London - Picture File

Thought I'd start these picture files to showcase the unique characteristics of places I've visited and things that caught my interest. Hope you enjoy them too! Here's London, where there were so many things to see and so little time! 

The Iconic London Bus!

 There's no doubt that the London tube is the fastest way to get around the city but after a while I got tired of the soulless travel through dark tunnels, not to mention the gazillion stairs and long narrow escalators so I insisted on a bus ride. At least we'd get to see the city! After one hour of trying to find a bus stop from where we could catch our ride to Knightsbridge from Bouroughs Market, (which also involved a tube ride) and another hour and a half of London traffic, my husband got really grumpy! Any further bus suggestions were shot down!

Covent Garden

This looked like a statue at first. It was actually an ingenious bloke suspended in the air who'd suddenly come to life when someone plunked money in his bucket. Don't know how he did it! In the rain almost motionless for hours!

Tower of London

We were very fortunate to be there during the Centenary Poppy Seed Campaign where people across the country were encouraged to plant poppy seeds for British soldiers who lost their lives in World War 1. The Tower of London grounds were decorated with 888, 246 ceramic poppies. The installation was not complete at the time of this picture. Though we got to see the poppies, the lines for a peek at the crown jewels was nuts! We waited an hour and a half to get in  and the line behind us was more than three times long! Moral of the story, Come early in the morning. 

The view of the Tower of London from the boat to Greenwich

London Eye

See the plane flying through the spokes! Rather good capture I thought!

Tower Bridge

                             Going under!

Canary Wharf. Where conglomerates make their millions and billions!

The Cutty Sark. One of the fastest and last of the wooden hull British clippers. Originally built for the tea trade between London and China and then used for wool trade with Australia after the opening of the Suez Canal. Got phased out by steam ships. (Go Wikipedia!). Proudly perched in Greenwich.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Regent street shut down for the entire day to showcase 20 gorgeous Mustangs!

                           


                            BEAUTIES!

Speaks for itself!

At Bourough Market there was a stall showcasing carved pumpkins for a Halloween competition. I think this would have won hands down! Check out the blood and guts coming out of the mouth on the above left and the don't miss the expressions! What amazing attention to detail. Both pictures are different sides of the same pumpkin.

Cotswold Capers – Part 2 Bourton-on-the-Water

Bourton-on-the-Water, Glouchestershire, England

After a good night's rest and a hearty breakfast at Sturdy's Castle in Kidlington, we headed off to Bourton-on-the-Water, a village in Gloucestershire, apparently voted as one of the prettiest villages in England (courtesy their website). It had been highly recommended.

The hour long drive was very scenic with tree lined roads, rolling hills and vales and charming cottages and farms scattered here and there. On the way we passed the picturesque village of Stow-on-the-Wold and were planning on stopping by for a looksie on the way back but couldn't as we ran out of time. Got to the Bourton parking lot and were quite surprised to find it kind of deserted. The air was chilly and the skies threatened rain as we walked through an inside lane to get to the main centre. Once we came out of the lane the sheer loveliness of the village took us by surprise. Really really charming. A small canal runs right through the village with little arched bridges to get across and the limestone houses in symmetry and leafy surroundings made for a pretty picture.

BRUM

We started by going to the Motoring Museum where well kept vintage cars from Austins, Jaguars, BMW's, Daimler Benzs shared space with motorcycles, automotive parts and memorabilia. You first enter a shop selling miniature cars and knick knacks and think what? This is it? What museum? Then you pay the 5 pound entry fee and the gentleman opens a nondescript door behind him and you enter a whole little world of cars. I could almost feel myself transported to a different era and really missed my father who would have gone berzerk here as he's a car freak. Actually if he had been with us we wouldn't have been able to see anything else as he would have holed himself in there the entire day and it would have been impossible to drag him out! The museum is also home to BRUM a little car that has had its own TV show on the BBC.

Miniature wonders

Motoring Museum miniature

After that, we went to the Model Village which just blew me away. The entire village was replicated in miniature with such attention to detail, it was extraordinary. The motoring museum part even had a little car in front. The model village also had an enclosed area with many glass windows of approximately two feet each containing miniature replicas of things like the flower shop complete with the sales lady, someone's study, a greengrocer, a girl's birthday party, to recount a few. It was just marvelous. We spent a good amount of time there and I would highly recommend a visit if you're in those parts. Such a unique and well executed idea. I loved what the village has done to showcase itself and tourists are in for a visual treat.

So like the original

Next we went to the perfumery. We thought we'd actually see how perfumes were made but it was just a small store with a whole bunch of scents in glass pots and a section selling jewelry. If there was something else to it, we missed that.

