The Heart Travels

Birmingham and Bournemouth: Cricket and the Beach


August 12-15, 2011
As I prepared for another trip to my dream destination UK, all hell seemed to have broken loose over there. News poured in that riots had broken out in London and people are going bezerk. Updates from Londen-ers suggested that after a while everyone just wanted to join the fun. The reason was the protest against the rising unemployment. How tides can turn, I wondered. Being an Indian I have to now think of facing riots in London over unemployment.
Once the Londen-ers got tired and bored, the riots subsided in London but spread like wildfire to the rest of England. For the first couple of days I downplayed it thinking it would not be much but as news poured in that the shops are being vandalized in Birmingham and the upcoming England Vs India test match might be under threat, I realized that there might be something in it. Thankfully, there wasn’t and by the time it was Friday, everything seemed normal and I would be happily boarding my flight. The plan was to initially stay at London for the night with Ravi and Kamalika, proceed to Birmingham the next morning to watch the 4th day of the test match and then proceed onward to the beachside town of Bournemouth where I would join Asmi, her parents and Arshia (sister) for a two-night stay.
The Easyjet flight to Gatwick from Prague was late by close to an hour so I arrived at midnight. Gatwick is probably the farthest airport from central London where Ravi and Kamalika are put up so I was all set for a mid-night adventure. I took the train from Gatwick to London Bridge and from there by bus to Kings Cross. I played it safe for the last leg to Finchley Road and took a cab for around 20 GBP.
The next morning we boarded the train to Birmingham. The train was full and it took a while for us to get seats. Quite a lot of people were flocking towards Edgbaston for the test match. It was my first ‘live’ match outside India and I was really looking forward to check out the atmosphere in a non-Indian environment and also get a feel of how English fans view the sport. Needless to say, we were mentally prepared for some taunts from the English fans considering the state of the series. We were down 0-2 after defeats at Lords and Trent Bridge and whatever strength our team had, it was now in all shambles as England amassed 710-6 the previous day. Had they declared earlier, probably the match would be over by this time. Like a typical Indian fan, I was still optimistic. We were one down at stumps and with 9 second innings wickets intact, I hoped that we would at least survive the day and drag the match to Day 5. My hopes took a beating even as we were at the gate. Gambhir was dismissed and by the time we walked in, the entire stadium was giving the customary standing ovation to Sachin Tendulkar. I was never fascinated by individual records but I wondered that the only way this visit could be more fruitful is if Sachin got that 100th ton. The ground and the stadium was a brilliant spectacle. It was heartening to see such a large crowd at a test match especially since the match turned out to be a one-sided affair. And the crowd was not Indian dominated (might be the situation of the match had something to do with it). The English fans all looked serious about the cricket that was going on and England’s impending no. 1 status which would come in all likelihood before the end of the day’s play. The shade of green of the outfield was typical of the European summer and however much we try we can never get that shade on any ground in India.

Sachin was batting beautifully. Each boundary was a trademark Sachin shot which attracted applause from all corners of the ground including the Barmy Army who kept singing on the stand opposite to us. Wickets tumbled at the other end. Rahul Dravid missed out on a referral he should have taken, VVS struggled like a novice, Raina got foxed by Swann and within an hour it was half the side gone with Dhoni joining Sachin. Soon the only incentive to watch the match was gone as Sachin was run out by Swann on 40 when a Dhoni straight-drive had him out of his crease while backing up. The long walk back to the pavilion as usual had the whole of Edgbaston standing but it was all but over for India. I wondered that I could even take an earlier train to Bournemouth. We were six down at lunch. I planned to meet up with my old buddy from B-school Manpreet for lunch. He is based out of Birmingham and is working with Deutchebank. He picked me up from Edgbaston and we went for lunch to Water’s Edge, one of the happening places of Birmingham. We were joined by his wife Vipan who is a practicing dentist. I had a typical English fish-n-chips meal and caught up on old times with Manpreet. By the time I reached Edgbaston it was one hour past in the post lunch session and now only the last rites remained. India were eight down and no sooner I took my seat it was nine down. MSD and Praveen Kumar hit some lusty blows while I was away for lunch and took the score to some respectability and avoided India’s worst ever test match defeat. The misery for the Indian cricketers were soon over as the match was wrapped up and the scoreboard proudly proclaimed England’s newly acquired and well deserved world no. 1 status. We hung around for a while for the presentation and then made our way to the station by the shuttle bus. I was cornered by a few English fans as I took my seat on the last row of the bus. They were not going to let this chance go. I had no option but to remind them of the world cup but they were as amazed as everyone else at India’s abject surrender on this tour. They asked me what went wrong and I like a CEO of a sunken company looked for answers ranging from injury to tiredness to IPL and finally accepting that we lost to a far superior team on current form and class.

