of the palace appeared fresh and green to our tourist eyes !
The London Pass was used to enter the palace. There are many stately rooms in the palace, including one for Princess Diana and her fashion design. Neither my wife nor I are particularly keen on fashion. So we did only a cursory visit in this section. Later, we took the hop-on hop-off bus at the same stop that we alighted to see Kensington palace.
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| The image is slightly blurred, but this is the ceiling in Kensington Palace. |
In my personal opinion, the Mysuru palace is far better in terms of grandeur than Kensington palace to see. Particularly with the lights on in the night, the Mysuru palace is a sight to behold. Even the facade of Buckingham palace pales in comparison to Mysuru palace, but I am probably biased !
The hop-on hop-off bus showed us the prime shopping area of London as we resumed travelling on it. The audio guide informed us that the "circus" in Picadilly circus refers to the Latin word for circle. In fact, there is no circus, as I know it - I mean the one with acrobats and clowns ! We got down at Baker Street. The audio guide linked Paddington station to the movie of the same name.
For the last fortnight, I have been listening to "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" in the bus, while commuting to work. I liked watching the old television serial starring Jeremy Brett. There is a Sherlock Holmes museum on Baker Street. Since time was lesser, we skipped the museum. We got down at Trafalgar square next. The place is vast and has a couple of statues. https://www.london.gov.uk/about-us/our-building-and-squares/trafalgar-square provides the history of Trafalgar Square. The pigeons at Trafalgar Square were not too many.
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| Sherlock Holmes seems to be telling Dr. Watson in "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" : "Crime is common. Logic is rare." |
We ate sandwiches before heading towards the city centre. Many tourist attractions can be seen at the city centre: the Tower of London, the London eye, the London Bridge, Westminster Abbey and the Big Ben. We went to the Tower of London first.
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| I liked the way the plants have been trimmed in the top of this photo. |
Today, the English people are civilised, like most other western societies. The Tower of London harks back to a time when cruelty verged on barbarism and the punishments more severe. The London dungeons are testimony to this time. We heard a guide, a beefeater (guardian of the tower) speak about how a drunk hangman executed a prisoner with difficulty, hacking him instead of hanging him since his other profession was that of a butcher !
In the tower, the main attraction are the crown jewels, including the famed Koh-i-noor, the "Light of the World". There is a moving ramp to view the Koh-i-noor. It is quite a spectacle.
In the lawns, there are four ravens. The story as mentioned in https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tower-of-London is that so long as these ravens stay in the tower, the king's rein would continue.
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| According to https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tower-of-London, so long as ravens live in the Tower of London, the rein of the king/ queen is assured. Is the bird in the distance one of those ravens ?! I certainly think so ! |
From the Tower of London, the London Bridge can be seen. We walked on the bridge. There is a glass sheet on the bridge through which one can see the cars move beneath. In the Engine Room, we saw the motor that powered the opening of the bridge. http://www.towerbridge.org.uk/Visit-Engine-Rooms/ describes it. The size of the motor is massive. We saw Hyde Park and the Westminster borough on the way to the hotel. Near the hotel, there was an Indian restaurant. We ordered a pullav as a takeaway for dinner. Curiously, take-aways are cheaper than eating at the restaurant in England, probably because the cost of labour and service is high.
The next day, we used the Oyster Card to take the train to Westminster. The Transport for London (TfL) staff are helpful. One attendant at West Brompton station told us how to use the card and how we could get to Westminster. We saw the British parliament building at Westminster and moved to the Westminster Abbey.
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| Oliver Cromwell played a key role in establishing democracy in England. |
One fond book of mine is "The Da Vinci Code". Towards the end of the book, the author describes Sir Isaac Newton's tomb in Westminster Abbey. Once the plan to visit U. K. was put in motion, I was eager to see Westminster Abbey and Newton's tomb. The London Pass enabled us to enter the abbey. Photography isn't allowed inside. The structure is huge and grand ! The windows and the layout make for a grand sight ! Each visitor is given an audio guide, which needs to be handed over at the end of the tour. Tombstones on the floor indicate where famous English personalities like Newton, Darwin and Kipling are buried. My wish to see Newton's tomb was fulfilled ! It is not as big as I had imagined, but the description in the book is good. The architecture of Westminster Abbey and other facts related to it are available at https://www.westminster-abbey.org/about-the-abbey/history/architecture/ for reference.
