Lake District

May 23rd -26th

I was looking forward to this trip right from the start of this week since this was our first long trip after coming to UK. Since there was a bank holiday on 26th May(Monday), we had planned to take a leave on 23rd (Friday) too. Though Sumanth was hooked up with his project deadlines at office in the last week, the trip was meticulously planned right from the beginning, thanks to Arun! We were quite a big group of 7.

Thursday eve, the day before our trip was a festive day..I came back soon from office and started preparing puliogre for our 6-hour long journey the next day. Each one of us, Savitha, Maya and myself had planned for a kind of potluck coz of our cooking enthu.
It was almost 1:00 am when we slept after packing stuff for the next 4 days. Got up at 5, prepared channa masala, went with Arun to get the 7-seater rental car. This was Sumanth's first time driving experience in UK. But driving here is no issue, unlike France/Dubai where it is a right hand drive.

The roads were blocked with huge traffic jams on MotorWays since every other person was getting out of the city for the long weekend! We could see cycles/boats on the top of cars...huge holiday spirit everywhere!Enjoying the spring weather and view and the typical English country side, the journey was very pleasant. Took a break for lunch and binged on batata vadas, pullav, etc. Not to forget my channa masala and puliogre..

We reached Windermere in Lake district where we were to stay for the next 3 nights at 8 pm, much later than what we expected, due to the 'bank holiday weekend traffic' and also our innumerable breaks on the way.

Next morning, rented a motor boat in which we cruised for 4 hours, and passed another town called Ambleside. After a mammoth task of anchoring the boat, we spent quite some time walking in the town and park. Got back to our B&B (Bread and Breakfast) for a quick refresh, then drove amidst wonderful lush green landscape to Conestan Pass and had hot cup of coffee along one of the quiet lakesides. Came across a sports complex nearby and spent a long time playing football, foosball and snooker. The sports cmompelx was located amidst beautiful landscape and we could spot couple of people camping in their tents in a distance.

Next morning, drove to Ulswater lake waterfalls. While walking up the hill to the waterfalls, the narrow path and surroundings somehow reminded me of Pearl valley in B'lore, though the only thing in common is the narrow path. The place was refreshing, clean and fresh. Spent considerable time there, before heading to 'The stone henge'. This is the most stupid tourist attraction. I wonder why it has been a tourist spot in the first place! All you can find there are couple of small rocks placed here and there. No one knows of any significance too! Nevertheless, clicked couple of snaps there too in the hope of somehow compensating for the long drive till there :)

By then our stomachs started growling and we had had enough of the *famous* stone henge. Drove into the nearest town -Kendal. On our hunt to find something edible, we walked all though the beautiful lively town centre where an interesting road play was being staged. Watching the skillful road play made us forget the time..later,finally with great luck, found a french restaurant and had the yummiest margherita pizza ever! Kendal town centre is pretty, much like a studio-setup. I could spot huge flower vases (taller than me) kept decoratively in the midst of the roads..

Crashed on bed in our B&B after a long day and it was time for us to leave to Birmingham the next day, on our way back to Reading. Birmingham's attraction is the huge Venkateshwara temple and the Bull ring mall. The temple is huge and beautiful and we were provided with a real yum lunch as prasadam.

Reached Reading in the eve after a nice long trip with enjoyable company.

Southall

5th May 2008
This is the place desis would definitely want to go if they are missing desi atmosphere in UK. The Southall train station greets us with a board written in Punjabi!! Check that out!
Walking down the street, we watched with amazement as every single shopkeeper was conversing in hindi! Typical indian-style garment shops, bangle shops, kurta, chudidar..etc. Where else in UK can we find a marriage bureau or horoscope shops?? :)
As we shoved our way on the pavement through loads of ppl bustling around, the scene reminded me of Avenue road in Bangalore. Also, we could hardly spot British people anywhere!

