In Love With London....

(31st May- 6th June 2005)

This place was a part of my fantasies...I had read about it, I had dreamt about it, I had lived in it with all my characters.....And I finally got to see it....

London just came alive to me ....... Since 4th standard in school, when I started on Enid Blyton's ,all the books I read about were all set in London...Be it Poirot , Sherlock Holmes , Wuthering Heights, Emma, Charlotte Bronte, Treasure Island, Scarlet Pimpernal, St. Clares & Malory Towers or just my history book... Georgette Heyer was the last of the this series who had fuelled my imagination and my love for this place... What with her Genteel Ladies going to bath for the Season or riding up Grosvenor's square in their horse drawn carriages or going to Hyde park for an evening ride........

The city has an air about it. Most of the buildings are representative of Britain's past. The architecture (specially in the city of Westminster) in limestone and gray , with Ornate carvings, you can feel the weight of her history , culture and the power she had once upon a time wielded.

These old buildings, the bridges, the Thames, the redbrick bay windowed houses, the creepers on the walls , narrow streets, Modern coffee houses and pubs in quaint buildings, red coats, small olden day like black taxis, and the buzzing 21st century crowd - all add up to the Soul of the city.

And like a child in a toy store I reveled in going to all these places like Bond street, Grosvenor's square, picadilly, Gloucester, Hyde park..... I could close my eyes and almost imagine and feel the 18th century era......

I took an unlimited bus/underground pass for a week and chose to check the places out by myself, instead of taking the famous Bus Tour. I started off with Buckingham palace, The Mews, James Park... Walked all the way to Westminster abbey and checked out the Big Ben , and the parliamentary buildings. Then I took the buses to places like bond street, trafalgar's square , Gloucester , bakers street......

Next day saw me exploring Greenwich, the trinity college of music, taking a ride on the Thames, going up the London eye . The highlight of the day was the Musical I went to -"The Phantom of the Opera" ..... There are 2 - 3 roads which have a lot of theatres ( for musicals) and the whole place is called as theatreland... And what a kick I got out of checking this otherwise just-another-area-in-London....I am such a sucker for fancy names!!!!!!!! The musical was very nice, the props amazing... Next time I plan to sit right close to the stage instead of on the balcony ( view not too good!!)...






Day 3...I looked up some walking routes... i got to know about hampstead heath - this place seems familiar , but i cant place it!!! a lovely park yet again in a quite posh locality....I also chanced upon 'Keats house' and a pizzeria which was earlier the place were George Orwell worked!!!

Day 4...Maams and me hit oxford street, regent street , leciester square for some window shopping, and some people watching!

Another thing I loved about London- was the fashion ... The way the women dress... fancy skirts, stockings, boots, scarves, tops on tops, a lot of colors all at once , yet not so jazzy.... I still am yet to figure out how they bear the cold in their mini's.....

As I made plans to leave for london, I was warned of their cold fish and formal nature... contrary to that, I found quite a lot of them very friendly ... :) And every moment over here was more than I ever thought it would be!!!!