London – a fleeting glance at the City!

London. The word brought up a flashback of all the memories associated with it. Sherlock, Wimbledon, Shakespeare, Dickens, Big Ben, Westminister and what not. Probably that gives an insight into what interests a Honuman!

Come October, one of the Honumans had to fly down for an official business in Maidenhead and it was sheer “luck” that he found sneaky little few hours on a Friday to make a quick trip to London.

Ruffling through the pages of Google, Trip Advisor and quick connect with friends who had been to London, a somewhat “see London in few hours” plan was made up.

Friday late in the morning, after wrapping up the office work, the Honuman rushed to the nearest train station and got hold of full day travel pass which covers zone 1-6 of London transportation.

**Trick**Tip** – try to buy the pass to use after 9.30 am which is the end of peak hours and which also burns less hole in the pocket. Day pass for 6 zones cost me 11 pounds.

It took around 40 mins. to reach London Paddington station – the junction which acts as transit between regional and tube trains.

A word of advice – try to match the tourist attractions you are going to see, as per the tube rail line else you would waste lot of time crisscrossing the same lines. Or ask the very helpful officers in the station.

Our first place of visit was the Tower Bridge and Tower of London. As it happens, we boarded the wrong train (marked as north bound/south bound/east/west – phew!). Trust me when I say, it was our fault – the lines and stations are very clearly marked and one cannot just miss it. Unless you are like us. 😉

So we reached Westminister station and got down to see the Big Ben and St. Margaret’s Chapel and Westminister Abbey. Entry into Westminster Abbey would set you off by handsomely 22 pounds.

Time to divulge a secret – since there were seven of us and it’s not so easy to unanimously agree to visit museums and galleries, we decided we would only “soak the English ambience” this time around. So don’t bother to ask what’s like inside Westminister or any of the upcoming places! 😛

The thing which mesmerized us was the Bagpiper outside Westminister station. Sunny weather and an audience to enthrall – he just played along in his own world.

Just behind, was the Big Ben – all decked up for the repair work which is going to continue till August 2021. So you can see it but cannot hear the iconic chimes!

The square between Big Ben and Westminister houses sculptures of famous world statesmen including one of the “half-naked fakir” and the one “who said it”.

Yes, guessed it right. Mr. Gandhi and Mr. Churchill.

From there, we moved to our next place of visit – the Tower Bridge and walked around a bit. No, we didn’t enter the Tower of London to see the Kohinoor as well!

By this time, it was already past 12.30pm and we had just began our “walk”. Something else was nudging – hungry rats inside our stomach!

So I was deeply interested to see the Borough Market and planned to grab something there itself. We trudged along with our empty stomachs and then there was the Borough Market – bustling on a Friday afternoon.

I can’t wait to tell you about it but it seems that would have to wait.
Your friendly Monkey would be back to continue this journey very soon!

Till then, tell us how you liked this post, any pics you liked? Comment below!
And I promise… I will be back.

Signing off with image of the iconic London taxi!

Source: London I am Coming image has been taken from the below web link and the sole rights belong to the owner only. (https://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/p/keep-calm-and-london-here-i-come-4/)