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| This is Westminster Abbey. |
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| A tall pillar stands outside Westminster Abbey. |
"Where is the Big Ben?", asked my wife shortly after we finished our visit to Westminster Abbey. For a moment, I was flummoxed. In the hop-on hop-off bus the previous day, I remembered seeing it, but standing near the Abbey, it seemed to have vanished. "Let us ask in one of the shops !", I suggested. When we enquired about the Big Ben, a woman selling T-shirts near the Westminster Pier looked at us as if we were stupid. Right behind us stood the "Big Ben", London's famous clock ! Since restoration is going on, the clock face was hidden from us !
We went on the Thames River Cruise. A boat takes one under five bridges during the cruise.
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| We passed under five bridges in the Thames River Cruise. This seagull was with us for more than 20 minutes in our cruise and provided some of us good entertainment ! |
One of the crewmen provides a running commentary of the history and sights along the cruise. Our guide was witty and helpful. "Please wave to the people standing on the bridge. If they wave back, you know that they will not spill anything on you. One little git poured ice-cream all across the boat a few days ago", he announced on the megaphone ! One of the five bridges that we passed was designed entirely by women. Incidentally, that was the bridge that was completed on time ! That drew the applause of all women and men on board our boat ! We passed the London Eye and the reconstructed Globe Theater. Our guide also pointed out : "If you look really closely, you will see a beach where a couple of girls are sunbathing. Baywatch was shot here actually ..... No, it wasn't actually : I am kidding !" The guide held a bucket at the end of the cruise where passengers could drop coins as tips. I think this particular guide must be one of the big earners among the crew, purely for his humour ! We filled cool water available at the pier that was welcome along with our lunch.
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| This is the OXO Tower. Our guide informed us that there was a legal case that the company were using surrogate advertising. The company protested that the OXO formed in the tower is a natural part of the structure - and they won the case ! |
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| Shakespeare's remodeled Globe Theater can be seen here. |
Our next stop was Trafalgar Square. It was a sunny afternoon at the square. There are a few poor people who beg in England. Typically, they carry signs stating "I am hungry." Otherwise, some play musical instruments or perform acrobatic stunts, much like the "madaari" in Indian cities like Mumbai. We saw pavement art at Trafalgar Square and guitars being played. While we were admiring the street art seated on the side of the National Gallery, a man approached us and performed a magic trick with playing cards. "I am an ex-army man. If you like my magic, you can give whatever you like", he urged me. I handed over two coins to him. He thanked and left us quickly. My wife advised me : "This is a sign that we should finish National Gallery soon. We will soon be scammed out of all our money otherwise !"
The National Gallery has good paintings by renowned artists like Rembrandt and Ruben. I remembered my visit to the museum in Cleveland. Like in that museum, we saw many paintings of flowers and fruits. After accompanying me in one floor, my wife said : "You go and see the paintings. I will sit here." I thought this was a good idea, but the catch was that one room led to another. Soon, I feared that I was lost. I managed to find my way back, though.
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| This is Rembrandt's self portrait. |
We were back at our hotel by 6 p.m. since I was expecting my friend. Some time later, we met him at our hotel reception. It is amazing to meet a friend after 23 years and pick up the threads of our lives. WhatsApp, the popular messaging app on smartphones has helped people from our college batch get together. Since the last two years or so, the interaction has primarily been through the app, discussing cricket scores and commenting on Indian team's successes and failures ! In person, he has not changed much, still retaining his affable nature. We ate dinner together at our hotel. Following dinner, my wife went back to our room while my friend drove me around the city centre, pointing out the shopping areas. We discussed old common friends before he dropped me back in the hotel.
The next morning, we went to Regent's Park. When the flowers are in bloom, the park must be quite a sight. Now, we saw greenery all around us but few flowers.
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| The squirrels in Regent's Park are used to people feeding them, it appears. This squirrel is looking up at me, with expectation. I could not offer it anything, unfortunately ! |
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| The greenery in Regent's Park refreshed us no end. My wife enjoyed the time here. |
There is a small pond that looked pretty and a waterfall within the park. It was surprising to see that many such parks are present in the heart of London. https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/the-regents-park/about-regents-park/landscape-history provides background on Regent's Park.
