My brother’s upcoming wedding in East Sussex close to London gave us the perfect opportunity to plan the long awaited & discussed trip to UK.
Being nature enthusiasts, we chose the more naturally endowed countries of Scotland and Northern Ireland over the much-visited Paris, Switzerland and Rome. The trip also gave me an opportunity to sort out the geography and political boundaries of UK.
For those who are as geographically challenged as me:
• UK is divided into England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
• England and Wales are together called Britain
• Britain and Scotland are together known as Great Britain
• The Northern part of Ireland is separated from the Republic of Ireland through a political border. So where NI follows pounds, miles etc. The Republic of Ireland operates in Kilometers and accepts Euros as the official currency
Having sorted the countries geographically, let’s get back to the travel. We had flown Kuwait Airways to London via a stopover in Kuwait with some trepidation on whether the airline would fly at all, time of arrival, delays in take off and probability of a safe landing. We were pleasantly surprised by the flight experience. The flight not only took off on time but served us decent vegetarian meals (yup! I’m a veggie) and with a brief stop over in Kuwait landed at Heathrow right on time.
Quick tip: being an airline based in the middle- east, they can be a bit stingy about water; it’s a good option to carry empty water bottles which can be filled before take off. Having heard the shocking stories of check-in luggage status at the dreaded T 5 (or Terminal 5), which has ‘terminally’ faced delivery problems since it began operations recently, we were pleasantly surprised to see our luggage on the carousel even before we reached there. All in all, our journey to London was uneventful and surprisingly punctual on all counts.
We had planned to rent a car during our stay in England and hence followed signs for ‘Car Rental’ to pick our pre-booked car from National Car rental in UK.
Tip: It is much cheaper to pre-book the car online before you begin your trip than to choose the car on the spot at the airport
The booking process is very simple & you have an option of booking the type, model, range of car as relevant for all users. The insurance can be quite costly, so if confident of driving skills, you may not want to purchase any insurance in which case an amount of £ 550 will be blocked on your card as a security but is released at the time of returning the car.
Since my brother had come to pick us up at the airport we had a relatively easy drive back to East Sussex mainly on the motorway, which connects Gatwick Airport to Heathrow. We noticed a number of people not sticking to the suggested speed limits on the motorway (50-60mph) East Sussex is a county located south of London towards Brighton- a seaside town. A number of accommodation options are available to suit each kind of traveller. Depending on your budget you can book- youth hostels, bed & breakfasts, budget hotels or mid range/luxury hotels. Since we were all staying together for the wedding, we had booked a 4- bedroom, Self Catering cottage for a week (£800-£850).
The cottage was located in the midst of acres of fields with sheep in the midst of widely spread farmhouses in the village of Buxted. Our cottage had lovely gardens with daffodils, primroses and tulips in bright vibrant colors braving the last of the cold and making the landscape very vivid and colorful. The English countryside really is very beautiful with well-manicured green fields, dotted with numerous sheep and new born lambs and intermittent (can’t escape the clouds here!) sunshine. The temperature on an average fluctuated between 5-8 degrees Celcius with the night temperatures dipping to –2 degrees Celcius. the cottage was very comfortably furnished with central heating, dishwasher, microwave, washing machine, dryer, hair dryer, iron, ironing board, oven and the works! It was almost like a home away from home.
After a bit of unpacking we went to an Indian restaurant for dinner to sample the national dish ‘chicken tikka masala.’ The English craze for the dish is very evident and can almost be assumed to the default order in all Indian/Asian restaurant patrons. Pooped with the 10 hour journey, we called it a day early on the 8th . We woke up late on the 9th attempting to shake off all tiredness in order to enjoy the first day in England. It was a busy day since we had to go for the wedding rehearsal in the latter half of the day. Since it was a nice & sunny day, we decided to make the most of it by going for a walk till the nearest railhead, Buxted.
The most common sight during our walk was that of ladies with the pram in one hand and a dog’s leash in the other. The English really do love their dogs. I must have seen more than a 100 dogs during our 10 day stay in England- very well behaved and disciplined, sitting primly beside their owners in the Tube or the buses. The second half of the day was spent in socializing and meeting relatives & friends who had all traveled to East Sussex for the wedding. The next day had originally been slated as a day of rest before the ‘Big’ day. With that excuse all of us woke up lazily, made a wholesome breakfast of toast, eggs, fried potatoes and loads on Indian ‘namkeen’. After studying that maps & various brochures on the sights around the area (thoughtfully collated & shared by our landlady) we short-listed Sissinghurst Castle Gardens about 60 miles from Buxted. It took us about 1.5 hours of driving on winding country roads to get there. The drive itself was very beautiful and the castle gardens were worth the effort as well. The vividly colored flowers stood out against the grey, chilly skies and made the landscape bright- delicate daffodils, sunny primroses and some brave tulips are all that I could recognize amongst the maze of colours.
There are two lakes within the castle grounds and the walking path intersperses with both along the way. A number of locals had also brought their children (and dogs!) for a walk. There was a lavish pre-wedding dinner for 30 at (another) Indian restaurant in Tunbridge Wells called Dine Asia. Apart from ‘chicken tikka masala’ being the national dish, onion bhaji is another favorite with the British. In fact almost all Indian preparations are relished in England and one can expect to find an Indian/Asian restaurant in almost all major and most minor towns/villages. 11th of April dawned as a cloudy, grey day, thankfully with no rain.
