The last 3 days went off in a flurry. I guess it was a little ambitious to see London in 3–4 days, but I still have another 3 days after I come back.
On the first day, after a really late start, we went walking around the Thames river along the South Bank. It’s a really relaxed place with street performers, skateboarders, heaps of tourists and generally people who didn’t seem like they had much to do! Spent a good 4–5 hours walking around and then headed back home.
The next day, drove down to the beautiful Windsor Castle. Located right on the river Thames, it’s quite an idyllic spot. A bridge crosses from Windsor to Eton, home to the famous and expensive school for the rich and famous here in England. The weather has been beautiful — misty and cloudy in the morning but sunny during the day. So, I guess I have been lucky. And now I understand the preoccupation with the weather. You can’t but help be obssessed with it. Everything depends on the weather! What you do, where you go and how you feel :)
We took a walk around the palace grounds, the royal chambers and then around Windsor town. The hall where Camilla and Charles wed are just outside the grounds. We sat for a while and had coffee and lunch at one of the many cafes dotting the area.
Yesterday, I met up with Jag and Sunrayz and spent most of the time roaming around and getting a flavour of the real London. We must have walked everywhere — Covent Gardens (a most charming place), Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, Oxford Street etc.
Unfortunately, my camera developed technical problems. Jag and Sunrayz both helped me locate a place where it could be fixed but the bottomline was grim — it would cost a bomb to repair so I would be better off buying a new one. So that’s the bad news.
Anyways, around lunch time we were all beginning to get a little hungry when Jag offered to take us to a place about half hour away called Oriental City somewhere near Wembley. A really interesting place too. It’s like a food court with more than a dozen stalls around it. Each stall offers about 100 items (at least it seemed that way) and you can eat anything from anywhere. There’s Korean, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Malaysian and even South Indian! A real foodie’s delight I’d say. I had fried singapore noodles with shredded roast duck, chicken dumplings and then some nice green tea.
After a long lunch, Jag dropped us at Notting Hill and we walked around the Portabella market. Sunrayz was determined to show me the bookshop where Hugh Grant was filmed in the movie Notting Hill. And we finally found it!
I hadn’t been on a bus yet so we caught a double decker to Victoria station. Sunrayz took her leave and I waited for a bus to Victoria station. Little did I know that my real London adventure was yet to begin…
About half an hour later, the bus arrived and deposited me at Waterloo. At the station, I find out that the trains going south have been cancelled/delayed and none of the boards displayed the station where I needed to head to get to my friend’s house. Apparently, there had been a fatality somewhere near Wimbledon station. (I thought that if trains were cancelled due to fatalities in Mumbai, there would be cancellations everyday, what with several deaths on the lines being a regular affair).
Anyway, after about 15 minutes I called my friend. They were heading to Heathrow and advised me to get there instead. So I headed to the underground and took a train north to a station called Paddington (no direct trains to the airport). From Paddington, I boarded a train and realised it was the wrong one and was going nowhere near the airport!
I got down at the next stop and came back to Paddington. This time, I asked someone wearing an orange coat and he pointed vaguely in the direction ahead.
I found platform 6 where I was relieved to see Heathrow Express (I can well imagine what Potter felt like to find Hogwart!). About 20 minutes later, I finally reached Heathrow and was extremely relieved to find friend and her hubby.
In the space of one day in London, I experienced all forms of public transport possible. And it was a good thing too since I have very little time left! I must thank Jag and Sunrayz who spent nearly the whole day with me and showed me around. I had the most wonderful time.
I am off to Barcelona in a few hours and am looking forward to my 2 days there!
A few photos (taken with cameras borrowed from — sis, Jag, Sunrayz)
Barcelona. Wow. Lovely place, have fun
Posted by Uma | October 17, 2005, 4:53 pmHey saw the pics … London is beautiful so is Barcelona. Have fun! I am sure u are enjoying every bit of it.….
Posted by Viewer | October 18, 2005, 1:37 amTotally enjoying your updates! :) Looking forward to the next one, babes! Be careful and have fun!! :)
Posted by Vaish | October 18, 2005, 10:32 amHey! Dont forget to walk on La Ramblas (has a few sinful places there) and visit La Sagada Familia (A church built by Gaudi, the famous Spanish architect).
Posted by Sabir | October 18, 2005, 10:46 amwowee-wow. You are having a ball aren’t you? The camera is an anti-climax though. Get some disposable cameras and start shooting I say.
Posted by Suman | October 18, 2005, 1:39 pmwow! camera episode is sad. but i can see u r enjoying it so much!. me seeing green
Posted by Brood Mode | October 18, 2005, 5:47 pmuma: only two days here, but trying to make the most of it!!
viewer: so far, so good, yes!
vaish: am still trying to get used to spanish keyboard where i still have not been able to fix where the at sign is :) but am having a good time so far… have been sleeping a lot too!! and it´s been raining, which is pretty sad since it´s such a beautiful city…
sabir: the plan is to go that side tomorrow… hopefully will be able to catch a few more sights then… spent most of today walking around. and it was raining so that didn´t help!
suman: i am yes! but nothing like my slr no? but sis´s camera is serving me well right now :)
kavi: yes! rather annoying that it had to happen now. but have decided not to worry too much and just enjoy myself (without camera!)
Posted by anita | October 18, 2005, 11:37 pmInteresting reading about London. I am from Delhi and went there way back in 1988. Among the treasured memories are the tourist guide who spoke so fluently and smoothly that hearing him was as pleasurable as watching the tourist spots. At Madam Tussauds, I almost shook hands witn the statue of Martina Navratilova. I enjoyed Cabinets of war most of all as they were to do with how Winston Churchill fought the second world war.
Posted by Hiren Shah | October 19, 2005, 10:33 ami see the gaudi, rambla are already covered in suggestions. i guess u shd see as much gaudi as possible. there is picaso museum near rambla which i never got to see. i had gone to an old fort also, cant remember the name though.. i went up the hill on the rope way and train that went up the slope, came down walking.. reminded me of back home ( climbing hills up and down)
and this time get ur camera ready !!!
as for public transport in london, atleast they have something to complain about.. not like bangalore where the damn thing is non existent
at the end of rambla u can cross over to the huge acquarium they have there.
and i guess there are zaras and mangoes to shop all over the place
Posted by krishna | October 19, 2005, 1:43 pmIt was a great pleasure seeing you in London Anita. I can see that you have enjoyed Barcelona — and are currently in Lausanne — wish you well on your travels!
Posted by Jag | October 22, 2005, 6:32 pmhiren: thanks! i couldn’t get to madam tussads as both my friend and my sis convinced me that it wouldn’t be worth it!!
krishna: couldn’t make it to the picasso museum. but enjoyed walking on the las ramblas and barri gotic a lot! and i loved the london buses. reminded me of the mumbai double deckers but cleaner and nicer :)
jag: the pleasure was mine :) and thanks for taking us to that lovely place for lunch! will remember that…
Posted by Anita | October 23, 2005, 7:10 pmhi!
Can you put a link to my website from yours?
Regards
Zack
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Posted by subramanian | November 5, 2005, 3:37 pmviva barcelon viva barca
Posted by ismail | January 28, 2008, 5:13 amI always like to read people saying how much they like London because sometimes I think it gets a rough ride!
Sadly that’s not actually the travel bookshop used in the movie. They created one just around the corner on Portobello Road modelled very heavily on that one.
Even more sadly, Oriental City closed in June :-(
A/
Posted by The Scribe of Rotten Hill | August 10, 2008, 4:14 pm