From there, we took the Underground to visit British National Museum. The museum is a place that one can easily spend four hours in. There are statues and relics from all parts of the world. "You will have to manage time here", warned my wife. If I had to look at each exhibit, I would indeed have needed half a day. Instead, we consulted the map and decided to spend more time in a few key areas.
There is an Assyrian section in the museum, which I found unusual. The Rosetta stone can be seen in the museum.
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| The Rosetta stone helped us understand the ancient Egyptian language. There are three scripts: Greek, Demotic and hieroglyphic on this stone. |
We visited the South Asia and China section too. One might have seen Chinese paintings that are vertical (tall), with different sections, as it were. I saw a brief animation which explains that the sections represent various perspectives of the same landscape, using one painting as an example. So, in fact, these paintings are like the "Google 360" view of ancient times in China ! The animation explained the landscape wonderfully ! The collection in the British Museum is available online at http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx for viewing.
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| There is a wonderful animation next to this Chinese painting in the British Museum that explains how the painting presents different perspectives. Watching that animation made me realise how much detail this particular painting contains. |
While planning our trip, I had told my wife: "If time permits, I want to go to the Charles Dickens museum." When we were searching for the National Museum, we saw a board indicating that the Charles Dickens museum was also close. After our visit to the National Museum, we set off towards the Dickens museum.
"Set off" is the key phrase here ! Except for the couple of boards indicating that the museum is nearby, there are no detailed directions. We consulted the map that we had got from our hotel and moved back and forth on one road thrice !
Finally, we found the museum, which is a house that Charles Dickens stayed in. Since it is a house, there are few signs. In general, the number of hoardings and advertising boards are more in the city centre. There is not much "in your face" advertising in London.
The Charles Dickens museum has artifacts from his life. Since it is a house, one can see it in 15 to 30 minutes. The woman attendant asked us to make ourselves comfortable. She seemed knowledgeable about Dickens' life. "How did Dickens write about life in Paris so vividly in 'A Tale of Two Cities'?", I asked her. "Dickens used to meet friends in this house and read a lot. Thomas Carlyle was one of his favourites. It is surmised that he got information about the French revolution from Thomas Carlyle.", she replied. www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/2cities/baysal1.html suggests that she is right in this respect.
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| This is a painting of Charles Dickens. |
After our struggle to locate the museum, we took a coffee break, relaxed for a couple of minutes in a park and then took the Underground to Green Park station. We saw people hiring beach lounge chairs to bask in the sunshine in the park ! A short walk away, we reached Buckingham Palace. The building is historic, but again, I feel that it is not as majestic as some of the palaces in India.
By this time, we were ready to call it a day. We walked to the Marble Arch Underground station and headed back towards our hotel. Again, I bought pullao for dinner at the Indian restaurant near our hotel.
The next morning, we asked our hotel to book a taxi to Victoria Coach station. The bus station is slightly cleaner than bus stands in India. Bus departures are indicated in electronic sign boards. Like in India, food is a little costlier in the bus station. My wife bought a bottle of water that was priced at £2. In the Hindi movie Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, the character played by Farhan Akhtar is shocked at the cost of a premium hand bag. He calls the bag "Bag-vathi" ! Having purchased the water bottle, my wife felt the same way about the bottle of water ! "Treat 'Neer-vathi' with care !", she warned me ! Rest assured that I took better care of Neer-vathi, cushioning it adequately !
We headed towards Barnsley. Lush green fields were seen on both sides of the road. We saw yellow rapeseed fields whiz past us. Roads in London are typically with two lanes. The motorway has three lanes, one way like the national highways in India. The quality of the roads and the lane marking is better in England. Frequently, we could see "Services" boards, which indicate places where drivers can stop, eat snacks and take a break. We saw many sheep grazing. Sheep appear to be the most populous domestic animals, followed by cows and horses. All the cows and horses were well nourished.
