Yesterday was a boring day. It was so boring that I don’t want to think about it one more time by blogging about it. In short, yesterday I took a ride on open-top Original London Tour bus sat through out the journey thinking where should I get down and take a look at the place. By the time I made up my mind (by not stepping down any where because that place is huge and I will be bored to roam around alone there), I reached by starting destination again. But, I’ve almost covered all major places in Central London - from outside.
Today, is a good day. A very good day. My best bud connected me to one of his friends in London and I went along with him and a colleague of him. Before telling about where I went, I need to tell about London Underground Railway a.k.a The Tube. Its the best thing that any city can have. Period. Makes life so damn comfortable when it comes to travel. City is huge, but The Tube challenges the vastness by transporting people from one end to another end within an hour. Everything is very well maintained. One card, you can travel either in Tube or any bus (They call it Oyster card). To go any where in London, all you need is to know “where you want to go” and a Tube map. All the railway lines are distinguished by color, you can get into any train with a valid ticket. City (Only The Tube) is divided into 6 zones, where Zone 1 consists of Central London, where all the action takes place. With a 5.90 pound ticket, you can travel in all the 4 zones (I’ve no clue where are Zone 5 and 6) for a day. With a 28 pound oyster card, you can travel the same for 7 days. There are trains for every 5-15 minutes. Though some times trains are over crowded, they are never like our local trains where people will be hanging out. All trains and buses have cameras for safety reasons. Doors won’t open unless they driver does and he doesn’t open unless its a station or a stop. The first time I got into a bus, it was hard for me to believe that, it was the first time I’m on a double decker bus.
There are few things I observed. People are always in a hurry (some folks tell that Mumbai is more faster, but I’ve no clue). You listen to many languages around .. except English. Tubes are excellent and unless you are extra-over-intelligent, its tough to get lost. Its supposed to rain a lot in London, but dint rain for last three days, rather it was very sunny (Did I bring Chennai weather along with me ??) You dont feel like you are one of the biggest cities ( I felt like I’m a in a huge bollywood set). Its expensive to live there. Period. Wow, lots of churches and lots of history behind each one of them. Very old buildings (These guys are hardly building anything new, they are just rebuilding old buildings, the nearest railway station to me was started in 1863 !!). Roads are narrow. Cars go slow - most of the time (avg speed in London is 8mph). Great traffic sense.
Enough about London, I went to Buckingham Palace today. Every year in Summer, the palace is open for few days (Queen goes to another castle) and The State Rooms are open for public to view. Its an expensive ticket inside (28.5 GBP) for view State Rooms, Royal Mews and the Queen’s Gallery. Photography is forbidden in State Rooms and the Queen’s Gallery. Palace, architected by John Nash is a very well designed one. Rooms are huge, some nice art etc., but .. I’ve no clue why I wanted to see that. Then, I went to Royal Mews. Its place for some Horse Carriages, a Car and 4 horses. Then, I went to Queen’s Gallery, it contains few statues, nice paintings some jewels acquired/collected/.. from else where. Some stuff from Maharaja of Jaipur, Tippu Sultan where there. Thats, my artistic brain told - Enough boss, take me else where.
After that, we headed to St. James Park. Its a lovely park. London Cycling Campaign was going on. It was a carnival atmosphere and people of all age groups were cycling around. Nice sight indeed. As per their website, around 50000 people participated in it. Well, I haven’t seen so many, but there were many on cycles.
Then, we went to the London Eye, also known as the Millennium Wheel, is the tallest one of that kind in Europe. Well, its a huge giant wheel, with 32 rooms (they call them capsules) rather than boxes attached to it. It was a great ride up. You get a very good view of London City. A very very good view. I took some photos there, an invitation to the album should be there in your inboxes by now, if not, it should be on its way :P After that, I went to Trafalgar Square. There is Nelson’s Column (Nelson standing on a 46m granite column) surrounded by four lions there, which Hitler had plans of moving to Berlin, if he had won the WW II. After than I headed to the Tube and reached home.