Even with the chill factor being pretty low, ladies being ladies were dressed in their wedding finery (including me!) with no woolens, sweaters, jackets to take away from the ‘look.’ Since I had never attended a catholic wedding, it was quite an honour and experience to be a part of this wedding. The ceremony is very simple and moving with exchange of vows, hymns and prayers. The church bells post the wedding, are struck in a particular order & the deep, resonating chimes inform all about the recently witnessed union.
The wedding dinner (which is incidentally lunch) started at around 1.30 PM and lasted till 6.00 PM with numerous toasts and sentimental speeches from friends and family. It was a sit down dinner for about 100 guests and the tables were named on birds- peacocks, eagles, partridges and budgies! Our actual trip started on the 12th of April when we boarded the District Line from Buxted to London Bridge. We bought an all zone pass for 7 pounds each (our cheapest ticket for the next 3 days) and changed trains to Victoria Terminus. With some initial confusion on whether to use the same ticket on local buses and manage sightseeing or buy a new ticket for the Hop on Hop off bus, we decided on the latter. This sightseeing ticket is valid for 24 hours from the time of purchase. The buses are similar to the open air ‘Mumbai Darshan’ double decker buses which operate in Mumbai – tourists have an option of choosing the Red line which has live commentary in English or the yellow line which has recorded commentary in a variety of languages (French, German, Portugese etc) through headphones plugged on every seat. Hop on Hop-off arrangement ensures that tourists can use their own time and convenience at each sightseeing venue depending on their area of interest.
The route covers all usual spots- the famous Buckingham palace (you can catch the changing of guards if lucky- but we found it highly overrated), National Museum, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square (Times Square-ish), London Bridge, Tower of London, Cruise on the Thames and the likes. The better way to feel the flavor of London and its culture is to try one of the musicals- tickets are available at Leicester Square and Covent Gardens for an official discount price. You may have to buy these tickets in advance especially since the discounted tickets are fastest to disappear. Even after a discount each ticket may cost anywhere from £25- £50, which is not cheap given the conversion rate of £1= Rs. 83. Unfortunately all tickets for Lion King (the only musical playing on Sunday afternoon) were sold out.
Hyde park is a beautiful place as well- its not very common to find a green area of that size within the town centre. We also made our way to Lord’s Cricket Ground (perennial love of cricket), though there was no match on that day, but a simple glimpse of the Mecca of cricket is enough to set the pulse racing for any true cricket enthusiast. My final impression of London is like that of any other large, cosmopolitan town in any country- some things don’t change, despite geographical distances and cultural disparities. One can find the same hoard of people rushing to the Subway, tube, local or metro in a hurry to reach work/office/meeting/home. A sea of heads, bodies in black (universally accepted formal office wear) and the same discontent frown. With two days devoted to London, we left for an area called Lake District on 14th morning.
Lake District is located at the North of England en route to Scotland. As the name denotes the area is blessed with a number of beautiful lakes amongst the mountainous district. All our bookings and travel planning had been done months in advance with the primary source of all information being Internet. For decision on which towns to tag as ‘must-see’ we relied on our friends and family who had either visited these locations or had heard from other sources on the famed natural beauty of the area. Our destination on 14th & 15th night was Windermere, one of the more commercial towns surrounding the Windermere lake. There are abundant B & B’s in that area but the best way to get a good deal on prices (never forget the conversion rate!) is to book online. Our hostess, Janet was very friendly and showed us to a brightly decorated room which she claimed had been recently renovated. The coverlet, bed spreads, curtains and all knick-knacks were all in shades of burgundy with flowery patterns.
The drive from London to Windermere took us about 6 hours and we had just about enough time to put our stuff in the room and drive till the lake for the sunset. Glossy, unbroken, deep blue waters, sleepy ducks, green gardens, winding roads and freezing cold- these were my first impression of the area. All B & B’s keep a host of brochures and books of the nearby local sightseeing spots, and we decided to use these to plan our next 2 days in Lake District.
The best way to enjoy and immerse in the natural beauty is to go walking. Hence, the next day we packed a picnic lunch (bread, butter, tomatoes, sandwich spread, fruits and the ubiquitous Indian namkeen!), parked the car in one of the numerous ‘lay-bys’ thoughtfully made for the tourists and took off in White Moss Woods. Even the tall coniferous jungles and the soft springy grass seemed to be manicured compared to the Indian tropical undergrowth. A short but remarkably serene walk by the stream got us to the shores of Grassmere lake. There were a number of other locals and tourists at the lakeside with children and pets to enjoy the sunny (but cold!) day. We made the most of our picnic lunch with the unique ambience of ducks and birds for company. There are a number of small hamlets and lakes in the area and those with cars (like us!) can drive to these places of exquisite beauty- thirlmere, buttermere, grassmere- the names are endless. Some places are remote and away from towns/shopping district but make a perfect setting for those looking for a break from the ‘madding crowd.’ You can bet on finding a B & B or a youth hostel in the remotest of places- but again pre-booking is the best option.
With 2 days spent in this beautiful setting, on 16th we took off for Inverness, the capital of Scottish Highlands. It was a long drive (some 300 miles) covering some beautiful destinations and exotic sounding towns along the way.