London...my first love ! ...and other fun stuff too :)

So first let me tell you why there was this delay in an update. We did another trip to London - my first love - on Monday i.e. yesterday too :)

So, rewind to last Friday...12th April...which seems like so long ago since we visited London - my first love...can't say it enough :) - twice since then till now. On Friday we generally spent the day at home chilling. With brand new baby A at home, time flies. In the evening though TH and I decided that it was enough lazing around and time to get some fresh (and bitingly cold) air. So off we went to the large Tesco and the shopping complex opposite it that had TKMax and Home Base and other such shops for another round of window shopping. It helps that it is a 30 minute walk one way. It was a great walk. On the walk I saw a canal in Rugby that had a house boat too. 

Spring also seems to be just around the corner. Some plants have tiny buds while some others are already flowering.

On Saturday 13th April, S's mom and dad and TH and I went to London. I was very excited to visit London again. I was eager to show TH all the things that I had liked and I hoped that he would like them too.

Although we came into London at the Euston station, we immediately took the tube to another station from where the British museum was a 5 minute walk. So the first 'darshan' of London that all of us had was at this quaint station.

Here's The British museum 'behind bars' :D And also how it really looks :)

 

Even the last time I had visited it, I had absolutely loved The British Museum. This time too I was so glad to have visited it. The exhibits are amazing. I was quite overwhelmed and so was TH. The four of us had decided that we'd go to the museum together and then go our own ways to meet up at the end of the day at Westminster bridge to return to Rugby together.

TH and I first visited the entire Greece section. It is amazing how developed human beings were as far back as 3000 odd years BC ! Here are some pics of Greek jewellery.

Here's an amphora with a woman's face and the photo after that is a spoon shaped in form of a swimming lady.

The only problem with taking photographs here is that the glass cases reflect everything. The British Museum is extremely large and houses exhibits from all over the world. Also they have some changing exhibits. This time we got to see an exhibit called Enlightenment that showcased the progress of mankind in understanding the world around us categorized in six sections. There were artefacts, stuffed animals, implements etc. from all over the world and from all eras. I was most amazed at books that were centuries old. There are 120 bound volumes of Atlases each about 4 inches thick and 2 feet high from the collection of King George III and many more amazing books. 

The most popular exhibit room in the museum is Room 63 that houses the Egyptian mummies. TH and I spent so much time over Greece, Assyria and Enlightenment that we had to pick only one more section that we could see before we left the museum in time for a short walk on the South Bank. So we chose the Egyptian mummies. The technology they (the Egyptians) developed to preserve the bodies is quite amazing. The mummies would be housed in decorative caskets that have the most detailed and colourful designs on them. Richer or higher status people had caskets plated with gold. In the bottom most photo you can see a dog figurine sitting on the casket...apparently to guard the person inside !

We read this interesting fact that they believed that the person being buried might have to undertake agricultural labour in the next world where they went. So to ease their burden, they would put small clay and metal figurines of people so that these could be the servants and carry out the work. Also, they put in amphora of food and wine for the 'journey'.

While at the museum, a very old friend cum ex-colleague K called...we had exchanged telephone numbers earlier...and I was super thrilled to speak with him. We're going to meet the next time TH and I go to London with some time to spare.

We could have spent the entire day at The British Museum...in fact we could spend 2 whole days there. But TH and I wanted to go to South Bank. So we finally left the museum at about 2:30 p.m., ate at a Burger King and proceeded to the South Bank. as we emerged from the tube at Waterloo station, to our surprise, the skies were grey and it was drizzling ! Since TH didn't have much protection against rain, we waited around for a while and as the drizzle subsided a bit, we walked to the South Bank. 

And there it was. Grey. Wet. Beautiful.

I was a bit disappointed since some part of it had been taken by the very loud-coloured Udderbelly festival. Also, in some parts on the South Bank, so many people throw so much litter even when there are bins all around that it is terrible. But there was an interesting carousel set up for kids as a part of the festival.

Also there was a man who was blowing humongous soap bubbles. He was dipping a long loop of rope in a bucket of soap water. On removing it from the bucket he would just shake it a bit and the wind would take care of the rest forming huge soap bubbles.

Further ahead there was the London Eye. This photo is not from the South Bank of course...its from the Westminster bridge.

After spending a good hour in the drizzle and biting cold, we had to go see the five o'clock chimes of The Big Ben. So we walked across the Westminster bridge and did just that. We had coffee and stood watching The Big Ben till it chimed at five o'clock. Then we went to Westminster Underground station, which is about one minute away, met with S's mom and dad and returned to Rugby. C came to the station to get us.