Walking through the village by-lanes, we chanced upon a little shop selling colourful sweets and literally became the kids in the candy store. Went a bit crazy buying toffees, hard boiled candies, lollipops and fudge, though there were a few hits and misses as tasting was not an option before buying. Loved the chocolate lime toffees, the rum and raisin fudge, bubblegum and the chocolate raspberry toffees but the striped sweets and flying saucer discs were a bit strange.

Miniature Model Windows

The Den

Caught!

All the Pretty Flowers

Mind it When You Park it!

I would have loved to just sit in one of the tea rooms and enjoy a cuppa but we had a lot of places to cover. Also, I think first world countries practice parking terrorism. Charge you a huge amount per hour and once time's up you better get the hell out or pay a hefty fine. So mostly you're not sure how much time you're going to spend there and always end up running back to top up! It's always at the back of your mind and kind of takes away a bit of the enjoyment of exploring a new place when you're constantly having to check your watch.

Digressing a bit, in Oxford we just managed to jump on the HO-HO (hop-on-hop-off) bus for a one hour tour and then had to gobble our lunch at lightening speed as our parking time was almost up and the fine for overstaying was 80 pounds or so. 8000 rupees! Our friend got so worried that she ditched her soup and ran to wait in the car so she could move it if required! My husband and I refused to leave good Thai food.

Country road

Back to Bourton..since our parking slot was for a two hour period and my husband had already topped it up for another hour, we decided to head out. When we reached the parking lot, it was packed and bus loads of tourists were heading towards the village! It was a good idea to come early.

There are so many places to go from here such as Stratford-upon-Avon, which houses Shakespeare's cottage and other small villages which all have their unique characteristics, and Bichester village which has designer shopping outlets at cut prices of all the brands from Dior to Armani to Diesel. All within about an hour or two's drive. We wanted to do it all! UGH! So little time! I am definitely coming back to these parts and will surely plan better next time.

Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire

After Bourton we drove down to Blenheim Palace, the home of Winston Churchill, located outside another very charming village called Woodstock. In the palace, you get pretty much a lot of the war history of England given the nature of the Churchill family's occupation.

Blenheim Palace

The stairs to the left of the entrance will take you through numerous rooms chronicling the drama of the Churchill ancestors and their household help including their scandalous affairs and happenings, complete with sound effects and life-like puppets. On the other side you get to walk through the residential part of it including the bedrooms, dining room, the staterooms and the study where he thought out his war strategy. The place also very conveniently has good restrooms, a large cafeteria where the tired tourist can relax and partake of refreshments and a sizeable gift shop for souvenirs.

The palace lawns are quite extensive and a wooded path around the lake on the property makes for a nice relaxing stroll. If you really want to make the most of it, exploring Blenheim Palace and its lawns will take you the better part of the day.

Woodstock

We were told to definitely have scones and clotted cream at the Blenheim Buttery in Woodstock and at around 5.30 p.m. we made our way there, eagerly anticipating the lovely rich typical England experience only to be told that they had run out. What a disappointment. Though I was probably the only one looking to stuff my face with the buttery treat.

After a cup of tea we walked around the village a bit and decided to have an early dinner and head back. Had a hearty meal of steak and ale pie and wine at the Woodstock Arms pub, which for a while was managed solely by the bartender-cum-waitress (no mean feat), and headed back to Sturdy's where we spent our two nights. As the end of our Cotswolds trip neared, we were feeling terrible that our holiday within the holiday was coming to an end. Nevermind that we were going back to London for the rest of our vacation!

Word of advice: Bring a fat wallet when coming to England. The combined entrance fees for popular tourist attractions will be an average person's monthly (or two monthly) salary. 

Cotswold Capers - The Journey

London to Kidlington, England

London Eye

In October last year, my husband and I whizzed off on a much needed vacation to London. Since we were going to be spending eight days there, getting a whiff of country air seemed a great idea too. After tossing around options from the Lake District to Cornwall to as far as Scotland (neither of which would have made any sense given we had only two nights to spare), a friend suggested the Cotswolds. And what a great suggestion that was.

The Cotswolds is an area of rolling hills and pretty countryside with villages made of limestone cottages in the southern central part of England. The area comprises the counties of Oxfordshire, Gloustershire and parts of others such as Wiltshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Somerset (all this info courtesy Wikipedia).

Almost Over!

