As the train labored into St. Pancras station in London, I could feel the immediate change from Paris. It was cooler and the air, expectedly, smelled different. I've always remembered the smells of different cities, and now I'd added London to that list. Waiting at the station was my beautiful (cousin) sister Mridula. As it happened, I called her to try and figure out where she was and we were standing right next to each other!! (Damn roaming rates, 100 rupees gone in a flash :P ). One welcome change was the cars driving on the left side of the road! I had at least a coupla times been caught off guard in Paris looking right and bolting across the street only to find a car coming from the left side!
It was 9pm by the time we got home, and since I'd already had something to eat on the train, I could only have a nice Maggi when I reached home - ah, it brings a smile to my face even as I write it! Soon, it was time to head to bed as London was more of an early-sleeping-early-waking city than Paris at least.
I woke up quite leisurely the following morning. My sister had already left for work, and I had a nice time preparing an English breakfast of bread & eggs. I spent some time online trying to see what I could do during the day.
By the time I left the house, it was 11am. First stop, Oxford Street. London is a fantastically cosmopolitan city. Oxford street just drives that fact home. As I walk along, I see Indians (LOTS of us), French, Americans, Italians and a few English thrown in. Its a stark contrast to Paris, where there were very few Indians and people from other nationalities were clearly tourists. In London, they were shopkeepers, businessmen, office-goers & the like.The weather was cool with a slight nip in the air, but there was no sun nor rain. Oxford Street is full of all the big brands you can imagine. I had thought I'll do some shopping, but the prices were a bit too much for my shallow pockets. Overall, it was a typical big market with a Phoenix Mills kinda feel to it, multiplied by like 100 times for size.
Next stop, St. Paul's Cathedral. This imposing structure stands surrounded by beautiful little gardens. As I walked around it, the sun decided to make a guest appearance, and the white Cathedral gleaned in delight. I'd have gone inside, but there was no service on, and at other times there's a fee, so I decided to give it a skip. The Thames runs by, actually meanders by, close to the Cathedral, and I took a diversion from my original plan to walk along it for a bit. From the Millenium bridge, right up to the Castle was a good 20 minute walk. It was past 2 pm and there were several joggers along the path - very strange I might add. I assume the weather in London is only so good so often for jogging!The King's Castle at the end of the path is strikingly large (what did I expect!? Its a castle for godssake!). Again, no point going inside I thought, some 20 pounds. Instead, I watched the free video at the welcome desk and it was pretty nice, I might add.
After walking around randomly for another half hour or so, I headed for my last 'touristy' stop of the day - Camden Market. This is a very Indian style market, a bit like Chor Bazaar in Bombay, with lots of little shops selling everything from beads to keychains and sunglasses. It was packed with tourists, most of them trying to drive a hard bargain. A comparison with prices in India made me laugh, coz if these tourists were really looking for bargains, they should have been in Bombay or Delhi not London ;)
As evening arrived, I headed out towards the country-side, to spend the night and the next day with my other (cousin) sister, Anu. She had a nice place in a green town called Highwycombe, about 30 miles from Central London. By the time I got there, it was 8.30 pm, bang on time for dinner! After a long time, I had a typical Indian dinner (I couldn't count the one I had in Paris as Indian as it was inordinately spicy and gave me a forgettable yet memorable next morning ;))
A nice relaxed evening (with my very shy nephew, Ary - short for Aryaman - who looks remarkably like me) later, I was ready to hit the sack. The next day was going to be one of full relaxation. I wanted to enjoy the countryside and have a quiet time at home and walking around in nearby parks. Highwycombe is a beautiful little town, and my brother-in-law, Arnab, was very kind to drive me around to see the local cricket ground, football pitch and park. Its the quintessential quiet life. Ary, after the initial shyness really seemed to take a liking to me and started talking a lot. He'd address me as 'Mamu' - a way of saying Mama (uncle)!! So he'd go "Mamu, lets go to the park" or "Mamu, lets watch Nemo", or, "Mamu, what car do you have? I have a thunderbird!"...!! With all that & blazing sunshine (an extreme rarity in England), I had what I wanted, a relaxed day spent with family and not to mention, great food.
In the evening, I headed back to London, to rejoin my sister and help get things sorted out before we flew to Spain the next day (Thursday). I cooked a simple dinner of rice, sambhar (ready-made) and salad which we enjoyed as we caught up on the latest from each others' lives.London was a short stay. Its not a very touristy city, but there are still quite some places to see if one plans a longer trip. Highwycombe was the highlight of my trip there - the quiet life, on vacation - twas as welcome as the Londoners welcome a bout of sunshine.
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