Dil London London Ho Gaya (First trip to London, 23-Sep-2006)

London. The seat of British Empire. The center of power for a country which had one ruled the world.

And here we were, already more than a month in UK, just one hour train journey from London and still not having visited London. The office pressures and the drudgeries of setting up a house in a new place kept us occupied, so when we finally boarded the train to London, we were quite happy. And what better way to start the trip than to take the 4:50 from Paddington, eponymous with the famous Christie novel? Well, we didn't actually take the 4:50, as it was the begining of the day; but we certainly took our first London tube to Paddington. The reason - Plan for the day was to meet Madhu's cousin, Ranjan, at Paddington and roam about in the Open Top Tourist Bus.


The Open Bus is a wonderful way of experiencing London. . Instead of just going to the tourist spots, the bus takes you on a journey through the city, making you experience the spirit of the city on the way. London is certainly one of the most beautiful cities in the world to be experienced this way. Londoners are proud of the city and they have a right to be. London is not just another set of tall glass and concrete buildings. London is a brilliant symphony of tree lined streets with hundreds of historic buildings hidden behind those trees; Thames perhaps being the central tune of that orchestra. The impression formed in Cambridge that British people know how to make history alive was reinfoced ten times in London. Development does not mean demolising the old, it means polishing the old to accomodate new things.

Many of us know London by its famous streets. On the bus, we passed various London legends like the Harley Street, Regent Street, Oxford Circus and Trafalgar Square. Harley Street is the street of doctors. If anyone in a British novel/ movie is sick, he/she goes to Harley Street. The shoppers' paradise, Regent Street, surprised us a bit with the number of people that were walking on its footpath. It was the first time we had seen a crowd that big outside India (I am not counting sporting or other events, of course). Reminded me of Chandni Chowk in New Delhi. SImilarities being a market full of historic buildings and a josling crowd. The similarities of course ended there, because the the beauty of buildings on Regent street is maintained, and is very much a part of the spirit of the place. And needless to state - its way cleaner! The number od people at Oxford Circus surprised us again, once again reminding me of the crowd outside Bombay Victoria Terminus (now Mumbai Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus) with whom I used to jostle every morning on my way to my first job. Anyway, enough comparisions, and back to London. Here's a view from the bus of Trafalgar Square.

Let me state upfront that we could cover very few spots in this trip to London. Please wait for a later travelouge for covering more spots. Our first stop was the Big Ben (how predictable!). . To be honest, I was not impressed too much. It is just another clocktower, the country is full of them. This one just has same; golden carvings on it, that's all. Not particularly tall. The fact that it is attached to the parliament makes it special, of course. The tower gets its name not from its length, but from the big chime-bell that it contains that takes three men to wind up and does make an impressive sound at the strike of every hour.

You can see the London Eye from Big Ben, its just five minutes walk away. Created by British Airways, London Eye is a must-go attraction. It is basically a slowly moving giant wheel which gives you a 360 degree view of London from the top. The experience is awesome. A piece of advise from me on visiting London eye. DO NOT waste all your time in clicking photographs. Click a couple, yes, but enjoy the experience. You can always take another flight (British airways, so they call it a flight, not a ride!) just for exploting the photo opportunities, which are endless. The best photo opportunities are of course the River Thames and the Parliament. I say best not only because these are magnificient, but also becuase these were the two good (in my opinion) photographs that I could take :-).

After that, a walk along River Thames brought us to an exhibition of the famous sculptor, Salvador Dali. Further on, we got on to a cruise on River Thames. In effect, this trip became an experience of various ways to see London - Open Top Bus, London Eye and Thames Cruise. The cruise is a very good way to see many of the London attractions up close. One of the best parts of the cruise is to listen to the live commentary given by cruise operators, so full of the typical British wit and humour. As we passed along these bridges, for example, we were told that the middle bridge was stolen by the German Engineers. Of course, the real story is that the bridge had decayed and was taken down, but but then they could not remove the pillars as it would have shaken the foundation of the other two bridges. The cruise ended at
the Tower Bridge, the bridge near the infamous London Tower.

That was the end of the day for us. Everything apart from restaurants, pubs and nightclubs closes down by 6 p.m., so we went off to a good Indian restaurant, had food, and went off to sleep at Ranjan Bhaiyya's house.

The next day was reserved for a visit to Harrods,
the largest store in London. After all, wy wife was with me. :-) Harrods is legendary for its spirit of providing everything for its customers, at a price of course. Apparently, a customer once asked for elephant meat sandwich. The staff, without missing a beat, are said to have replied, "Sir, we have run out of bread today, but if you would like to place an order, we would be happy to get it for you as soon as possible". To say Harrods is grand is a gross understatement. It is a high-end store and for a place where most of the items seem to be priced beyond your reach, it has a surprisingly high turnover. Once, the chairman of Selfridges,
the next largest store in London had a bet with the chairman of Harrods that he will cross Harrods' turnover within an year. He lost, of course, and had to gift a silver replica of Harrods to the Harrods' chairman.

Shopping in Harrords in an experience in itself. The sheer variety of stuff that you see on display, and the way they are displayed, makes a knows shopping-hater like me forget my tiredness and enjoy the experience. Sorry, I should have said window-shopping because I very deliberately kept my eye off prices.

Harrods is full of interesting displays. One of the best is in the soft toys section. A busload full of teddies and a sofa made of the soft cuddly things greet you in the section and really tempt you. The denim department, not wanting to be left behind, created this interesting sculpture of denim covered chairs. It was a real test of will to stop yourself from blowing away a lot of money at this place.

After a good weekend in London, we headed back to Ipswich, to our humble abode in this country; with a clear thought of visiting London more often. to experience all that this city has to offer.