11. A Christmas vacation in UK

A few years back we made a winter trip to the UK. It was our first trip so it left a lasting impression. London is really different to all the modern 21^st century world cities you see because it seems to be stuck in some medieval time warp. The British pride of its history is visible in the preservation of the period look. The houses have retained their original look most built with red brick.   

These look straight out of your childhood English story books.

REDHILL COMMON

We were living in Redhill Surrey with our friend in a fairly green and quiet neighbourhood. Knowing that we loved nature walks, Ajit, our friend took us to the Redhill Common, which was quite close to his house, the very next morning.  The Common is actually a clearing at an elevation, with a great view. People go there for walks or to walk their dogs. We were befriended by some of these rather playful and happy looking dogs. I guess as they have access to this wonderful stretch of green, it keeps them happy.

The Redhill Common

That looked terribly exciting! There was a trail inside

View of St John's Church from the Common. The octagonal structure in front is a memorial to King George V. The top of the structure shows compass points to some well known places.

Compass points showing the direction of some places which could have been seen from the Common

A trail

A Magpie

The dog came with a stick and begged us to throw it

He is back!

Begging for some more action

Jackdaws crow cousins

Chestnuts and a pine cone

Holly growing wild

OXFORD STREET AND COVENT GARDEN
Familiarising ourselves with the city was a great experience. Oxford Street during Christmas is a pleasant sight.

In the underground. Wall art.

The 'eye' on the roof of the London taxi is rather cute. The Olympic mascots Wenlock and Mandeville (read about them and coins on the Olympics) borrowed that, too.

A cycle rickshaw on Oxford Street was unexpected.

Street performers in Covent Garden

This one I didnt get! What is he trying to do? and without his pants too in the freezing cold.

The longest running musical in the world. Completed its 25th year in 2010!

St Paul's

EDEN PROJECT
Over the next few days we decided to make some trips outside London to get a feel of the country.We zeroed in on the Eden Project in St Austell, Cornwall. Rajeev was particularly excited as he is very interested in Celtic history and King Arthur is his favourite historical character. We booked a Bed & Breakfast online  called The Red B & B (which turned out to be rather good) and boarded the train for St Austell. After parking our stuff in The Red we walked back to the station from where regular buses run for  the Eden Project.

The Eden Project is a collection of biomes which are used as greenhouses to grow every kind of plant in the world. It was quite an experience seeing these huge balloon like structures within which three climatic zones have been created. The Humid Tropics and the Warm Temperate are contained in the two big biomes. The local Temperate climate is maintained outside. One Arid zone was in the making.

The Biomes

Made with plant stem

Scrap architechture

That's a real plant!

 Indian Almond and also a Dushehri mango plant , a specialty of Lucknow, India were happily growing.

Pineapple

A robin flitting around inside the biome

Other than plants

MEVAGISSY - A FISHING VILLAGE
That night we decided to rustle up our own dinner as the B & B had a functional kitchen. We bought some packaged, heat and eat kind of meals from the local super market.

While at the Eden Project we saw an advertisement for “The Lost Gardens of Heligan”, which caught our fancy and we thought we should see it on the way back the next day.

The next day after a huge, high-fat English breakfast, we asked our hostess if there was something close by which we could see. She told us about the fishing village of Mevagissy – which turned out to be a most enchanting place. I found the local people of Cornwall extremely pleasant and friendly. I remember the bus driver, a very pleasant gentleman, ask, if we were from India. He cracked a joke that they (the Cornish) were having similar problems with the British as pre independent India, whom they had invited to their country but who did not want to leave now.
We discovered a model railway which displayed small, very detailed models of trains passing through varied landscapes, one even showing Alpine winter. Children (including us ofcourse!) were operating the trains with interactive buttons. Rajeev had to be dragged away from this place.

A lakeside house in Mevagissy

Houses in Mevagissy

The inevitable lighthouse

A Mevagissy street

Model railway

model railway.

This one finds a mention in the Guiness book of records.

Detailed models

The Lost Gardens of Heligan (meaning “Willows” in Cornish) spread over a 1000 acres, and belonging to the Tremayne family for over 400 years have been restored in part, after being lost under overgrowth and brambles for about 70 years. The sprawling gardens would be a horticulturist’s delight. We spent practically half the day rambling through the huge place, undeterred by the cold breeze.

Giant sculpture

Dove cotes to house pigeons

And you thought pumkins were only orange!

Boy! was it cold.

Bee boles in Heligan to house bees, for honey as also to help pollination of flowers.

As a result of the early nineteenth century plant hunting expeditions sponsored by the Cornish garden owners, one finds plants from across the globe in these gardens. Cornwall blessed by the proximity to the warm Gulf Stream has a wealth of beautiful gardens, two of which we managed to see.

pathway through the garden where Rajeev found a 10 pence (read about its transformation from a 2 shilling)

By 4 pm we were back at the B & B for a cup of tea and to collect our bags after a wonderful day.

