Trip to London...

We planned London trip during Bank Holiday weekend - 25, 26 & 27 August 2007.
(We ? - Sukumar,Pravin,Sive,Murugaiyan and Rajesh)
Day 0 - Friday (24Th)
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We started at 5.15pm from Manchester Piccadilly, Charlton street by MEGA BUS (Stagecoach) and reached London - Victoria station (both train & bus stations are close) at 10.00pm and we hired a taxi to the place called Clapham South and driver charged 13 pounds for the ride and the charge seemed to be nominal as the final amount was displayed by Taxi Meter.

Day 1 - Saturday (25Th)
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We stayed in Euro Lodge at Clapham South. The city is very well connected by underground trains (called as tube) and DLR trains. First we went to Tower Bridge which built on the Thames river.Awesome view and and wonderful place and its a must see place in the world. Its called London Tower Bridge. We took a train from clapham south to station called Tower Bridge station and we walked down the street (on the side of the street, London Dungeon is located where scary show is done, light-hearted people are not advised to go there :-) ).
keep moving forward for some more distance, we can see the right tower from the street slit and marching ahead, we can see the full view of the London tower. Such a marvellous towers standing tall on the Thames river. The beauty of it is, the bridge in between opens and closes accordingly when big ships move through that. We got a chance to see the bridge getting opened and closed, such an awesome view.we shot still & motion pictures. we moved around it and on the way, there are small fountains to cool the place as the heat was very high on that day (this is my version). The temperature could be around 32-35 degrees. It is high when compared to western standards, not with Indian weather :-). The aesthetic view cannot be described by mere words, u have to watch, feel and experience the pleasure & joy over there.... really amazing stuff. then we took a stroll, walked down the lane near to Tower Hill having the castle & museum. We didn't have much time to spend inside, but, we shot some pictures.Similar case for cruise as well, we didn't have time either for that too. we took pictures of Thames, Castle, Eat-Out places, Tower Bridge as much as possible. We had lunch there itself and we took a train from London Bridge to Chairing Cross and then another train from Chairing Cross to Greenwich. yes.That's the place where GMT is set.Lots and lots of clocks, voyage information, latitude & longitude calculations that helped the voyagers - James Homestead, James Cook, huge telescopes (one was 28 inches) and astronomical information, constellation and stars, Copernicus theory. etc. etc..more scientific and mathematical information. James had burnt some of his inventions due to plagiarizing his inventions by Sir Isaac Newton (SIN) as it was mentioned there. anyway, the hatred was present at that time itself. Another place we pictured was Queen's Hall - very spacious, huge hall with lawns and meadows on both sides - stealing our eyes. Really a wonderful view.Walking down the man-path with greenish patches on both sides took our soul out, literally.Of course, smooches, hugs, cuddles all over the places in the park. Hehehehehe....:-).. some shopping at Greenwich - some t-shirt and key chains...kind of souvenir, of course, we did also shop at Thames Bank....then, headed back to Chairing Cross. From there, we alighted at Kennington station for a change and then reached Clapham South around 9pm on Saturday.The sunshine was so bright that was up to 7.30 to 8.00pm...really a good day to start with.

