And most importantly words like’ bouncer’, ‘pitch’, ‘wicket’, ‘Tendulkar’ and ‘Ashes’ will be understood and evoke a meaningful response (and not just be taken in the literal sense). You will never stand out in the crowd as an alien. For me personally, it was and always will be a dream destination. Most of the cities visited so far, while being extremely beautiful, have been of the boring, un-happening types. This is mainly due to the fact that there are not enough people. London changes that completely. It’s got that madness and rush of a ‘Mumbai’ and at the same time without all the negatives that accompany it (sweat, dirt, pollution and population beyond desired limit).

The setting was far from perfect. We (as in most of Europe) were going through a severe winter when my visa was stamped and the weather was far from ideal for travelling. But my anxiety levels were on a high and once I had the visa stamped I was in a mood to take the first flight to London. I thought that even if the severe weather continues and we are forced indoors, it would still not stop us from meeting up with old friends, a luxury which is not available in other cities.

We planned for the weekend of 7-9 January. It would be a back-to-back trip soon after a Budapest trip the previous weekend. Ticket prices on Wizzair were dirt-cheap and the return fare for both of us came to around 4300CZK (approx. EUR 180). That was ridiculously reasonable and the icing on the cake was that came January 7th, the weather had improved a lot and we even managed to be on the positive side of the thermometer. London forecast was even brighter and it was as high as 5-8 degrees over the weekend. We became so relieved that we left our “fat” jackets back in Prague.

A lot of people around us gave some usual negative responses like “it’s not the right time to go” and “2 days is not enough” etc. We have heard all that before and never regretted not considering these serious concerns.

Whatever we covered of London in the 2 days probably never have been covered by anyone on a weekend trip. To get the flow correct in my write-up, let me summarize:

Our flight was at 6:40 in the evening so there was no need for a leave on Friday. We followed the normal routine and met up with Asmi at Muzeum station. We left a bit early keeping some time as buffer firstly because this being an international flight we had to do immigration and secondly keeping in mind our experience during the Amsterdam trip where the airport traffic almost made us miss our flight. First bad news on reaching the airport was that flight was delayed by around 40 mins. and would now take off at 7:30 PM. It was not what we would have liked but it was ok nevertheless since we anyways did not have any late evening plans in London. We arrived at Luton at 9 PM local time and were greeted by a long never-ending immigration queue. And this being a relatively smaller international airport the counters were few. So the queue moved at a snail’s pace so typical of so many places in India. Once we officially entered UK, we bought tickets for Greenlines bus which would take us to the city. We were being put up at Kamalika (my childhood friend and neighbour in Calcutta) and Ravi’s place in Finchley Road and this suited us perfectly since the bus would drop us right there. Asmi had already been to their place on her previous visit so she exactly knew where to get down. There was a queue here too and we could not get seats in the bus which left first (not used to queues in Prague so this truly felt like home). We waited for the next bus which was at 10:30. After 1 ½ hours of landing we were finally off to the city on board the Greenlines bus. As for the weather, it was cold but manageable. I guessed it would be around 4-5 degrees. As planned we reached Kamalika’s house at around 11 PM. A long standing jinx was broken between Ravi and me as I met him for the first time even though they have been married for 7 years now. And in all these years he had met all my family, Asmi’s family and even my friends but had to wait for this moment on the 7th of January to meet me. We had amazing mutton curry rice for dinner home-cooked by Kamalika and then slept for the night gearing up for a tough next day around London.

We woke up to a lavish English breakfast of eggs, toast, bacon and sausages prepared by Kamalika and special coffee made by Ravi. I was truly the guest of honor and hence I kept on getting all my favorite items (starting with the mutton the previous day). Ravi had made plans for the day and as discussed the day before it was decided that the boys will go for a tour of the Lords which was close-by while the ladies got ready.



Lords

This would be a dream start already. To kick-off London with a trip of Lords. When the trip was planned and it was snowing all over, I thought I would wait till summer for a visit to Lords since it would be covered with snow and hence too depressing at the moment. I didn’t have to since the snow had stopped and the sun was playing hide-n-seek. Lords was as green as it is during the summer and we were just on time for a tour which started at 10. It was befitting that just the day before England completed their brilliant Ashes win in Sydney with another thumping innings victory. We started off with the museum which contained a whole lot of memorabilia and then to the iconic “Long Room” followed by a visit to the home and visitor’s dressing room. The dressing rooms had the honour’s board of which I have heard often (most old grounds in the world maintains such a board but somehow it’s the one at Lords which takes all the honours) and is mentioned by the commentators every time a player reaches a hundred or completes a fiver. Needless to say, the most prominent name missing from that board is that of Sachin Tendulkar’s and the one visitor whose name featured prominently was of Dilip Vengsarkar’s – the Lord of Lords. Sunny Gavaskar also would have been a notable absentee from the honour’s board had it not been for the fact that MCC gave ‘test’ status to the MCC Vs Rest Of the World match in 1987 where Sunny made a magnificent 188. However, it doesn’t feature in career records like the matches involving Asia XI, World XI, Africa XI in recent times do. Our guide told us the minute details of the dressing room like where each player sits during a match. For instance she pointed to a seat in the corner and told us that Tendulkar prefers that seat. Once done with the dressing room, we walked towards the stands where we could click snaps. Till that time we were not allowed to click snaps in the long room and the dressing rooms. The “spaceship” media-center stood out and so did he pavilion. Images of our world cup win and Sourav Ganguly’s shirt waving passed through my mind. The next and final stop would be the media center i.e. the spaceship. It looked beautiful from inside and provides all possible facilities to the media and journalists. We were also told about that “famous” Lords slope which is almost 8 feet, one of the many things which make the ground unique. All Indian fans will remember Joel Garner bowling that deadly spell down the slope on “that” great final of 1983. Just before winding up, we thought of paying a visit to the souvenir shop where I purchased a fridge magnet. By this time the ladies had already arrived and were waiting for us at the gate right next to the souvenir shop.