Seems the first group of South Asians arrived in Southall in 1950 and settled here due to the closeness of Heathrow Airport, and has since been increasing with many South Asians. We had lunch in a Pakistani restaurant - samosas, veg biryani, chicken tikka, mango lassi..yum. Then continued roaming around the streets after eating 'cup corn' to our heart's content.
Southall is also the location of the "Glassy Junction", which serves several Indian draught beers and was the first pub in the UK to accept payment in Indian rupees :)). Also the film Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal starring John Abraham and Bipasha Basu was filmed in Glassy junction

Check out this bus decorated fully in typical Punjabi style :)
You can also see a shop named after the famous Palika Bazaar of Delhi
We came across McDonald's and noticed that it has changed certain food items on the menu to halal and certified halal!!

Later, we visited the Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha, which is the largest Sikh temple outside of India. It has beautiful interiors and prayer area. There is a large golden coloured dome on the temple which captures our attention even from a long distance.
Stuffing our bags with loads of Indian/Asian stuff, we returned back to home sweet home -Reading.

Snow fall

6th April, 7:45 am
After an exhaustive day at Bristol yday, I woke up reluctantly today morning to prepare coffee and sleepily started lifting up the kitchen's window blinds. Saw a hazy white something, and my immediate thought was that it could have rained the prev night, so bent closer, lifted the blinds fully in the hope of clearing the mist off the glass. It was then that I saw for the first time, a grand thick layer of snow, evenly spread around on every object like a very thick carpet. As an immediate reflex, I let out a loud shriek in excitement. Sumanth, who was till then snoring happily, woke up with a thunderous start :)
We put on our jackets and started walking out and everywhere, basking in the absolutely amazing snow, which we were experiencing for the first time. Roads, pavements, lawn...couldn't differentiate between any of those...it was just a huge white thick carpet everywhere!

Bristol

5th April
We reached Bristol parkway station, where my friend Rekha's hubby and kid greeted us. When we drove into Bristol city, we changed our impression of Bristol as a small town. It is quite huge with broad roads. Reached Rekha's house, relaxed, chatted and after a grand heavy meal, all of us visited Bristol Suspension bridge. The Clifton Suspension Bridge, Bristol’s famous landmark, spans the 250 foot high beautiful Avon Gorge. With bright and sunny weather assisting us, we spent a good amount of time walking around the picturesque area ,walking on the bridge, gazing at the river below and cars zooming on the roads below, looking like small toy cars from above.

Daylight savings

30th March, 12:45 pm
We bid good bye to our friends who had accompanied us to a late night movie and dropped us back home. Later, logged onto the net just before winding off for the day. The time on the laptop which was just then showing 1:00 am suddenly changed to 2:00 am! Daylight savings!

I like this concept, though initially we have to get used to setting all our activities one hour in advance. Having bf, lunch, dinner when u r not feeling hungry yet!
But now a days sun rises sooner, yday's 6 am is today's 7 am, so we get to see more daylight and sunshine. Similarly, it would be bright and sunny outside even at 8 pm, and techies reach home from office when there is sunlight still! :) What a rare thing! People are seen sweating out jogging on the road during late evenings.

Weather is warmer now, just like B'lore weather. Sweaters and thermals stuffed tight in the wardrobe. What a bliss! Spring is arriving and beautiful flowers and leaves blooming slowly everywhere!

Windsor castle

23rd March,2008

At 8:30am while walking to Reading railway station, there was a continuous shower of sleet (frozen rain). It was a beautiful sight. Before reaching Windsor Castle, we had to make a change at Slough. Here, it started snowing. Exciting to watch! Reached destination within 30 min from home.

Just out of the Windsor train station, the majestic castle greeted us. This is where the Royal British family resided since generations and is still residing. This part of the castle is not open to the public of course.

There is a big statue of Queen Victoria in front of the gate. Sumanth recalled that there is a similar statue of queen Victoria in namma Cubbon park! And btw, the Bangalore palace's design was influenced by this majestic castle.

