Vijay Basrur

Change of guards, Diana Memorial Fountain, Tower Bridge, Tower of London

We made a dash from the Green Park tube station to make it in time for the change of guards at the Buckingham Palace. But since we were late, we barely managed to get a good position to watch the change of guards.But we did see the entire ceremony and though it was nice, both of us found it pretty average.

From here we got to the Hyde Park to look at the Diana Memorial Fountain. This again was a damp squib. The walk was quite a bit so we slept for a while at the memorial. The memorial is a large heart shaped structure of the ground, through which water flows. Since there is no fountain really, it left us a bit dissapointed.

We reached the Tower of London after some confusing detours since a few lines of the London Tube were shut. Lunch was Fish & chips. It was quite good. The tower of London and the tower bridge (usually referred as the London bridge) was a great watch. I never knew there was so much history associated with the tower. The crown jewels are amazing to look at though the Kohinoor doesn’t stand out as much as you would think it should. Each of the exhibit screams of wealth & royalty and to view them at such close proximity is quite an experience.The tour inside the engine room of the tower bridge was like a rerun of hydraulics we learnt in Engg College. The old system of opening the bridge is a technical marvel and some of the fundaes were still hazy. Damn, I am quite a bad engineer.

We strolled into a quaint English pub and had some pretty good roast chicken and a draught beer. The chicken was served with Yorkshire pudding (not even remotely sweet & nothing close to any sort of dessert) and roast potatoes. Our journey back got delayed since we had to take the replacement bus service as the main trains were shut. These guys have an amazing system of replacement bus services whenever the train services are down. They have the timetable worked out to the minute and published months in advance. Very impressive.

We got back late and wrapped up packing by 12 and went to bed feeling sad that we would be leaving London next morning.

Wimbledon & Madame Tussads

To be able to see something in real life, which you’ve admired for ages on TV is a dream come true.

The Wimbledon tour was exhilirating to say the least, for the both of us. We were not allowed access to Centre court due to the work on some hi-tech roof (due to launch in 2009) but we were taken to the players area, the members area, the brodcasters area, the open lawns, views of the multiple courts and finally to Court no. 1. The entire court is protected by electric fences to keep wolves, dogs & pigeons from straying.

Just being there is such a thrill, I can imagine what it must be during the championships. The entire campus feels elite and I am sure its a joy spending time here during Wimbledon.

We spotted the Rolex clocks which had just arrived. These will be put up on the main courts. A lot of equipment was at the gates and preparations are picking up steam.

From Wimbledon we made our way back into the city at Baker Street, which has a Sherlock Homes statue for his address of 21 Baker Street, to get to Madame Tussads.

Madame Tussads is quite interesting. Some of the wax models are really quite good. Julia Roberts, Morgan Freeman, Queen Elizabeth are some which are as good as real. Amongst the Indians represented, Gandhi is barely close to the real thing. Shah Rukh, Amitabh and Aishwarya are pretty average replicas.

They have a pretty good set from Pirates of the Carribean and Johnny Depp looks cool. The spirit of London is a pretty nice train ride within the complex.

Kensington Palace & Lion King

The visit to Kengsington was pretty average. The palace is pretty and its gardens even more prettier. Other than a few rooms which reek of royalty, the rest of the rooms are average.

We were expecting some additional memorablia of Lady Diana but there isn’t anything.

We started the day planning to visit Madame Tussads but we spotted tickets for a special afternoon show of Lion King – The Musical and decided to grab them. Hence we opted to check out Kengsington before we headed for the musical.

Lion King – The Musical is truly spectacular. I have never seen a better stage performance so larger than life combined with brilliant music and a whole array of colours. Its a complete adaptation of the movie and if you’ve seen the movie, then the story is no different. But the stage adaptation makes you forget that you ever watched the movie before. They have enacted elephants, giraffes and other animals so brilliantly that it leaves you stunned. It got a spectacular ovation especially during the final bows by the actors and left a memory which we will cherish forever.

Don’t miss this if you ever get a chance.

Windsor

Its actually surprising that on a day when we planned a couple of things, we managed only one. I think the travel in London & our holiday fatigue is getting to us.

Windsor is a very fine palace. Some of the rooms, especially one which has all order of knights place over the walls and the roof. The chapel is also very quaint and had a very English fell to it. It has the flags representing knights who are still alive giving it a royal touch.

By the time we finished admiring the castle, we had consumed nearly 3 hours and were running a bit late for the river cruise on the Thames.

Inspite of making a dash for it, we reached Embankment station 10 mins past 5 and in the bargain, missed the cruise. Infact the offices had shut down and it felt like we were a few hours late.

We managed to grab a mini dinner of the quintessential English jacket potatoes topped with tuna & cheese. With our stomachs satisfied we reached home and continued the hogging witha great dinner of sambar, rice, sabzi and pickle.

London Eye, Trafalgar Square

On our first outing in London was its most modern landmark, the London Eye. It is indeed an engineering marvel.The whole ride takes about 30 mins and the views are breathtaking. By the time the “flight” ends, you wish you could take one more round of the worlds biggest “merry-go-round”.

We had lunch at Las Iguanas, a mexican joint, where Snehal’s cousin works. Over beer, nachos, enchilladas, chimichangas and what not we chatted up till early evening.

We strolled into Trafalgar Square for a while and also picked up fish & chicken for dinner. The square was pretty crowded but most were desi tourists have a ball clicking photos in every pose possible.Since the cousins were meeting after a long time, the gossiping continued till late after a good dinner. The neighbours must have thought that there were riots going on since we were way above the average decibels at that hour of the night.

Woburn Safari Park

Wobrun Safari Park is the biggest managed safari I have ever been to.

It was about 45 mins drive from home and we reached the place at 11:15 and took almost 30 mins to get in thanks to some long queues.

You have to drive around in your car and move along a defined path and go along spotting the animals. It was a wonderful experience and we spotted quite a few animals enroute. The tigers & the giraffes were the most amazing.

After that we went to the walking safari where you walk around the place and come in close contact with animals. We spent quite a bit of time with the Kangaroos. After lunch and some more walking around, we queued up to see the Sea Lion show. It was real good fun to know more about the sealions and to see them perform various stunts.

We got back home after encountering real bad traffic jams. My cousin, who was driving was complaining about the slow pace of the traffi And we were moving at 60 kmph during most phases and were bumper to bumper only at some points.

Lazy Easter Sunday

Probably the first day of our trip where we did nothing but stay indoors all day. We slept like logs and had some amazing home cooked food which was a welcome change for our appetite.

Welwyn Garden City is a lovely residential place with a lot of greenery around. But like most European places we have found, it is deserted. When we took a walk at 6 in the evening on a Sunday, there was not a soul on the road.

Ironically some holidays, Easter being one of them, is taken very seriously in England. Everything was shut. Huge departmental stores, small mom n pop stores, most eating joints and even public transport. It was eerie to an extent.

A relaxed day felt like a holiday after weeks of non stop working. We cooled our heels and it was decided that we would head to a Safari the next day.