MY TRIP TO LONDON

MY TRIP TO LONDON

Inscrutable are the ways of God! Having taken my B.A (Hons) English Language and Literature Degree from the Presidency  College, Madras in 1953, I never, in my wildest imagination, thought that I would visit London in 2016! I Had retired as a professor and settled in Chennai. My grand daughter had settled with her family in Newcastle and that gave me an opportunity to visit her this summer during the months May and September. They had specially planned a visit to London for me and I was delighted to recollect and see for myself some of the celebrated places in the city of London immortalized through history and literature. Soon after our unforgettable Safari journey we drove directly to London from Birmingham with my grand daughter at the steering wheel! It was a memorable drive all the way with  meadows and pastures offering a feast for the eyes! It was all the more enjoyable as the weather was excellent!

We touched the famous city of Oxford and my thoughts hovered over the the famous Oxford University. I stopped at the Faculty of English and saw the School of Medicine and the school of Arts! It was interesting to see students using bicycles more than any other mode of transport! It's. churches and towers impressed me much! We moved on to Stratford upon Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare,the Elizabethan dramatist. It was a strange coincidence that the 400th centenary the poet was being celebrated! I went round the old house where the Bard lived,his garden, and certain materials he used. The old house was maintained excellently by the Trust. I visited the Exhibition that was on. A few scenes from one of his plays were being enacted by a few performers! I remembered the days when I taught my students in the college, a few plays like The Tempest, Macbeth, Hamlet and Julius Caesar!The town is beautiful and we went round the city centre for a while. We took a few photos and continued our drive to the city of London. We reached the city by night and went straight to the house of a close friend of my grand daughter for a short stay! We had a well deserved rest after a long drive for six hours.

We took the early morning underground Metro to see the renowned Madame Tussaud's Gallery. There was terrible crowd already and we managed to get entry! It is an indescribable collection of the wax models of world famous politicians, poets, painters, chief ministers, philosophers,  Royalty, sports persons, film celebrities and many others! Visitors are allowed to to take photographs with the wax models and I took many photos with the  British Royalty, Mahatma Gandhi, Mandela, Modi, Indira Gandhi, Shah rukh Khan, Sachin Tendulkar and others!There was was a terrible craze for taking photos. It took us a full three and half hours to go round the gallery and come out of its mazy circuits! Next we went to see the Big Ben and what a  tall building it is! We heard it's resounding bell,saw the Thames Bridge, Westminster Abbey, Parliament buildings, and the St.,Paul’s cathedral. I remembered the description of the visit to the Cathedral by Joseph Addison in his Coverly Papers! It was an amazing experience to see the entire city of London and its suburbs through the London Eye!

The next day we visited the famous Swaminarayan Temple, a marble wonder, dedicated to its founder! In the midst of the din and dust and buzzle of the city it stood as a monument of peace silence and faith! The Tower of London, where King Charles the second was beheaded and the seat of many horrible tortures was our next place of visit. It was a dazzling sight to view the various golden crowns, swords, vases and the regalia since the fourteenth century exhibited in a part of the Tower! It was difficult to forget their glitter and brilliance for along time! We had a look at the Buckingham palace from a distance, went round the Trafalgar Square, Hyde Park before we returned home. It was the period when the talk of remaining or leaving the EU was in discussion. We saw a massive demonstration in favor of remaining near Trafalgar Square! On the whole the trip was very successful and I will cherish its memory for a long time to come!!