Day 34: Last day in London

After getting back late last evening from Witham to Ryan's place at Clapham Common, we realise that's it is effectively our last full day in London. 

OMG I need another suitcase to take back the things I've bought and collected on my trip. My backpack suddenly seems so small. 

In London we stayed with Ryan and his roommates - Richie, Ali, Graham And Al Bano. These guys are super fun, awesome cooks, with strict house rules and a home that was so spic and span that it could put the girls hostel I live in back in Mumbai to shame. 

Well on the morning of our last day, Richie took us to a local eatery where we has a super sumptuous English breakfast. After breakfast Richie headed to work while Ryan, Tan and I went to Oxford Circus to do some last minute shopping. Primark, Hamleys, Sainsbury's were all on the list. By evening we had so much to stuff to take back home. 

A not so quite dinner then followed at Ryan's place. Nostalgia was creeping up. I was happy to go home but I did not want this trip to end EVER.

221B on Baker Street

Oooo we are going to play detectives. We are going to snoop our way to Baker Street. And try finding 221B.

Not difficult since we were geared with our maps and Ryan on speed dial. But then again, you are talking about Tan & me, we get lost everywhere. And so looking for 221B, we walk right past it and begin to think we are lost. Luckily everyone in this country speaks English and soon we were guided to our destination. The home of  Sherlock Holmes. You can easily miss it if you don't pay attention to the signs. 

The house of this fictional character, created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is a quaint little thing and has an eerie feeling to it. You almost expect Sherlock Holmes to appear behind you smoking his pipe. As you climb the steps you start to realise how easy it is to make real of non-fiction. Spread over two storeys, the home now a museum is immaculate maintained with real life wax figurines and memorabilia. At every level you can find scenes recreated from his books. 

Exploring this place, I made friends with a young attendant and we got talking. She asked me from where I was and having said Goa, she got into narrating her experiences of my home town. We chatted for sometime before it was time for me to leave. But the good thing is that she pointed things out to us we would have normally missed. Like the book filled with letters from little kids. Super hilarious stuff. Check out two of my favourite letters. 

Also check my photographs to see how my day unfolded in 221B on Baker Street.

Transport for London Gadget

Check this super cool gadget I found on the Transport for London website. It gives you the tube as well as bus stop routes from end to end locations.

You can find the same on the left panel of my blog and use it any time you want. I am loving it :) 

Journey Planner

   

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Riding the Tube

                 The London Underground or the Tube as it is commonly known as, is hard not to fall in love with. From the moment I had the tube map in my hand and my Oyster, all I wanted to do was ride it. We planned our travels at times that beat the crowd and almost rode everywhere comfortably.

Travel on the tube is of a different kind. It's exciting, especially when you have to make sense of the different coloured lines to get to the underground station you need to get to in the shortest possible time. Most of the time we took the tube just for pure pleasure of the ride rather than getting to our destination faster.

Click here for an interactive experience with the London Underground. And what's more, the lines have such beautiful names - Bakerloo, Central, Circle, District, Hammersmith & City, Jubilee, Metropolitan, Northern, Picadilly, Victoria and Waterloo & City.

With the tube and buses we explored almost all of London. Oh and while you are riding to the tube do pay attention to the announcer heralding the next stop, it helps plus she is a very pleasant sounding lady.

Day 23: Au revoir Paris!

After almost 23 days into our trip, it was time to say goodbye to yet another amazing city. I love Paris. I really do.

The day started with a quick breakfast before we had to make our way to Gare du Nord to catch the Eurostar to London St Pancras International. We had to hurry as we were got a bit late trying to find the right terminal and then had to go through customs before we board the train.

We made it just in time. And soon we realised the air conditioning in our carriage was not working. Shouldn't be that big a deal in Europe you say? Well you are wrong, the route to London is under the sea and with 100+ people seated it tends to got pretty stuffy.

The entire trip it was just Tan and me. I was glad to finally meet family. My cousin Ryan came to receive us at  St Pancras International and he was a blessing. Or else we would have been lost a new city as usual. He introduced us to the Oyster card, it's a blue plastic card used for public transport - tubes and buses which you need to put credit on in order to travel. Wow! I loved it.

We then rode the tube, OMG this too is awesome, to his home which was at Clapham Common. We switched different lines on the tube to get there (more about the tube later) and the famous red bus to finally reach his home.There's a fabulous meal cooked. Chicken Xacuti, mashed potatoes and salad. Oh man am stuffed. Finally I ate a full meal.

Time-out! Will be back after my siesta...phew what a lunch.