Euro(pe) Trip Part 2

Woah the last post got so long i dint realize. This one will be short i promise. Forgot to add we saw Sylvester Stallone up close as he had also come to visit the Louvre the same time as us..

Anyways, continuing from where I had left:

28th, London: Went by eurostar(The train connecting paris to london thru an underwater tunnel). It is not worth the hype at all. It just gets dark in the tunnel, felt like a regular train journey. We relaxed till evening in our hotel-Blair Victoria. It was owned by Gujjus. The manager was very friendly(thank god) and gave us rooms where we had some ventilation as rooms usually dont ve air conditioning or fans there(how do they survive?) and it is hot this time of the year. The bathroom was so huge I could just fit into it uncomfortably(please appreciate the evident sarcasm behind my sorrow) We went on a city tour in the evening and visited the London Eye:a huge ferris wheel right in the middle of london.

29th, London: Saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. The whole place was swarming with tourists but the ceremony itself was nothing to talk about. People came on horses and exchanged weapons and wasted one whole hour in doing so. Some guards were playing the orchestra(Why>?). We admired the grandeur of the palace and left for the Natural history museum. Amazing exhibits related to dinosaurs, trees taller than huge skyscrapers, minerals of all sorts greeted us. Surprisingly, we found the Kohinoor diamond here(we had heard it is in the Tower of London). After hurriedly visiting the museum, we boarded a cruise on river Thames. We passed the London Bridge(famous by the nursery rhyme), heard some interesting bits of history about London, the fire that destroyed most of it in 1666 etc. When we came back at 6 Pm, we were surprised to know that all the tourist places had closed by now so we went for shopping on regent street n oxford street. Later we had dinner at a restaurant named Las Portes Des Indeswhich appeared so good but the food was so-so and finally returned to the hotel.

30th, London: Went to the Westminster Abbey , a church that was splendid and 1000 years old. It contained graves of most of the monarchs of UK, scientists like Newton, Halley and Darwin, writers like Charles Dickens, Alfred Tennyson, PB Shelley, WB Yeats and other eminent personalities like David Livingstone n so on. Later we visited the Tower of London, a Fortress of ancient times. We saw the Crown jewels and by now felt that we have had an overdose of history. We raced to the science musuem to watch the IMAX screen but it was closed for the day. So finally we came to Piccadily Circus and saw a play called The 39 Steps. It is a comic adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock's thriller. It was hilarious unlike anything I have seen till date. 4 actors played around 150 roles. it was rivetting and we were mesmerized by the performances of the characters. After the play we hung around Picadilly for some time-huge crowd(trademark of london) just roamed on the streets and the pubs.

There were many Indians here(many as in seriously a lot) and this was the only place where we did not have language probs as well as vegetarian food was available comaparatively easily. The tube (London Metro) had a kind of tagline "Mind The Gap"(between the train and platform). I heard it from speakers more than 100 times a day(No exaggeration here too).