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| We passed through many towns like this one. I am not sure which one this is ! |
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| Green fields are seen on both sides of the roads in England. There were few people in them, though. Probably, agriculture is mechanised here. |
In the '90s, I used to listen daily to programs on BBC World Service radio (short wave band !). At 6:15 p.m. our time, sports news would be broadcast. Part of the bulletin went in narrating the Premier League football scores of all divisions. Various towns and their football teams would be mentioned: Leeds, Huddersfield, Bradford, Chesterfield. During our bus journeys in U.K., I saw signboards indicating these towns ! I had never imagined as a student then that I would one day pass these towns !
One item I relished in the hotel breakfast was the plain yoghurt. It was creamy, thick and tasted fresh. Combined with berries, breakfast became special for me. It is no wonder that with the cows being so well fed that the dairy products like cheese and yoghurt were so tasty !
Wi-Fi was available in the bus. We reached Barnsley at 6 p.m. My father-in-law and my wife's nephew had come to Barnsley Interchange. The interchange is the transport hub in English towns. Both rail and bus stops are available at the interchange.
Barnsley surprised us. The way we had heard about the town, we expected a lonesome town with perhaps one main road. It isn't so ! All towns have a High Street which serves as its shopping centre. In the towns that we passed en route, we invariably saw an Indian restaurant, a Chinese restaurant or take-out, a McDonald's and a barber's saloon (with appointment !). Barnsley had most of these options. The flowers near the "Experience Barnsley" museum and the police station look wonderful. "They were in full bloom a month ago.", informed my father-in-law.
Their house was about half a kilometer from the Barnsley Interchange. We walked the distance, pulling our luggage along. It was a happy reunion for my wife ! She described our trip so far to her parents and her brother's family. Her older nephew was thrilled to see her. The younger one (about a year old) took to her in a matter of minutes.
We woke up early on Saturday morning to head to the Lake District. My mother-in-law had prepared chapatis for lunch by the time we left. My brother-in-law had reserved the last row in the bus for us. This was a good idea as it gave the older son some space to move about.
At around noon, we halted at Lancaster. The Lancaster Castle is a landmark in the town. We walked to the castle. While waiting for our guided tour to begin, we are lunch. Lancaster Castle is a place where trials were conducted. There are prison cells in the basement. Coats of arms of nobleman who have contributed to the castle are presented in one of the rooms. We saw a wedding here.
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| This is Lancaster Castle. http://www.lancastercastle.com/history-heritage/ has more information on it. |
By 5 p.m., we were in Preston. The hotel rooms here are designed well. There is ample space. My brother-in-law, his wife and I went for a walk. For the first time during the trip, I felt cold as the sun set. "Look at the sunset.", I said. The sun was a curious colour, a mixture of pink and gold. Preston appeared more silent and smaller than Barnsley, but I saw only a small portion of the town, perhaps.
Our driver had informed us that dinner was at 6:30 p.m. We were ready. There were three ladies in our table, who had also opted for vegetarian food. Our hotel had conference rooms named after Lancashire cricketers !
My wife's parents went to bed early. The rest of us spent time talking in one of the rooms.
After breakfast, we left for Bowness in the Lake District. The scenery in the Lake District is picture perfect. Greenery is one aspect. There are also hills and clear blue water, all in the same place. My eyes soaked in the scenery. My cousin says that in the flowering season, it is even more beautiful. I can only imagine how that must be like ! Now I understand how poets like William Wordsworth could write poems like "Daffodils" and "The Solitary Reaper". The author Beatrix Potter was from the Lake District.
We took a cruise from Bowness to Ambleside. The boat ride showed us more beautiful scenery. On the island, we saw a tree in full bloom, filled with flowers, in a park.
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| From Bowness on Windermere to Ambleside, we saw placid blue water and wonderful scenery. |
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| We spent about an hour in a park in Ambleside. This is a view from the park. |
By evening, we returned to Barnsley. My wife's brother showed us the Barnsley museum the next day. It was a relaxed day in our tour. He took us to a couple of shops as well. My wife liked shopping for souvenirs here. In the afternoon, all of us went shopping again. My wife's brother and I went for a walk, visiting his son's school and then going to a spacious park. Overall, we had a relaxing time in Barnsley, thanks to the fact that we had family here.