The tickets to Bournemouth at that peak hour cost a whopping 79 GBP. I boarded the train to Bournemouth at around 4 while Ravi and Kamalika waited for their train to London. It was a 3-hour ride through the British countryside. I tried to catch up on some lost sleep and was partly successful. I reached Bournemouth at around 7:15 and waited at the station for Asmi and family as they were supposed to arrive an hour later from London. We were booked in 2 rooms at the Hotel Cliffside. As soon as Asmi and family arrived, we took a cab to the hotel. The view overlooking the hotel was magnificent with the gorgeous blue sea going all the way to its horizon. It was almost at the time of sunset when we reached and the orange hew made the place look even more beautiful. We visited Brighton beach three months back and now it was its western counterpart. While Brighton was a pebbled beach and hence not suitable for walking, this was a proper sandy beach with a long straight coastline. The hotel was located on a cliff (and hence the name Cliffside) and you could see the coastline below at a lower height. There were roads and steps to go down and even a funicular. It was already dark so we set off for dinner. We took a cab to the city centre which is hardly five minutes from the hotel and had a sumptuous Indian dinner. There were two Indian restaurants opposite each other and we decided to keep the other one for the next day. The forecast was bright and sunny for the next day and we eagerly looked forward to it.

The day looked to be the perfect one. As we entered our parent’s room which overlooked the sea it seemed as if the sea and the beach beckoned us. We obliged as soon as possible after a quick breakfast. Parents were still relaxing in the room while we hit the beach. A short walk followed by a funicular ride down the cliff took us to the beach. It was a wonderful feeling walking on the beach. It was still too cold to don the swimsuits and dive into the water but it was good enough to soak your feet on the waves. Arshia was the only one of us who braved the cold water and got wet. Though I love getting soaked in the sea water, I was content to just wet my feet. We walked a bit on the beach which was as expected crowded thanks to the wonderful sunny day (and might be the last such weekend for the summer). We found out that there were cruises available which would take us for a tour towards the Jurassic Coast through the rocks in the sea. So we planned to take the Jurassic Coast trip. We were joined by parents and their family friends who are residents of London. It was decided that we would all go to the Jurassic Coast cruise together. Jurassic Coast was a Unesco World Heritage site. We walked to the Bournemouth Pier from where the cruises departed. The sea wore a magnificent shade of blue typical on a sunny day reminiscent of Lake Geneva. The cruise set off for the sea and soon we had the blue all around.
 

The shades kept changing from turquioise to sky-blue and at times a tinge of green. The only negative part of the trip was the duration. It was for three hours and it looked all the longer since we did not have time lunch. A three-hour cruise meant that we would have to wait till at least 5 PM to have our lunch. The thought hardly struck me as I was enjoying the magnificent sight. Coming out of the blue sea were white rocks or the white cliffs. They looked majestic and reminded me of the Twelve Apostles I viewed in Australia six years ago. It is hard to explain in words. The cruise maneuvered and went close to a number of rock-like structures which are entirely nature’s creation. The rocky lands formed a number of islands with natural caves. The rocks formed the end of the Jurassic Coast. We finished the cruise at around five and on the return leg even I ran out of steam. It was slowly getting colder and the shorts all the more made you feel cold. We had ‘lunch’ at the Bournemouth Pier and then decided to take a walk around the town. We initially passed a garden opposite the Pier and reached a cathedral. Slowly we realized that on a Sunday evening a British small town will have absolutely nothing interesting so we headed back to the hotel. We bid our family friends good-bye and then made preparations for dinner. This was going to be a special dinner since it was the wedding anniversary of Asmi’s parents i.e. my in laws. As planned we went to the Indian restaurant at the city centre (the one opposite the one where we had dinner the previous day). The food was truly befitting an anniversary dinner and soon we were back to the hotel after filling ourselves with Indian curry. The moon was now shining magnificently on a full-moon night and the sea was showing its reflection. It provided the most fascinating night view of the sea.

The next morning was equally magnificent as the previous one. But I woke up with a heavy heart as I was to leave in the afternoon to catch the late evening flight from Luton airport. The beach and the quiet town would always pull you back for one more day of vacation. But it was not to be. Family members would be staying for one more day and that made the thought of getting back to work in Prague all the more painful. Nevertheless I thought of making the most of it so quickly got ready and walked towards the beach, this time in the other direction towards the left of the hotel. I was joined after a while by family members and we walked towards the pier. Despite the fact that it was a Monday, the crowd at the beach was as much as it was on the Sunday. Perhaps, the English wanted to enjoy every bit of the sunshine. We had lunch at the same place in the Pier and then headed back to the hotel as it was time for me to go. I boarded the train at 4 PM. It would take 2 hours to reach Waterloo station in London. From there I boarded the tube to Oxford Circus station where I changed trains and reached Kings Cross. This was followed by the train from Kings Cross to Luton airport parkway station. The flight was on time and I reached Prague just before mid-night.

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