Having just spent 10 days mooching off my various relatives in the UK (Picasa link), I thought I should take the time to write about the great time we had. After a long day of traveling that included a metro, bus, flight, and regional train, we bothered Helen to come pick us up from the train station in the dead of the night.
What followed was a action packed weekend in the English country-side. Our weekend included going to Bath (a beautiful Roman era city), visiting Stonehenge (yup - it is just as impressive as in the pictures), having authentic cream tea at a 500 yr old tavern/restaurant and spending some good old quality time with Vikram, Helen and the twins. Helen & Vikram also managed to squeeze in some great fish pie, fish and chips as well as a visit to an authentic manor (whose owner had fallen on hard times and had decided to 'gift' his estate to the state). As you can see, it was a packed weekend and we enjoyed every second of it.
Post-weekend fun we headed to London and had a great breakfast with Usha & Mona Mami at their place in New Malden. From there it was onto to the great city of London. After depositing our bags at the National Gallery baggage counter - we were just to cheap the pay the 8 quid they were asking at the train station - we saw a bit of the gallery and then took a nice long walk through St. James Park and then along the water-front. After spending some more time in the National Gallery checking out the Monets, we headed to Harrow and Samir & Malini's place. They had graciously accepted to host us for the next entire week - little did they know what week were getting themselves into!
The next day we woke up bright and early and headed to Heathrow. I for once had decided to play the role of the older responsible sibling and part of that included receiving Payal at the airport. The Brits in their infinite wisdom had assigned one immigration agent to the 400 students that had decided to fly in that day - so it was a good three hour wait before we finally caught sight of her strolling through the gates. Grabbing her bags (more of the responsible sibling here) we headed to her place in Sudbury Hill. Having made sure that the said apartment did exist (end of responsible sibling), we dumped her bags and headed to the city. We checked out her school - the AA School of Architecture - and man, is it fancy.
The school is located in 5 conjoined row houses in one of the poshest parts of London and looks more like a millionaire's row. After that we headed back to Samir & Malini's where we had a really good dinner courtesy Chef Samir. Our days took on a familiar pattern after this. After a not too early start to the day, we'd head to town and catch a few sights - London Eye, Tower Bridge, Hyde Park etc etc.. After a nice picnic lunch in one of the numerous parks that seem to be all over the place in London, we'd wander around some more before making our way home as the sun called it a day. Once home, I'd play some TT with Armaan and then we'd all have dinner. Post dinner we'd sit chatting and maybe catch a movie. Thus passed by an ideal week.
Having thus fulfilled my sibling duties, we decided to stop bothering my relatives any more and head to Morocco. That's a story for another day though.
- Ashish
PS: I know we've said this before (or at least I hope), but it can't hurt to say it again. Malini, Helen, Samir, & Vikram - thank you so much for hosting us in Trowbridge and London and for going out of your way to make our visit a special one.
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| Stonehenge |
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| Alex providing the day's entertainment |
Post-weekend fun we headed to London and had a great breakfast with Usha & Mona Mami at their place in New Malden. From there it was onto to the great city of London. After depositing our bags at the National Gallery baggage counter - we were just to cheap the pay the 8 quid they were asking at the train station - we saw a bit of the gallery and then took a nice long walk through St. James Park and then along the water-front. After spending some more time in the National Gallery checking out the Monets, we headed to Harrow and Samir & Malini's place. They had graciously accepted to host us for the next entire week - little did they know what week were getting themselves into!
The next day we woke up bright and early and headed to Heathrow. I for once had decided to play the role of the older responsible sibling and part of that included receiving Payal at the airport. The Brits in their infinite wisdom had assigned one immigration agent to the 400 students that had decided to fly in that day - so it was a good three hour wait before we finally caught sight of her strolling through the gates. Grabbing her bags (more of the responsible sibling here) we headed to her place in Sudbury Hill. Having made sure that the said apartment did exist (end of responsible sibling), we dumped her bags and headed to the city. We checked out her school - the AA School of Architecture - and man, is it fancy.
Having thus fulfilled my sibling duties, we decided to stop bothering my relatives any more and head to Morocco. That's a story for another day though.
- Ashish
PS: I know we've said this before (or at least I hope), but it can't hurt to say it again. Malini, Helen, Samir, & Vikram - thank you so much for hosting us in Trowbridge and London and for going out of your way to make our visit a special one.
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