Morning saw another bright and sunny day. My wife and I set out with her brother. He had to go to Cambridge; we had to catch a bus to Leeds. We could see people travelling for work in our bus. We had to catch a bus to Edinburgh. The Leeds Bus Station is right next to a market. As we had time, we roamed about in the market. However, it was still too early in the day. Many shops had not opened. We ate home made breakfast in Leeds bus station.
Our bus came a few minutes behind schedule. There was one mother who was of our age accompanied by her young daughter, who seemed to be in school. Another couple who came from Bradford were older than us. The rest of our co-passengers and our driver were all senior citizens ! I observed another fact : it appeared that only I was clicking photographs and taking selfies. None of the others even seemed to have cameras on their smartphones. I suppose that it could be argued that this was the generation gap at play. My own feeling is that culturally, the British hanker less on selfies, etc. I could be completely wrong, though, since my experience is limited !
The border between England and Scotland is indicated by the white and blue Scottish flag in Scotland. Just before the border is a pub that calls itself the last pub in England ! We sped past it even as our driver announced that we were entering Scotland. Our bus driver was our co-ordinator for the tour. We saw single lane highways in Scotland. On the way back, our co-ordinator said that we would have to factor the one lane highway (on one side) which could delay us. For me, this was a surprise : I am quite used to seeing one lane highways in India ! In Edinburgh, he stopped at Waterloo Place, a square.. There is an old graveyard here.
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| This is a memorial in an old graveyard at Waterloo Place, Edinburgh. |
On the opposite side is the Carlton Hill. The hill is a must-see, since it has historic monuments and gives a good view of the city. There is an observatory here. We spent around an hour at Carlton Hill.
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| I feel that most of Edinburgh can be viewed from Carlton Hill. |
We checked into the hotel at around 5:30 p.m. After eating salad and soup, we went for a walk. The Water of Leith is a small river that flows right next to our hotel. We passed it to go to Dean's Village. This is an area with nice houses. The Water of Leith flows along the village. There is a bridge for pedestrians. We used Google maps to explore Edinburgh that evening.
The next day our co-ordinator dropped us off at Waterloo Place again. We caught the hop-on hop-off bus here as well, which we had booked in Bengaluru.
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| Usher Hall shown here is where music concerts are conducted in Edinburgh. |
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| The Greyfriars Bobby commemorates a dog which guarded his master's grave for 14 years ! https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofScotland/Greyfriars-Bobby/ narrates the moving story. |
The highlight of Edinburgh is the Edinburgh Castle and a road called the Royal Mile that leads from it to the Parliament. There are buildings in the Royal Mile that are quite old which made me feel as if I was in the 18th century. One can imagine the age of the city when I say that the "New Town" development began in the middle of the 18th century ! That gives us an idea of how ancient this city is ! Every building appears to be built in the 18th century !
Edinburgh Castle is an imposing structure of stone. We got down at the hop-on hop-off stop and walked the few hundred metres to the castle. The history of the Scotland King is explained in detail at the Castle. In particular, the story of Scotland's Crown Jewels and the Honours of Scotland are depicted well. The website https://www.visitscotland.com/about/uniquely-scottish/honours-scotland-stone-destiny/ narrates the legends connected with the Honours. The view of the city from the top of the castle looks nice. One can clearly see the city.
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| I was excited to see the inscription "Nemo me impune lacessit" in Edinburgh Castle. It means: No one attacks me with impunity (exemption of punishment). I recalled reading it in Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Cask of Amontillado" and thought that the slogan was powerful. Here is the origin ! Poe was adopted by a Scottish merchant. |
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| This was taken near Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh. |
We bought sandwiches and ate them at Princes Street Gardens. The gardens mark the boundary between the old and the new town.
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| The Princes Street Gardens is at different levels, connected by steps. |
The Scott Monument is on one side of the garden. https://www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk/venue/scott-monument has more information. On the hop-on hop-off bus, I had heard that St. Cuthbert's Church had beautiful stained glass windows. I wanted to visit the church. We walked through the Princes Street Gardens to the church. http://www.st-cuthberts.net/visitors_brief_history.php describes the history associated with the church. We saw the memorial of John Napier, the inventor of logarithms. As we entered the church, we saw welcome signs written on the board. Incredibly, we read a Kannada "Hello" also on this board, which I pointed out to my wife ! The Hindi "Namaste" also welcomed us. I felt a minor sense of kinship in the church seeing a word in my mother tongue in this far-off church ! The stained glass windows tell the story of David confronting Goliath. When the light falls on them, they must present quite a sight. There is a frieze based on Da Vinci's "The Last Supper". Incidentally, Agatha Christie was married in this very church ! She is one of my favourite authors, just like Charles Dickens ! My wife decided our next stop, near the Royal Mile. She found a shop that had a clearance sale, where she purchased souvenirs.
