After the hustle and bustle of our last minute packing we were finally ready to leave to the birthplace of English, the Great Britain.
Suddenly, “Daddy I forgot my comb” yelled my sister.
My dad almost losing his temper, keeping his cool said “Go get it fast” after my sister’s hasty search, my dad said “Are we all set, taps closed, doors locked, passports, tickets, then let’s go, the driver is waiting”, with this our long journey had begun.
Every long journey begins in the airport, like always the airport at Dubai was busy but I was excited as it was the first time I was going to travel by Emirates. I had heard that the flight to European countries were very first class even though you were sitting in economy. With a large number of counters, we passed customs, immigration security with ease and boarded the plane and were on the way to London. As I imagined the plane was really good with delicious food and around fifty movies to watch.
Seven hours later we arrived at Heathrow airport, one of the busiest airports in the world. From the airport we took the tube, which is like the metro coming up in Dubai, we were of to our hotel in Lancaster. We were in London for four days during I which we saw many things.
All the way from visiting world renowned monuments and sights such as the Big Ben, St.Pauls cathedral, the home of the royal family-Buckingham Palace. We visited Madame Tussauds Wax Museum filled with wax models of famous people all the way from Shah Rukh Khan to Tiger Woods and even Saddam Hussain and much more celebrities from Hollywood, Bollywood, sports stars and world leaders like George Bush, Queen Elizabeth, the Father of our Nation Mahatma Gandhi, religious leaders, famous musicians from the past to the present. There were more than 1000 wax models and I still am amazed on how many pictures we took with each wax model.
We also took a cruise on river Thames and crossed under the London Bridge and Tower Bridge. We also took walks on one side through the crowded streets of London and on the other through the calm and beautiful Hyde Park, we rode in the famous London red color Double Decker bus, visited our relatives in the beautiful countryside of Bristol. I also saw the football Euro cup finals in the hotel, visited Wimbledon where the tennis matches were going on, ate traditional London sandwiches and fish and chips and even did a bit of shopping for souvenirs just as my mother likes. Just to imagine we did all these fun stuff in 4 days.
Personally what I loved about London was the coldish weather, coldish because it was not so cold but cool and I loved the fact it is daylight most of the time, it comes completely dark only around 10 o clock but otherwise it is daylight, most of the buildings in London are the traditional ones with red bricks built around AD 1800 but they are still strong.
Unfortunately I couldn’t go to India this time ……but this trip had taught me one thing……no matter how many places we go……….in the comfort of home is the one place our heart desires to be.