Day 2 - Sunday (26Th)
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We started by 9.30am in the morning from the Euro Lodge. The place we planned to go was London Eye. we took a train from Clapham South directly to Waterloo. From the Waterloo station, it was just 5 minutes walk and as soon as we saw the giant wheel spinning very slowly,I thought, not to indulge myself into that as it was 100 feet high from the surface. However, finally, I was left with the option of entering into it with ticket that costed 15 pounds. Its really really an amazing view, awesome location. actually, it spins in anticlockwise direction and while each capsule moving, we can see the entire London city important places as it goes up and comes down on the Thames Bank. loads and loads of pictures, movies.In fact, the tickets can be booked online and time would be mentioned in the ticket. Since, we went directly and bought the tickets at the counter, we stood in the queue that toked some 20 minutes to board into the glass capsule that can accommodate 15 people (allowed). The incredible was little later: while the capsule comes down, a picture would be shot as there was a camera on the side which people hardly notice. Fortunately, I was on that side and my picture was caught in that and they sold such pictures of our interest for 10 pounds (2 copies) or 1 picture copy + 1 key chain + 1 magnet - each having our photograph that is shot by inbuilt camera.. lovely one to cherish, reminisce later... after that, we walked down on the bank of Thames with Star Wars kind of museum on left and the other bridge leading to Houses of Parliament and Big Ben (the clock, sadly, it did not bang :-( ). More pictures on the way to these two places and on the bridge itself...one of us bought honey-soaked peanuts for munching while gazing and walking....Sun was scorching compared to Western standard of temperature...mind you, we didn't have lunch then. we boarded into the train there at Westminster station and reached Kennington for the change to visit Buckingham place close to James Park underground station. Just 10 minutes walk will talk you to gigantic palace with wide road taking you to the statue. Yes, hug statue in front of the palace was really enthralling. I just shot 5 minutes of motion picture circling around that statue with large pillars holding it. Then, walked straight down to the palace entrance which is forted by grilled gates about 12 feet high. There were two guards as if they were asked to stand like straight line. Unbelievable discipline shown by those guards , they were attired in read & black suits. Spending some more time there - in and around that place, having a very good time. We pictured all of us by requesting one Indian there.I guess is that Indian is Telugu....Sun was still scorching, no doubt about that. But, people from all over the world, all over the country were literally mobbing the places. Absolutely crowded, it was like a carnival going around. Moving your back or forth, will disturb others as they would be taking pictures in different angles. Fantastic experience... we started from there around 4.30pm, walking in the park, I had chicken sandwich as my lunch. :-)) that was little expensive. Took a train from James Park to Chairing Cross(????) and then to East ham to have lovely south-Indian food. We had our snacks-cum-lunch at Saravana Bhavan in the evening, after a very long time we had south-Indian dishes like pongal, sambar-vad-idly,plain dosa, uthappam, filter-coffee. (I had Pongal,Idly,Poori,coffee and Gulab jamun...big list isnt it :-)... ) Then, after worshipping Goddess Mahalakshmi nearby.Yes,there is a hindu temple. The place is of high Indian population, especially tamilians..nice to hear the tamil all over that place and it made me feel as if I was walking through t.nagar, usman road...finally, we walked down for 15 minutes to reach Temple of Lord Muruga. It was really a good one-Lord Muruga with Valli & Devayanai. Lord Bhuvaneshwar was bravely sitting and salvaging everyone who goes there. there was Rudram-Chamakam being chanted by tape recorder.It was very religious as I listed to it after a long break. Having some pictures shot there, headed back to Clapham South. one interesting thing was one of our friend went outside after successfully swiping at turnstile in Eastham station. Unfortunately, the tunstile did not allow him to open as the ticket was reused to enter at the same place. The station assistant helped him to re-enter. We realized such thing after he experienced it.

Day 3 - Monday (27th)
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As this was a last day of London trip, we planned to visit few more places, but eventually ended up with Trafalgar Square only. It is in Zone 2 so, ticket for Zone 1 and zone 2 was enough. we just alighted at Kennington and changed the train to Trafalgar Square. It was fabulous first-sight as there was a huge pillar in centre of the city. In front of National Gallery which portrays the Christianity, other war pictures, angels. the paintings are absolutely superb with fine ray of beauty was emanating from each piece of work. Absolutely fantastic. We spent time in and around that place which is surrounded by cool water ponds, of course those ponds are not meant for public use. we started from there around 1pm, had lunch at McDonald's nearby and started our journey back to Clapham South by 2pm. Spent time in the greenish park in front of our Euro Lodge and headed back to Victoria station and waited waited and waited for the bus. of course, time was so pleasant as guys were gazing and shopping. The return journey took 5 hours to reach Manchester Piccadilly and we reached by 10.30pm.Another interesting thing was, for coming back to Wilmslow, the charge was 40 pounds and we were surprised by the amount and decided to wait and go by train. Yes, it was last train to Wilmslow and reached home by 11pm. overall, it was fantastic, fabulous and wonderful experience. Despite the heat, everything else was most enjoyable. Thank God, it was not raining, otherwise, we couldn't even have come out of our rooms... most memorable experience....