From here, we went to the National Museum of Scotland. https://www.nms.ac.uk/national-museum-of-scotland/ contains details about the museum. It was exactly 4 p.m. when we entered the museum. I know, since music from the Millennium Clock in the museum indicating the hour was playing as we entered. We stood, captivated by the clock, around 30 feet tall ! The background behind the clock is stated at https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/stories/art-and-design/millennium-clock-tower/ for reading. There are many interactive exhibits for children and adults to try out in the museum. Life in various parts of the world is depicted. One section of the museum is dedicated for the senses. We spent about an hour, but like in all museums, it would have easily taken us four if we had to cover all sections to a greater extent.
Our co-ordinator had announced in the morning that if people were not back by 4:30 p.m., he would assume that they would make their own way back. We left the museum at 5 p.m. We got down at Waterloo Place, did window shoppng and walked to our hotel. Edinburgh has a modern tram service, which was a novelty to my wife. I had seen such trams in my trip to France. We reached in time for dinner. Thankfully, we found our co-ordinator eating there. He said that we would leave at 9:30 a.m. the next day.
We slept well that night. The next day, our co-ordinator dropped us at Waterloo Place again. We walked along the North Bridge and reached the Royal Mile easily. Our co-ordinator said that we needed to get back by 12:30 p.m. We had not planned anything specific. We roamed around the Royal Mile, soaking in its sights as the various shops started opening up. We saw many old buildings and a festive, lively atmosphere due to the tourists. One option for us was to visit the Scotland Dungeons, but the show lasted too long. There was a chance that we would be delayed. We saw an art gallery opposite. To spend time, we visited it.
The previous day, my wife had spotted Mary's Milk Bar where people were eating ice cream. She said that she wanted to go there now. Using the map provided by our hotel and remembering the location from the previous day, we walked towards the place. This was a good idea that had unexpected delights ! We saw a street that was the inspiration of Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter movies. It is a narrow winding road with small shops on either side. The buildings were all vintage ! The author of the Harry Potter series J. K. Rowling lived in Edinburgh while writing the first book in the series.
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| The photograph does not capture it well, but this road looked a lot like Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter movies. |
Searching for Mary's Milk Bar in the Grassmarket area, we stumbled upon the inspiration for Diagon Alley, besides seeing other quaint streets. http://www.marysmilkbar.com/ has more information about Mary's Milk Bar. My wife picked up a vanilla scoop that was awesome: I took a bite. I could taste the milk. She savoured the ice cream sitting in a small park. After all the walking, it was a welcome break ! By this time, it was already close to 12 p.m. "We had better get back", said my wife. Consulting our map, we headed back. Time was ticking: we had not realised that we had come a fair distance away from North Bridge ! To our surprise, we could see that we were beneath the bridge - and there appeared to be no steps nearby ! It was time to consult the map again ! We saw that we could cut across Edinburgh Waverley station, where the trains stop. We rushed to the station, took the overbridge and reached Waterloo Place. By the time in my mobile phone, we reached the bus at 12:28 p.m. The rest of our co-passengers had already reached by then.
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| On the way back to Barnsley, we saw the sea behind the fields. It was quite a sight ! |
Our co-ordinator gave us a couple of stops during this journey. I remember that I felt cold when we got off the bus. Probably, I had become used to the closed atmosphere in the bus.
We reached Barnsley in the evening. The next morning went in packing and saying our good-byes. My father-in-law accompanied us to the Interchange. At 2:30 p.m., we bid a final good bye to Barnsley town ! My heavy suitcase was now somewhat lighter. I told my wife : "Let us take the Underground." She agreed. We walked from the Coach Station to Victoria Underground station. There were a few steps where I had to carry my suitcase, but that was manageable. We had one change. We reached Canning Town at around 8 p.m.
