Continued from Part I

We woke up to a wonderful sunny morning in Kent. The river was glowing with bright rays of the sun which from inside the heated room would make one think of a premature arrival of summer. It was hard to believe that just two weeks back, even the airports had to be shut down because of the heavy snowfall. Ekta woke us up as planned at around 9 and Nishant was already in his kitchen apron asking us whether we preferred tea or coffee.

While we still had the hangover of Saturday, they were more than set to hit the sunny day and show us around. Just like the day before even today I had my choice of English breakfast courtesy super chef Nishant – Bread, bacon, sausages, croquet ,fried eggs (to add to the scrambled ones consumed on Saturday) and of course coffee. The beauty of the home became even more prominent in the day-light. We had a look at the garden and soon all illusions that summer had arrived vanished as it was still quite chilly in the bright sunshine. But still it was manageable and far from the depressing, murky atmosphere that prevailed two weeks back.

After having the sumptuous breakfast we were all set for another long day which would start off with a drive towards London. On the way we spotted a milestone which read “Dover” (the point from where the Channel Tunnel starts and connects France) and Nishant told be that in an hour we can reach France. I just wondered that if we had time we could have also squeezed in a French visit.

English Breakfast

We decided to first stop at Canary Wharf and then proceed to Greenwich observatory as both these prominent landmarks fell on the way to central London. Canary Wharf was a familiar place for me as a lot of huge companies had their offices there including mine. While we have our own hi-tech cities, Canary Wharf still left me in awe. There were no. of tall buildings (not tall enough to be called skyscrapers) with glass windows that reflected the sunshine making it look even more polished and glossy. After being done at Canary Wharf we went next to the Greenwich observatory through which the 0 degree meridian passed. It is all thanks to this meridian that we have our GMT defined and which does not change from season to season to add to the confusion. There was much more to the place though than just an observatory. It gave us a breathtaking view of Canary Wharf across the river and it was a beautiful place to hang around and have a picnic on a sunny day. There was huge crowd queued up to first pose on the white line which was supposedly the meridian and then to enter the museum in the observatory.

Greenwich

As usual we stuck to our stance of no indoor museum visits so after my brief tryst with the “west”, we now set-off for central London once again. We first stopped at Westminster where I wanted to click some snaps of the parliament and the Big Ben in day-light. And it turned out to be the best time of the day as the rays of the sun fell on the parliament giving it a golden hue. The next stop was Trafalgar square, another spot which we visited the day before but I wanted a day-time visit. To me the image of T-square was all about the pigeons and that even formed the opening scene of the iconic film Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge fifteen years back. Subsequently lot of film sequences used that backdrop to provide a dramatic effect to the scene. However, I noticed that there was a board which said in five languages including Hindi and Urdu that “Do not feed the pigeons, they cause nuisance and damage the square”. The place was buzzing with people and of course the pigeons on a Sunday afternoon. The most prominent landmark here was the National Gallery and the four Lions sitting outside it (I need to check out on the significance of the Lions). Parking was an issue around the area so Nishant said that he wouldn’t park and instead go ‘around’ a couple of times till we finish seeing the place and clicks the snaps. However, he ended up doing an extra round since the ladies were too busy planning for the next stop and hence missed seeing him waving out to us to come close to the car. He finally picked us up on his third lap around the T-square.

Trafalgar Square

This was more or less it and we planned to wind up at our final destination which was to be Covent Garden. Covent Garden was a happening place with whole lot of shops, pubs and eateries lined up. It was a wonderful place for a walk and window shopping which was precisely what the ladies did. Nishant and I checked into one of the pubs for a beer and some fries. One the ladies were done with their window shopping we would proceed for our final meal and that was to be pies. I wondered it would be some Apple pie-type stuff and showed my apprehension but Nishant reassured that it was not to be a typical ‘pie’. What we got was a creative version of a chicken patty (it had lamb and fish as the other options). It tasted amazing and was heavy enough to skip dinner for the night. Kamalika and Ravi joined us here to see us off and Arshia soon left as she had to take the train back to Hull. It was time for byes all around as the glorious weekend was coming to its end. Nishant and Ekta dropped us at the Kings Cross station from where we took the train to Luton. The flight was on time and the airport looked quite lively. Our Wizzair flight was at 8:25 PM so we hung around a bit in the duty free shops before the final departure call (In case of Wizzair that happens generally five minutes before the departure). We reached Prague at 11:30 PM to a wet, murky and depressing weather though devoid of the snow. Since all the tiredness of the weekend had begun to take effect mentally, we hired the first cab and reached home.

This type of whirlwind visit left many places to be still visited. Some of the high priority items on the ‘next time’ list include:
Madam Tussauds
Cambridge
Windsor Castle
Oxford Street & Richmond