Our long and much-awaited trip to
Europe finally happened this year. We were nervous about the short
layover in Amsterdam, but much to our surprise, we arrived at the London
City Airport (
LCY)
a full fifteen minutes ahead of schedule! Our tour operator, who, more
often than not, must have been used to delayed flights, came in late to
pick us up.
The
first thing we noticed in London is that everything is, at least one
size, smaller (when compared to America); narrower lanes, smaller cars,
and densely packed apartments. Sometimes cars were parked on both sides
of an already-narrow street, and our chauffeur skillfully maneuvered the
mini-van between them. Our adventure had already begun!
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| Driving to the hotel, THE SHARD is reaching for the sky in the background |
Before reading further, watch a few clips of the
namesake travelogue, a documentary made in 1934!
The really narrow streets, the hidden side lanes connecting busy thoroughfares, and the zig-zag roads indicated that this city has been around for sometime, and has grown organically without much of a planning. Most of the buildings in London wore a tired and old look (yes, because they are
actually old!) I wish they had maintained it better! The newer office buildings and shinier apartments in Central London provided a relief to the sore eyes.
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| New buildings indeed! |
Our rooms were not ready yet, and hence we stowed the baggage at the hotel and took off to get lunch. Thanks to our friends back home, we knew how to buy the Oyster card, the pass required to travel in the Tube (the underground train system).
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| Oyster Card |
The vending machines at the airport (and all over the city) can only top-up (i.e., add money to) an existing Oyster card. You can buy a new card only at the “big machine” in one of the underground stations. And a new card requires £5 as deposit.
The Green Park underground station was only about a five-minute walk from the hotel. We took the Piccadilly line to Leicester Square, our first stop was
Saravana Bhavan, the famed South Indian food chain (though I read reports that this particular restaurant is
not part of the chain!) The food was very good. We ordered thali, sambhar vadas and various dosas. After the ravioli and pretzels on the airplane, this food was heavenly.
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| Leicester Square — what is a photo of London without the red double-decker bus? |
The Leicester Square was only semi-busy, even though it was lunch time.
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| Zig zag road (really!) near Leicester Square |
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| Near Leicester Square |
The London underground train system is truly an engineering marvel! Even though it was built in the 20th century, it still serves the ever growing population and the expanding metro of London and Greater London. I believe other cities in Europe such as Paris and Lisbon also have the underground train system.
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| Baker Street Station |
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| A train pulling in |
The house itself is about a hundred and fifty years old (it croaks and creeks when you walk) reflecting the times when Arthur Conan Doyle was actually creating the fictional Mr. Holmes and Dr. Watson. Being fans of the great detective, we thoroughly enjoyed the depiction of various scenes from different stories.
Then our hotel called. Our rooms were ready. Suddenly, we lost our will power to look around any further. The jet-lag caught up with us. We went back to the hotel and crashed in to the bed straight away.
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