Monday, September 27, 2010

Our London Trip - Visit to a small old town!

I have nearly forgotten about blogging and blog hopping for sometime now! Will start doing both regularly, hereafter!

This is my second trip to London. We visited most of the important tourist places last time. This time we visited some exclusive interesting places.

The one thing I like most about the English people is, they give lots of importance to their history and preserve their old things - esp. buildings! Let me write about our visit to a small English town, which looks and feel very old! The new box-type buildings have not invaded this town, yet. The town looks serene without much fumes from the vehicles. We were there during the daytime, so we didn't see many people - busy people, whoever we saw, were in a leisurely mood!

The old town Henley is situated on the banks of river Thames. Wikepedia says, 'Henley is a world renowned centre for rowing, each summer holding the Henley Royal Regatta, one of the highlights of the social calendar of the English middle and upper classes. The regatta is held on a stretch of the river that is naturally straight. The event became Royal in 1851. In that year Prince Albert became the patron of the regatta.'

The town might be busy during the times of the competitions, but when we visited, it was calm and beautiful!

Some photographs of the places:


This area looks beautiful from all the angles! The water is clean, no pollution from the vehicles!



This one and many other swans and ducks come near the steps of the river bank as soon as they see people, for food! Isn't she beautiful?!



The real town...I think this place is famous for the beautiful river bank. The economy of the town must be relying on this river bank, tourist town, maybe!



We saw many restaurants spreading outside their doorways onto the pavements, like here!


This boat belongs to an Indian restaurant, Spice merchant, which is situated on the road in the picture before this one!



This picture shows what we had for our lunch...tea, scones with cream and jam! The picture below shows the old English pub which is famous for this tea! I hopped up the high stool for eating this, which was funny for the people who were with me!



The inside of the old English pub!



We saw this beautiful creeper full of flowers in front of a restaurant

Later on, we visited a very old church, St.Mark's church, which is more than 800 years old!






The glass painting inside the church, so colourful!

I noticed many people taking dogs with them, most of the time, esp. older people. We saw many types of dogs everywhere! We saw boards in many shops saying, 'dogs are not allowed inside'! I was able to smile at strangers who were wishing 'good morning' or 'good afternoon', which is unthinkable here, in our country.

Except once or twice, I came across people who were friendly or were in their own world with their ears plugged with the earphone from their ipod! The trains (tube) were very clean and on time, but very very expensive. Comparatively, our country has got cheap and good train services! It is not an easy job to run so many trains for such a huge population and quite a good percentage do not hesitate to burn trains or buses for flimsy reasons. Still, the train fare is quite cheap, here.

One more thing I noticed is, I never saw people throwing things like paper or plastic bags on the roads or floors. It was clean, clean everywhere. And we met Indians everywhere!

One last snap of the riverbank:


More posts about our trip, will follow! later!

33 comments :

SG said...

Thanks for the nice narration and beautiful pictures. If you have not yet visited, please do visit Stonehenge. We were there last year and loved it.

KParthasarathi said...

It was a detailed description with very apt pictures.I got the feeling of having visited the place.Thank you for the wonderful piece.

Sandhya said...

SG: Yes, we plan to visit Stonehenge next time. Thank you, SG!


KParthasarathi: Thank you, Parthasarathi!

R. Ramesh said...

super post..gr8 photos.welcome back:)

Bikram said...

R u still in UK, thats not good you should have told me or contacted me .. NOt fair when did you come .. when r u going back,..

Yes english love there history and do there best to keep it unlike us indians ..

yes we dont throw things on floor and tube expensice noooo.. its the cheapest mode.. you cna get a whole day pass for 6 pounds each person.. i dont know where you got it
and trains tooo if you book 4 -5 days in advance u get 70-80% off

but yeah henly is a good place .. I hope u had fun and enjoyed wish i had known...

Deepa said...

Nice narrative. Say hi to old Lizzy for me!! :)) Enjoy!

SM said...

like the pics with narration

raji said...

nice write up and description of the place.nice pictures also.

vimmuuu said...

Nice snaps Sandhya ! We seem to copy a lot from the West, except in preserving the history and keeping the country clean.

Renu said...

Beautiful pictures Sandhya!cleanliness enhances the beauty...I saw London in 79 and then it was not so beautiful.

Anonymous said...

Lovely photos, Sandhya! How long were you there?

The town seems very peaceful and attractive. The creeper with flowers is beautiful!

Sandhya said...

Ramesh: Thank you, Ramesh! Missed reading your posts...will start reading now and laugh!


Bikram: I am back, Bikram! I was there for about 2 weeks.

Everything seemed expensive more because we ten to convert every pound into rupees...that is our drawback!

70 to 80% off for early train booking? Internal travel or outside travel? It is nice...

Yes, I loved the town and that is the reason I wrote about it first!

Next time I will definitely meet you, Bikram, thank you!


Deepa: Thank you! More than Lizzy, I missed meeting Pope by few minutes, near Westminster Abbey!


sm: Welcome here, sm! Thank you!


raji: Welcome here, Raji! Thank you!


vimmuuu: The cleanliness of the place hits us as soon as we come out of the airport, vimmuuu...we are not used to seeing such cleanliness!