GREENWICH

The next couple of days we spent exploring the London markets and did local sightseeing.

A trip to Greenwich to spend time with Rajeev’s cousin made us visit the National Maritime Museum and the former Royal Observatory. The Prime Meridian passes through the Observatory building which earlier determined the Greenwich Mean Time. Now ofcourse because of the adoption of Coordinated Universal Time the observatory is no longer working as such but a ball still drops daily to mark the exact moment of 1p.m.

We never got to see the Cutty Sark, the dry docked ship, as we got late trying to find a parking  for the car

The old Royal Observatory

A laser beam showing the Prime Meridian

We are standing one on each side of the Date Line. A momentous moment!! :-)

CAMDEN
Camden popular for its alternate culture associations and lively markets reminded me of the Mumbai street markets. With Bollywood music blaring it felt quite like home. The eating joints were also interesting. People like Charles Dickens, (read about a commemorative coin in his honour), Dylan Thomas and Amy Winehouse have lived here.

Hailing from Hyderabad India, selling caps on London's street.

'Mind the gap' (an announcement on the Underground trains), printed tees looked popular.

 THE LONDON SKYLINE FROM THE BRIDGE

The Tower of London or Her Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress is a World Heritage Site.  The castle is surrounded by walls and a moat and dates back to 1066. It has variously served as an armoury, a treasury, a menagerie as also the Royal Mint, a public records office and was home to the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.  In its early days it also served as the Royal residence and then at various times as a prison. We saw it at dusk and it had a sinister, haunted look which signs like these (below) did nothing to alleviate nor some stories of ghosts specially that of Ann Bolyn, who was beheaded in 1536 for treason against Henry VIII and buried in the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula and whose ghost is said to have been seen wandering with her head tucked under her arm!

                                                         

Tower Bridge

The Thames

London Eye

Just 5.30 p.m. and already pitch dark.

The Big Ben

Outside the Tower of London there is a 'wheel of time' recording the history of London, but because of the falling light could not be appreciated fully. Now when I am seeing the pictures I feel it would be rather interesting.

On Christmas day we went to St Paul’s Cathedral with the intention of attending the choir mass but we had not accounted for the drastic cut in the number of trains running that day and got a little late. Mid-night mass was at this lovely old Church near Ajit’s house.

WINDSOR CASTLE, STONEHENGE AND BATH
On Boxing Day we booked tickets for a trip to Stonehenge – Windsor Palace – Bath but on the way back from St Paul’s we saw a notice on the railway station door that no trains would be running the next day. We were a little taken aback as we had to reach Victoria station early next morning to catch our tour bus. Anyway we managed to postpone our trip by a day.

Taking pictures inside Windsor palace was not permitted and the guy at the gate said “we have the right to take the head off anybody caught taking pictures inside” – Brit humour! Many of the stuff inside Windsor palace, like Tipu’s sword etc are stuff taken from India - without permission! (howzzat for Indian humour!).

Windsor Palace

Raka tells me if the horse is standing on 3 legs the rider must have died of wounds received in battle. Had the rider died on the battlefield the horse would be shown standing on its 2 hind legs.

Stonehenge:

It’s a prehistoric monument and its origins remain a mystery till date. The stones were brought from hundreds of miles from various parts of the Isles like the Marlborough Downs and some from Preseli Mountains in Wales– no mean feat in those times. Why and for what purpose is anybody’s guess.

Stone henge

Presumed to have looked like this

A burial mound - where they buried their leaders.

 
Bath has been a spa town built by the Romans over 2000 years ago because it has the only hot mineral springs in Britain.

The site of the Roman Baths started in 60-70 AD as a shrine to the Celtic goddess Sulis identified by the Romans as Minerva. The place is therefore also called Aquae Sulis meaning ‘the waters of Sulis’.

The Romans used Hypocausts for heating the baths ie. the floors were raised on small pillar of stacked tiles called pilae stacks and space was left in the walls for the hot air to move around – precursor to modern day central heating!

Head of Minnerva

Hard to believe that's a statue.

Ornate roof

Pilae stacks

hollow bricks for the walls

The smoking hot springs, the only one of its kind in Britain.

Rajeev wanted to see his aunt, at the time staying with her daughter, at a place called Macclesfield. As it was the holiday season we could only manage a booking on the Virgin Lines Train, which cost us a bomb but was a terrific experience. The train just zipped through the beautiful and green English countryside.

Love at first sight!

Two things that truly brightened my stay - that face and my Korean fur lined parka!

 
That rounded up a wonderful trip but we promised ourselves a spring trip next time.