We hopped on to a hop-on-hop-off bus which took us all through Windsor and Eton town for around 45 minutes. We were the only people on the bus roof! Enjoyed the chill wind there and didn't get inside the warm bus. The view of 'The long walk' in front of the castle was amazing.

Got off the bus, purchased the tickets for the Castle and since we had ample time for entering the castle, we went on a walk on Thames river. Fantastic view. Loads of white swans everywhere! Had an absolutely delicious lunch in an Indian restaurant and headed toward the castle.

The queue had already built up like a long snake and we spent 30 min in the queue...not bad though.
Windsor castle is splendid and magnificent. With audio guides for every room we visit, I too developed interest in history! Seems castle is situated in a centralized location so that the soldiers can get a first hand info on attackers, if any.

Visited the doll house - dolls used by princesses - not impressive! Then entered the majestic hallway with a very high roof and broad staircase leading to a huge room. This room has a huge collection of all the royal things that the British have acquired during their colonizing spree all over the world.
The major attraction is a huge tiger's head made of pure gold and precious stones, which was used by Tipu Sultan on his throne. Other belongings of Tipu displayed were his robes, turban and jewels. Tipu Sultan's famous sword was here till recently until namma Bengaluru's Vijay Mallya purchased it back from here! One day, I should be able to buy that golden tiger's head! :)

Apart from this, there were innumerable beautiful artistic swords from India, embedded with precious stones. There were similar such things that the British obtained from different kings and emperors of other countries of the world.

After spending an interesting time at the impressive Windsor, we headed back to home sweet warm home.

First visit to London

16th Feb We left Reading at 9:30 by train and reached London Paddington station in half an hour flat. Journey seemed much shorter as I admired the pictureque countryside fly by.

Paddington station is majestic and impresses a first time visitor with its historic antique view. From there, we went down the elevator to minus 2 level to catch a Tube to Waterloo station. Underground Tubes are excellent means of public transport, you just need a map in hand to know which tube to get into. No chance of getting lost!

Just out of this station, we were greeted by the huge 'London Eye'. It has 32 capsules and houses upto 25 people in each capsule. One complete round in this giant wheel takes around 30 min. yawwnnn....avoided it.. have already seen the aeriel view from the plane!

We headed directly to the river cruise. The weather was cold, but not unbearable. Listening to a good and sometimes hilarious commentary on almost all of the buildings on either side of the river Thames- the parliament house, the Big Ben, etc, the river cruise ended at the famous Tower bridge. We walked down couple of streets in the hope of getting a Mc Donalds veg burger for lunch...instead, grabbed a Subway sandwich and spent quite a good time at the Tower Bridge , basking in the world famous tourist spot.

By the way, the "London Bridge" is not as shown in this picture to the right..yes, it is a misnomer....this is "Tower Bridge". The actual London Bridge is just a PJ bridge...nothing special about it!
Upon entering inside the towers of the tower bridge, we were shown 2 documentaries on how the bridge came into existance, how many designs were rejected before this one was finalized, the amount of work and effort by the people and the working mechanism of the bridge. Also, how deep sea divers toiled to lay the foundation. It was very interesting.

Walking on the bridge's pavement, observing the cars race by and appreciating the wonderful view of London around, I also noticed the separator cleavage on the bridge road. This is where the bridge splits into two, when huge ships have to cross across the bridge.
Next, we visited the engine room where the working mechanism of how the bridge splits into two is explained very clearly in a easy to understand and impressive manner.

Reached Madame Tussauds museum at 4:30 and a huge queue greeted us. Realising that we will not be successfull in getting a detailed view inside before the closing time, we headed for Buckingham palace. Pretty, but you wont be impressed if u have already seen the wonderful Mysore palace!

Well, this was all that we could see in a day. There are so many other tourist attractions and interesting places to visit in London, we require alteast 2 more days to get a glimpse of all.

Waiting eagerly for our next visit...