Its one of the rare moments when the net connection in my room is working..sigh!! I was sooo happy yesterday that it was working in the evening and then...wham!! its off again.. So there's no saying whether I'll get to post this or not,but still....

Statutory warning: This post's bound to be pretty long. so you may start yawning already..lol

About the boat trip....The boat trip: Our uni had organised this boat trip through the Thames for the International students as part of the Welcome programme. It was soooooo amazing..It was very very very cold..the type that chills through to your bones...but it was amaaazing...We boarded the boat from Tower Pier,you know the place where the Tower of London is (which houses the crown jewels,including our own Kohinoor). There were like, I dunw some 100-120 ppl,Indians,Pakistanis,Bangladeshis,Chinese....It was really really really greatt!!It was very very cold,with the normal chilly weather here and the draft from the Thames...But I got to meet looaads of ppl,see looots of places...We saw the London bridge,Tower bridge,Westminster Abbey,British Moveum,London Eye,Big Ben,The monument..........It was kinda guuuddd funnn....

The bus trip was nothing grt,nuthing to write home about. We were expecting an open top hop-n-jump bus,but what we got was a regular boarded up coach,and a guide who kept talking n talking n talking..n what was worse was that we were just shown all the great places just from the outside,you know..See, over there is the King's Cross station,That is the baker Street ..that sorta thing...quite boring.The only place where we were let out was the Buckingham palace. We saw the queen's guards with their weird hats standing like statues and their elaborate salutes and all. We couldn't see the change of guard as it happens in the morning and we went in the afternoon. There are supposedly 5 types of Queens' guards- the brigadier guards,scottish guards,welsh guards,irish guards n one other kind whose name sorta escaped( could be english though lol). They have to stand still on end for like 2 hours and then they are given 4 hours break,nice,eh??

Well I did explore some of the London city,by myself,with my parents and with friends. My parents went to the Madame Tussaud's Museum and the Baker Street,the lair of Sherlock Holmes. I missed out on those two which were the ones I badly wanted to see coz of some enrolment stuff in my college. Well I have 1 year over here,I'll find time someday :). Well those places sound and seem pretty terrific,I'll just have to go and see.

The Hyde Park is toooooo long for my taste. All things inside that were miles apart. There is the Princess Diana memorial fountain,the Kensington palace gardens,Serpentine bridge,Queen's temple,Flower walk,Peter Pan and some boating inside in the lake. The Diana memorial Fountain was a bit of a disappointment. Since we had walked in from the side of the park near the Duke of Wellington Arch, we had to practically walk till the far end of it to reach the fountain,n when we finally reached it...It was just some body with water running around a lawn,it is supposed to reflect her life or something like that..hhmm!!!

Now comes my favourite,the visit to the London Eye. It is a giant ferris wheel with each enclosure holding upto 20 ppl and they take you around just once,very slowly so you can enjoy the city view from the skyline;),n the tickets are sort of expensive too 17.50 pounds per adult andthere's no concession for students;(. It was wonderfulll...especially because we went in the evening. To see the Westminster abbey and the Big ben and the Tower Bridge and the St.paul's Church lit up from above was a greatt experience. You can't possibly distinguish between the different buildings and all in the dark all that well,but the view is pretty terrific all the same.I probably am not doing much justice to it ,describing it this way,you have too see it to know it,or atleast see a picture.:)

My mom's favourite was probably our visit to Stratford Upon Avon,the birthplace of The Bard,William Shakespeare. It is about 3 hours drive from the main city of London. Seeing the English Countryside of which we've read a lot through Famous Five and Five Findouters and all was thoroughly invigorating. Stratford upon Avon is a small town,whose only claim to fame is the fact that Will Shakespeare was born there some 400 years ago. We went during the weekend,so the roads were all blocked and some sort of farm fair was going on,the kind where you get to buy goat's milk cheese and cured ham and bacon n stuff. There is a combo pass you can buy which covers Shakespeare's houses and gardes,ie,the house where he was born,his wife Anne Hathaway's house,The New Place and Nash's house(the new house Shakespeare bought which was demolished and his granddaughter's place next door),Hall's Croft(Shakespeare's daughter and son-in-laws' house),and Mary Arden's(Shakespeare's mother) house. Anne Hathaway's cottage and Mary Arden's house were slightly out of town,and we had to be back the same day so we visited the Shakespeare found Exhibition and Shakespeare's grave instead(Btw the tickets are valid for a whole year so I can go back any time during the year and see them again).

Maintenance of all these places is pretty amazing. The furniture and the walls and the floor all have been maintained and some been fabricated to obtain authenticity as far as possible. It was an amazing feeling thinking that probably you are tracing the steps The Bard walked some 4 centuries ago.....His grave is in a Church nearby called the Holy Trinity Church,surrounded by the graves of his wife,daughter and son-in-law,and granddaughter's husband.

No adventures today,the tube's down,lots of repairing work going on..n am taking a break from all the travelling. My classes are gonna start on the day after...:)