Our next stop was 221B Baker’s street. It would be a 15-min walk towards Sherlock Holmes’ residence. The place has a museum which contains all stuff used by Sherlock Holmes (in fiction, of course), the pipe and the hat being the most prominent amongst them. Once done I set-off on my first ride on the London “Underground” from Bakers Street station. Our next destination was Tower Hill. After changing a couple of trains (I would require a metro map of London and analyze it for some time if I have to describe the exact route followed) we reached Tower Hill where we were joined by Arshia (my sister-in-law), who arrived from Hull. The two places to watch and get clicked were the Tower of London and the iconic Tower Bridge. We walked towards the bridge and then along the river and at the perfect location had our photo session. All the English breakfast from the morning was fully digested by now and all of us were hungry. The dish for lunch was already planned and being the ‘guest of honor’, the choice was mine. It had to be ‘fish n chips’ an eternal favourite in UK.

Fish n Chips

Since it was getting colder, we entered a proper restaurant and not a road-side fish-n-chips joint. The meal was sumptuous and with the beer the fried fish tasted even better. By this time we began to tire a bit or might be it was just the after-effects of a heavy meal. We wanted to reach Westminster in day-light so once lunch was done we moved towards doing so. Soon, I was on the Westminster Bridge having a view of the Big Ben, the Parliament and the London-Eye. It was already dark enough to not click too many snaps. I decided that I would be back here on Sunday to complete that. We saw the Westminster Abbey and then walked towards ‘Waterloo’ station across the bridge. It had become really cold by then and I rued the fact that we left all our real winter gear back home, even the gloves. We entered a souvenir shop on the banks of the Thames to get some respite from the cold and seeing my plight Arshia bought me a pair of gloves. We took the train from Waterloo station towards Buckingham Palace. We said ‘hi’ to the Queen from a distance i.e. from her gate and then walked towards Trafalgar Square. This was a long walk and I could feel the slight pain on the heels which has been a norm on most trips in European cities as you end up walking lots. T-Square was at its lively best and I decided another day-time visit is due for the Sunday. Our next stop was another famous landmark of London – the Piccadilly Circus. The “Underground” from Charing Cross station took us exactly there. As I went from one location to the other, I felt more and more like a villager coming to a “big” city bustling with life. This feeling culminated at the Piccadilly Circus. We were tired by this time and we thought of chilling out a bit and soak in the atmosphere in a café. What better place than this? But despite trying in almost half-a-dozen places, we failed to get a table. Such was the crowd and the “ocean of humanity”. Even by our Indian standards, every café looked filled up to 120%. There was no option but to “retreat” and Ravi suggested that we visit one of the Costa café’s close to Baker Street station. We reached Costa on Bakers Street after an extremely “cold” 10-min walk from the station and immediately ordered all varieties of hot drinks available.

Ekta and Nishant joined us here in Costa. Ekta is my friend from Satyam days I was meeting her after 7 years. Ekta and Nishant have recently become British citizens and it was thanks to her invitation that both Asmi and I got our visitor visas. So they were our “official” hosts as per immigration records. Now everything was set-up perfectly. Everyone in the group was familiar with each other thanks to Asmi’s earlier October visit. Now thanks to me crossing the channel, the missing link was completed. Ekta could not join us earlier in the day since she had a driving test which she cleared successfully. They had driven down from their home in Kent though Ekta’s driving skills were still not put into test in a ‘live’ environment. We re-charged ourselves with coffee and hot chocolates and planned to go to Lahore Kabab House in Church Street, Marylebone. Ravi had already booked tables for us (that is an absolute necessity otherwise you would be in a Piccadilly Circus type scenario where you would be chased out of every eating joint). However, drinks were not served in the restaurant but we were allowed to buy drinks from outside and carry it there. This was absolutely ok for us. I joined Nishant and Ekta in the car to buy the drinks while the rest took the underground to Marylebone station. Nishant bought wine for most but I chose to play it safe with my whisky so got a quarter of Jack Daniels for myself.

Piccadilly Circus

The others had already reached and ordered some sumptuous kababs so we were all ready to hog and drink. As the name suggests, this was a Pakistani restaurant and it served all possible non-veg delicacies possible and all in our group were hard-core non-vegetarians. After a fabulous meal and drinks we headed for ‘Sheesha’ just opposite the restaurant. After a few puffs for everyone, we decided to call it a day and head for the respective homes. Kamalika and Ravi were headed back to Finchley Road while we along with Arshia were planned to head for Ekta and Nishant’s home in Kent. The logistics were worked out by Nishant and Ravi. Nishant dropped them to Finchley and then returned to the Sheesha café to pick us up and we headed for Kent. A Forty-five minute drive towards the countryside being the perfect way to round-off an awesome day.

We reached Ekta’s home in Kent at around 1:30 AM. It was late but never too late to notice the beauty of the place and their beautiful home by the riverside. It was a two-storied house with a kitchen and dining room on the ground floor which opened out into a garden. The two floors above that had 4 rooms, 2 being used as bedrooms, 1 as a living room and 1 as a study. You could see the river flowing by from the balcony in the living room. We still were not ready to hit the bed. We chatted for a while in the coziness of the living room before finally calling it a day. A long Sunday lay ahead of us.

(Continued in Part II – Coming Soon)