One thing I must mention specially that despite what anybody says, I love travelling on the London Underground. I love figuring out the routes, going to the various lines and changing lines and pretty much everything about the London Underground. This day also we did a lot of journeys on it and that too was a source of great fun for me :)

The next day was Sunday and C&S decided that C should take TH and I and S's mom and dad to a Sunday Thai buffet at The Thai Orchid in the Rugby City Centre. So after spending a lazy-ish morning, we trooped to The Thai Orchid...sans S and baby A...but that's only for a few months. It was a huge spread of food with starters in all types of meat plus some veggies too. The mains were good too, but I had my eye on the deserts. So I followed my usual strategy and gorged on the delicious starters, pecked a bit at the mains and then ate some choice deserts. The decor in this place was a bit busy (as in, too much in a too small space) for my taste. But the individual items put up as a part of the decor were very very nice. Here are some pics. This is at the entrance.

This is the waiting area.

This is a corner in the waiting area.

These are on the walls - 3D wood carvings that are painted too.

This is the billing counter.

Due to the heavy lunch, the rest of the day was super lazy and none of us had dinner :D

Yesterday, on 15th April, we had gone to London again for the day. It was the perfect day...bright and sunny. We had a super time.

Right from the time we hopped on the train it was great weather and great scenery.

Sheep grazing in the pasture.

Doesn't this look like a painting would ?

On reaching London, we first went to Victoria station since I wanted TH to see the station. We stepped out of the station for a while before we again took the tube to go to South Kensington for The Natural History Museum. The lands of the museum are vast and well maintained. The building is beautiful and quite thoughtfully designed. Little details pertaining to natural history can be found adorning the building.

As you enter the museum you meet Dippy...a large dinosaur skeleton. Its so awesome...to enter the museum and be accosted by this huge thing. They've named it Dippy and are collecting donations for its upkeep. Every time anybody makes a donation (for £5) Dippy is illuminated by lights of the colour preferred by the donor. Here's Dippy...plain and illuminated.

Here are a couple of details on the walls or pillars inside the museum too.

Again in this museum we were overwhelmed by the sheer number and scale of amazing things to see. So we chose some and left some for another day. 

One of the most amazing things was this huge tree trunk of a tree born in 557 AD and felled in 1892 when the Panama Canal began to be built. On the section of this's tree's trunk, they have mentioned world events from 557 AD to 1892 AD. Its quite humbling to read that in context of the tree that lived so long and through it all and would have continued living had it not been felled. Here's a photo of that.

Here's the large inside and outside of the museum.

After seeing the chosen exhibits (and leaving behind far too many for the next time...and perhaps the time after that..), we then went to the South Bank to visit the Aquarium. Here's a view from the opposite side on the Westminster bridge.

This is the lion at the South Bank end of Westminster bridge.

And here's a lamp post next to it made into photo-art by TH :)

The Aquarium was fabulous. The variety and types of sea life that we saw there was mind-blowing. My most favourites are the jellyfish...so delicate and transluscent, the Rays...graceful and look like birds flying in the water (harmless cousins of the Sting Ray), the giant turtle...imagine an elephant doing ballet lightly on its toes...that's how the turtle glided in the water and came back to its resting position and the penguins...cuuuuute and agile little things, swift swimmers and the jumps they take from the water on to land are unbelievable deft.

The problem was that none of the photographs here are any good since they don't allow flash photography (and rightly so) and the light conditions aren't suitable for photography. Nonetheless here are a couple of photos.

We exited the Aquarium almost at closing time and as we came out on to the South Bank we realised we had little time to walk about before we'd have to start on our way back. Before we could go on our way, TH just had to click the river and the opposite bank one more time :)

Then we walked till the Oxo Tower and then turned right to come to Southwark Underground and further to Euston and finally hop on to the train to Rugby. 

There's an atmosphere on South Bank. We saw a huge second hand books sale under a bridge. On the highest ledge of the National Theatre 2 guys and a girl were sitting dangling their legs and TH and I smiled looking at them and they waved at us and then we waved back. There were a lot of runners. People of different looks, types and accents were walking to and fro. All in all it was wonderful just walking about.

We returned home late last night from London, physically a bit tired but mentally so so satisfied.

Today, 16th April, almost all day was spent uploading photos, putting captions, but most of all, playing with the niecelet Mini aka Chini aka Gundu aka Cookie and many other names per person - per occasion - per mood :D

Tomorrow we plan to take a trip to the Rugby City Centre again and on Thursday we are again going to London...this time we plan to walk about Central London and explore some markets.

So I'll be back with lots more photographs and updates in a couple of days.

Till then, Au revoir ! :)

P.S. Before I conclude this post, I must say it again... London...my first love :D