Family Vacation in the U.K., 4th October 2016, Day 5: Sightseeing in London

We had purchased a 2-day London Pass from India, which would enable us to visit many locations within London free of cost. However, in the end, over the next few days, we only managed to see 5-6 attractions, as each one took quite a bit of time. London is indeed one of the best cities from the point of view of tourism. We managed to see the following places today: Piccadilly Square, Trafalgar square and the Nelson Monument, The Elizabeth Tower housing the Big Ben, the Westminster Abbey, London Eye, and St. Paul's cathedral. We also managed to do the London River Cruise and London by Night. All in all, a great day was had by us all. 

There is little to say, so I will simply add some photos of the places we visited.

Piccadilly Circus

Trafalgar Square with the Nelson column

Fun at the Trafalgar Square - I

Fun - II

Fun - III

Portrait - I

Portrait - II

Outside Buckingham Palace 

Elizabeth Tower, more commonly known as the Big Ben

Westminster House

Outside Westminster Abbey

A plaque inside the Abbey

Sir Winston Churchill

London Millennium Eye

Inside the Eye

View from the Eye of the River Thames

St Paul's cathedral

The Shard - London's tallest building

Tower Bridge

London Tower

Harrod's by night

Enchanting London eye at night

The Shard by night

Family Vacation in the U.K., 3rd October 2016, Day 4: Oxford, and arrival in London

Our family had a memorable day today. We saw so much, and all this without actually staying overnight at any place. We arrived in our Insignia at the Enterprise office in Oxford around half past nine. I had already negotiated an arrangement to leave our luggage with the Enterprise office here and then explore Oxford on foot. The team gladly took possession of the car, which we had planned to deliver here. We left our luggage with them, which they very kindly agreed to. After this, we made our way on foot to explore this little but important educational centre on foot. Our sojourn took us to various college and university campuses in Oxford. The most interesting of the lot was the Trinity College and the Christ Church College. At the Trinity, we also visited the cathedral inside. We also visited the Bridge of Sighs, and did a full tour of the Oxford Castle Unlocked;  we ended our trip with a bit of punting on the Oxford River just past the Magdalen College. 

What we could not see were the famous Ashmolean museum and a few other museums that this city has. What we did observe, however, was that Oxford is a tight little city that is highly bicycle-friendly (we would learn later that Cambridge, another educational place in the U.K. is even MORE bicycle-friendly, but for that, wait for the installments to come). 

The Oxford covered market was where we had our lunch and browsed for different kinds of things. While the three of us had pasta, Nishrin had a sandwich to tide over hunger. 

What follow are some interesting pictures we took in Oxford.

The presenter at the Oxford Castle Unlocked

Hannah on the detention board

Inas, ditto

A prison cell

Trinity College

Trinity College grounds

The College cathedral

Entrance to the Oxford Covered market

Hannah under the Bridge of Sighs

Punting A

Punting B

Punting C

hunger. In the evening, we returned to where we had kept our luggage, and then we went to Oxford station to catch a train to London. We arrived at the Notting Hill station via a tube train ride that we took from - I can't remember for sure, but I think from the London Victoria station. 

The Notting Hill Gate hotel was just a few minutes away from the tube station. We checked in into a very small, cramped family room with 2 double beds and hardly any floor space or storage space to keep our luggage. The reception staff was extremely unhelpful, and the room itself had nothing to recommend it to anyone coming to London for a trip. We went to a nearby Italian restaurant for dinner, the Zizzi's restaurant. Food here was really interesting, and perhaps, this was the only thing that went right for us after we entered London. We slept soon after, as there was nothing to do. Tomorrow, we would begin our sightseeing in London.

Family Vacation in the U.K., October 2016, Day 3: Roman Baths and Stonehenge

The day began with a hearty breakfast at the hotel where we were staying. Sanjoy was there to take our order and to chat with us, and his staff members served us very enthusiastically. We ordered some special stuff that he recommended, steering clear of pork - which none of us eats - and also partook of the food that was already served on the side table - such as cornflakes, fruit, etc.

Our first stop today was the Roman Baths. What can I say about this wonderful place? Bath already had the hot water springs. Evidently, they were known to the Romans while England was part of their empire. Successive emperors and kings of that era came to visit the Baths, and over time, a complete township developed here. The Baths have their own story, their lore, and the attached museum, hundreds of artifacts, some regal, others, commonplace, that are witness to the Roman era of this region. We learned that the excavation of the Baths is an ongoing project, and more stuff keeps getting discovered.

The most interesting places here were the topside balcony with statues of the different emperors that either visited the baths or were remembered and glorified, the actual baths on the lower level, the pump room where the water was pumped mechanically into the baths, the private bathing areas for the rich and royal. the museum with most artifacts backed by interactive stories, and the large wishing well, with thousand of coins people have thrown into it, hoping that their prayers would be answered.

Here are some pictorial memories of our visit. You can see that the pictures depict the upper balcony, the baths themselves, and various artifacts from the museum.

From the baths, we progressed to a unique village that has been called the "prettiest village in England". This is the Castle Combe village (click HERE for their website). Located in Wiltshire, at the southern end of the Cotswolds area of England, this small heritage village is indeed very beautiful.

The following lines sum up its beauty:

And Castle Combe presents this charming scene,

of hill, woods and meadows cloth'd in green.

Here grand terrestrial scenes, almost celestial nice,

makes Castle Combe, sweet vale, an earthy Paradise.

                                                                   Edward Dowling (19th Century)

The village is known for its Parish church that dates back to the 13th Century, the remnants of an old Roman fort that was later converted into a castle (hence the first part of the name), its history of being a hub of the woollen clothes industry in the 19th century, its thick-walled houses with split-stone tiled roofs, and its association with many movies, the most important one of them being Doctor Doolittle, shot here in the early sixties. (I remember seeing this movie as a school child in the New Imperial cinema behind my school - the cinema was later replaced by the Sterling cinema, now multiplex, that stands at the very same spot.) A few memories from this place:

The location of Dr Doolittle's house for the eponymic movie

The Parish Church and graveyard

I take advantage of the sexy car that has stopped here

 We had home-made ice cream at a small shop here and acquainted ourselves with some locals as well as other visitors. Leaving this place around lunchtime, we then drove to Stonehenge. This would be our last visit for the day, as it would take over 3 hours to drive there and to visit it.

Stonehenge (see THIS LINK for the official website) is a prehistoric Neolithic group of monoliths erected for an unknown purpose, and is the most visited historical structure in England outside of royal palaces and castles. In fact, as per my knowledge, it is the single most important structure of historical, architectural and scientific nature anywhere int he U.K. Here are a few pictures we took of this amazing site. We did take the full tickets that include the free bus ride to and from the site from and to the visitor centre and parking lot.

The Stonehenge comprises blue stones (sarsen stones, transported here from Wales) cut into large columns that are sunk deep into the ground and arranged in the shape of two, rather large, partly destroyed circles. The entire site is actually a burial ground over 5500 years before now. Researchers feel that the stones are arranged in a particular way - with some stones set atop a pair of stone columns like a support of some kind.

We had originally planned to finish the Stonehenge visit by half past four in the evening and then drive to the Jurassic Coast, but we ran out of time. Hence we drove back to Bath to our hotel. For dinner, Hannah and I went out to get dinner to eat in our hotel room. We got back Indian food that wasn't too spicy and we had it in our room. We went to sleep a little after 11:00 p.m.