Meanwhile, I had spoken to my cousin, who suggested various options for Saturday. This was the day of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding. All of the United Kingdom seemed to be agog with the royal wedding ! In the cities, we could see keychains, mugs and other souvenirs celebrating the union already. Sale of Union Jack T-shirts also seemed to be on the upswing ! I saw that discounts were offered in pubs and cafes. On the television, BBC Channel 4 had only details of the wedding being telecast right from Friday onwards. The newspapers wrote about the smaller details of preparation also. A few people had slept overnight in Windsor to ensure that they would see the prince !
My cousin, who lives in Birmingham suggested to me : "You have picked a good time to be in England ! The royal wedding will take place on Saturday. If you are tired and want to stay in London, I can come there. Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare's birth place is close to Birmingham. If you come here, we could visit it. Anything is fine with me. If you want to meet mid-way, we could meet at Oxford." To me, the last option sounded the best: we could see a university town. Distance wise, both she and I would have to travel around an hour. This was what we decided.
We took the Underground to Baker Street and walked to Marylebone station on Saturday morning after eating another filling breakfast. Wi-Fi was available in the station and in the Chiltern train. My cousin texted me that she and her daughter would be in the station itself. My wife and I saw senior ladies board the train. The group got down at Bicester Village, a luxury shopping destination. It was a surprise to see the liveliness of the senior citizens in U.K. They were shopping and touring wherever we went.
We reached Oxford at 10:45 a.m. My cousin and her daughter were waiting for us. She had Google Maps on her phone. "Every town here has a High Street, which is like the M. G. Road in Bengaluru. Oxford's High Street is walkable.", she said. We crossed a small bridge. My cousin pointed out famous colleges as we walked : "This is Trinity College. This is Magdalene College, where women got to study first." We went into St. Mary's Church. http://www.universitychurch.ox.ac.uk/heritage/history/ states that a church has been at this site for more than a thousand years ! It is a grand old building.
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| In Oxford, a bridge connects two buildings. There were a lot of people taking photographs of this quaint bridge. |
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| This is a typical road in Oxford. |
Our next stop was the Bodliean library named after Sir Thomas Bodley. Its history is described at https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/bodley/about-us/history. My cousin booked a 30 minute tour. Our guide began the tour at Divinity School, a place where students answered questions posed in Latin ! The infirmary scenes in the Harry Potter movies were shot here. The actual library upstairs contains many ancient Latin manuscripts that students still refer. Our guide said that a copy of every book published in England is sent to the Bodliean library. The books are stored in Swindon town. They can be retrieved in a day's time. The library scenes in the Harry Potter movies were filmed here.
By this time, we were hungry. We stopped at an Italian restaurant for lunch. The restaurant gave complimentary lemonade to celebrate the royal wedding ! The pizza and pasta we ate were good. From there, we went to the Oxford Botanic Gardens. The gardens are again just like Lalbagh, but the glass houses contain a wide variety of plants including tropical ones and carnivorous plants.
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| Some flowers bloomed in the Oxford Botanic Gardens. |
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| The hydrangea flowers looked lovely ! |
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| We saw punting on the river Cherwell. |
My cousin bought her daughter a softie across the road from the garden. It was so hot that I was feeling uncomfortably warm in my full shirt !
We reached the station by 4 p.m. My cousin and her daughter got in to the train to Birmingham. Our train to London stopped at all stations. We could see a huge crowd at Wembley station, where the FA Cup final was due to occur. We got down at Marylebone and walked along Baker Street. We walked to the prime shopping area in London, Oxford Street. My wife found a store that had dresses and other items ranging from 1 to 8. I bought a T-shirt as a souvenir. At the end of an hour or so, she had to stop since my patience was running out !
We took the Underground to head back to Canning Town. Typically, we saw people reading books or listening to music in the Underground in most of our journeys. On this day, the FA Cup final had concluded. For a change, we saw a group of Manchester United fans in a surprisingly buoyant mood (Man U lost the final 0-1 to Chelsea). The group raised hurrahs to Ryan Giggs loudly and dispersed as their respective stations were reached. It appears that beer had played its part in the group !