We figured the best way we'd get to explore the region was by car. So we got on to Cartrawler and booked one. Thought we got a good deal at 95 pounds for two nights for an Opel Astra sized vehicle, given it was a last minute booking. Got to Europcar at Victoria Station at 3 p.m. and were told we needed to furnish an international drivers license. The fellow behind the counter insisted that he couldn't give us the car without the international license as it was some insurer stipulation. Being us, we arrived on the dot to collect the car, never realizing there could be a problem so to maybe make it to the rental office a wee bit earlier. When we called the website they said that they couldn't do anything about the refund at that moment because it was already past the allotted pickup time.

So here we are with our Cotswolds trip dissipating before our eyes, about 10,000 rupees down the drain and quite dejected, when we approach the Budget rental right next door. Thank God for Budget! We got a car, at the Nth hour, a teeny two door Nissan Micra for 190 pounds with a full tank of gas. Though I thought that was a s***load of money to pay for two days, it was well worth not destroying our holiday. A word of advice, don't take the full tank of gas from the rental for a two day trip. We ended up returning the car with almost half tank unconsumed. After getting the keys, the three of us...a friend who lives in London joined us on this trip..piled into the car and made our way into the London streets.

Round and Round the Garden

Now London roads can be quite tricky to maneuver. Not the actual driving part, which is quite slow and a cakewalk for anyone used to driving in India where cars come at you from all directions and you have to be on hyper-alert at all times, but the narrow lanes, sharp zig zag cuts and general rules took a bit of time to master. The friend who suggested the Cotswolds had very kindly lent us his Garmin GPS device (God bless him), but my husband insisted we use Google Maps on our friend's iPhone (He has some weird fixation with Apple). After driving around in a loop at least three times and getting kind of lost, I put my foot down and snarled `it's going to be the Garmin and nothing else!' Thankfully he agreed otherwise we would still be going round and round the streets of London.

The drive along the A40 motorway was pleasant, and what made it better was that we were going against traffic. Being a Sunday, we had clear roads while the lane leading in to London was jammed for at least two to three kilometers and we're saying to ourselves ``we got so lucky! Look at those poor suckers'. It took us about two hours to reach our hotel.

Destination Nowhere

The Garmin (our best friend) was spot on and precise, right up to the point we got to our final destination. We had reservations at Sturdy's Castle in Kidlington, a few miles from Oxford and since it had already become dark, we couldn't really make out our surroundings. Driving down a deserted country road, we were told our destination was 500 meters ahead. Destination approaching.. approaching.. approaching....huh? Nothing. Staring at the Garmin, I see us going over the destination marker. Meanwhile our GPS friend is squawking ``you have reached your destination, you have reached your destination. Then...``you have overshot your destination..turn around..turn around. We turn back. Still nothing. Deserted road, darkness. Turned around again and took a right turn. Still nothing. Come back to the spot indicated and go ahead a bit. See a gate with wild brush beyond, dark and creepy.. reminded me of the horror movies bhoot bangla (haunted house) types! Noooo it seriously couldn't be this place. Any reputable establishment would have lights right? Finally we drove back a bit, stopped at a car dealer parking lot, fished out the number of the inn and called them. Found out that it was just about a mile ahead and all lit up.

Sturdy's, a motel like place in the middle of nowhere had very comfortable rooms and bathrooms, pretty decent size too and good rates. Our rooms were on the first floor so were quite silent and peaceful. The inn is well located between Oxford, Bicester (where you have designer store outlets at cut prices), Woodstock and other Cotswold villages and it;s about a 10 minute drive or so from Blenheim Palace, the home of Winston Churchill, a big tourist attraction. You definitely need to have a car to be staying here.

Sturdy's Castle (why didn't I think to get a better picture!)

After checking in we went to the dining room for dinner. A nice cozy place. Ordered liver pate and a baked camembert with pear and fig chutney which came with toasted slices of bread. Was yummy. So when the bread finished, we asked if we could get more. The waitress said sure. Went into the kitchen and out came a guy who wagged his rag at us and said that we needed to get to our mains as the wait staff had been working since six am and needed to get home. Wow. All we asked was for more bread! Kinda Oliver Twist like. Decided to leave it be and not make a scene.

Lemme Know What You Want, Will Make Sure I Don't Get It!

The waitress after asking how we would like our bread, toasted or otherwise and with us saying toasted, put down a platter of plain sliced bread. We just left it. After that, apart from our breakfasts, which were included in the room rate and was quite good, we didn't eat any of our meals there. The mains weren't exceptional enough for a repeat performance. The other staff were polite and I would consider staying there again for the rooms. The free WiFi was an added bonus which allowed the husband to bury his nose into his computer while my friend and I nattered away and planned our next two days.

P.s. Cartrawler, after a couple of months, refunded half the money.