It was time to depart the next morning. We asked the attendant at Canning Town Underground how we could get to Gatwick Airport. She recommended catching the Thameslink from London Bridge. This is what we did. Gatwick and Heathrow are both pretty old (set up in the 1940s and '50s), but to me it appeared that Gatwick is better. Security formalities were strict here. In the flight I realised that I had not booked vegetarian meals. We had to subsist on bread and fruit. In the second leg from Dubai to Bengaluru, vegetarian meals were available for us. In Dubai airport, we found a restaurant called "A Taste of India" which offered us biryani. Eating biryani at 1 a.m. in the night was an unusual experience !
The luggage took time in coming at Bengaluru airport. We reached at 9 a.m. The idli vada at Maiya and the chutney tasted extra special for us after 13 days of corn flakes and fruit and toast for breakfast ! I dozed from Hebbal circle to Gorugantepalya while we headed back home. Even in the afternoon, I fell into a deep sleep. When a phone call interrupted my sleep, I was a little disoriented. Was this a hotel room or was I at Barnsley, I wondered briefly before recognising my home !
Overall, the holiday was memorable. I remembered the first four characters of my password at work, but I had to think for some time to enter the last four characters ! That is always a sure test of how good a break is : if one forgets a password, it was a good break ! Did we cover everything in our trip ? The answer, of course, is "No" ! We had decided that we would not visit the famous Madam Tussaud Wax Museum in London, simply because it did not interest either of us much. Neither did we go on the London Eye, since we had visited the Singapore Eye. My cousin told me in Oxford : "See if you can visit the Natural History Museum in London. You will like it." We missed visiting this museum that contains the bones of a dinosaur.
However, at the end of the trip, I remember various sights and experiences that gladden me : first, the incredible convenience that the London Underground provides ; second, the taste of fresh, creamy yoghurt at breakfast ; third, meeting a friend ; fourth, Neer-vathi ; fifth, "Lo kar lo baat" which was one dialogue that is still being used between my wife and me ; sixth, rushing towards Waterloo Place at the last moment in an effort to be on time and finally, the wonderful richness of the flowers that have bloomed in May. What was good for my wife and me was that each of us got to do at least one thing that we wanted. She likes flowers : so she enjoyed the Oxford Botanic Garden and Regent's Park. I wanted to visit the Charles Dickens museum. Though the museum itself is rather small, it amazes me to think that I have visited a house where he stayed in London ! Above all, not many people can claim to have visited a typical English town and understand how life is lived there. Thanks to my brother-in-law, we got an idea of this aspect too ! Reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Dickens' description of the English countryside in books like David Copperfield and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, I now have a better idea of what those words represent. That and the idyllic fields that we saw during our bus and single train journey are among the fondest memories currently of our U. K. trip.
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| This is a recurring image from the U. K. trip: green fields with cows, sheep and/ or horses grazing ! |
its a awesome blog....i couldnt resist myself for completing it. Found interesting also...specially the NeerVathi part (which is common :). The way it was written ...truly appreciated.
ReplyDeleteThanks go to you for the appreciation, Vineet ! Both "Neer-vathi" and "Lo kar lo baat" made this trip special !
DeleteLovely read....i might put our UK trip at bay...for a while atleast, since your blog covers most of it!
ReplyDeleteMy apologies go to you for the late reply, Shreedhara. I saw only today (02-Apr-2019) that there were comments awaiting moderation. One good part is that gives me the chance to say that after 11 months, U.K. will be worth visiting for you :-) My thanks go to you for the appreciation !
DeleteEnjoyed reading it kiran. Why don't you make a trip Mumbai?
ReplyDeleteMy apologies go to you for the late reply, Padma. I saw only today (02-Apr-2019) that there were comments awaiting moderation. My thanks go to you for the appreciation ! A trip to Mumbai would be good, but it does not look likely, currently.
Deletevery nice post. please enlighten me whether the blog -paryatane- is yours. the blog contais similar travel posts
ReplyDeletethat are very excellant and read by me with much pleasure and
the owner is also -kiran -
My apologies go to you for the late reply, Mr. Radhakrishnan. I saw only today (02-Apr-2019) that there were comments awaiting moderation. To answer your question, I am not the author of the paryatane blog. My thanks go to you for the appreciation shown. I am glad you like it.
Delete