Even in the countryside, outside the pubs also, the places were clean! It is inborn, I think! Just noticed one or two beer can under the bushes! I think they feel bad to throw it in the open or feel lazy to carry the cans. Still the basic cleanliness cannot be ignored for any reasons, which we will never learn.

One more thing I noticed is, people do not talk loudly anywhere. Even if the malls were crowded, we hear hushed conversations!


Renu: Yes, the place is very beautiful, Renu!


Manju: I was there for a couple of weeks, Manju!

Every doorstep, whether it was a hotel or home, had flower beds or creepers like this. I saw beautiful flowers everywhere!

The river bank also was very clean with so much business being done there!

Swaram said...

Vimmuuu, atleast let few of us who realize it do it then ;) Whatz the use of comparing and complaining :P

Lovely post Sandhya. Loved the pics :) So take me to a fairyland with only my books with me for company :) :)

Unknown said...

What beautiful snaps!!! Truly!
And erm...my favourite one is ...erm...scones and jam and cream!! tee hee! no kiddin...they actually remind me of my Enid Blyton days of food cravings after reading about the picnic lunches and teas those kids would eat! :D

The church snaps have come fabulous too!

LOL @ you climbing on the high stool and embarrassing ur people! :D

you saw many dogs and where are the pics?? next post??
*crafty sits patiently outside the blog premises for doggie snaps*

Hugs!!!

RGB said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
RGB said...

Picture book town! If Indians abroad can keep the city in which they reside clean, why can't they do the same in their own country? Wish we had better civic sense, and cared for our beautiful hometowns better!

Kavita Saharia said...

Oh,how lovely !The town looks so charming,serene and beautiful.Perfect place to relax and rejuvenate.I feel so much relaxed just by looking at the pictures.That Swan is sooo beautiful--milky white !If she comes to India,in an hour she will turn grey due to the dirt and pollution.
You are torturing me by posting the pictures of those delicious looking scones,jam n cream.The serve is so beautiful..classic white tea-set!

I love the way they decorate their town with beautiful creepers,flowers and other decorative plants .They treat their town like their own home.That is the main difference between them and us.

I am glad that you and your family had a wonderful time.More happy to see you back.Looking forward for more.

Sissh,i can't get out those scones from my mind !hmmmm

Sandhya said...

Swaram: Books and fairyland...nice combination, Swaram!

I noticed children stuffing the tissue papers they used into their pockets there, Swaram! It will take ages for us to develop that type of cleanliness!


Crafty: Though I don't fancy bread items here, I taste all types of bread when I go there, Crafty! Croissants are the best! Keeping aside my nature of staying away from sweets and creams, I applied the cream and jam liberally on the scones and gobbled up!

It was fun climbing up the stool when all were glaring at me...all of us laughed a lot during our trips and I am the oldest of them all! The photo looks tempting for you too?!

I must be having a couple of the dog pictures...I scold myself for not taking many! They will come later!

"HUGGGSSS" to you too!


RGB: God knows why, RGB!

Sandhya said...

Kavita: Yes, the place is beautiful, Kavita! Like Swaram said, this place, the river bank, is the best place to sit with a book and relax...the ducks and swans will come near us and poke their heads at us! They are not scared of people at all!

The evenings at the pub would be very crowded, it seems! We were the only customers that afternoon and enjoyed sitting there and applying one inch thick cream and jam on the scones and swallowing! Only one beautiful girl was at the counter. She took the order and brought the tray with a BIG smile, which is rare here...she had classic features and I still remember her face!

Thank you for the happy welcome words, Kavita! It is nice to be back to be with my blog friends!

BK Chowla, said...

Yes, I agree with you.I had an opportunity of visiting this place a few years back.
Pictures are so beautiful.

Anonymous said...

You were in the UK! Next time you've got to come and stay with us! And I will take you around Yorkshire :)

Lovely pictures and lovely description, Sandhya!

'they give lots of importance to their history and preserve their old things - esp. buildings! ' - That is indeed true! I am amazed at how well they preserve everything. Some things which might seem routine, give such a wonderful feeling to the way life must have been once upon a time.
English tea with scones :) Yum:) You know I used to think that scones were something extremely exotic, thanks to all the Enid Blytons I read :) When I first ate one, I was actually disappointed :) But I love it now :) And I love the little tearooms. They are so cute. They serve tea very 'properly' and then bring a dessert trolley with all sorts of delicious cakes :)

Anonymous said...

Wow! lovely place and lovely pics too. When did u visit London?

Anonymous said...

Beautiful pics.. London is one place that I badly want to visit.. Nice post :)

Sandhya said...

BK Chowla: My niece knew that I would like this place and so this time she took us to this unique place. Enjoyed our trip very much.


wordsndreamz: We didn't see the desert trolley! Yes, the scones looked very dry and I was wondering why it is such a famous item! Then, when I tasted it a LOT of cream and jam, I liked it!

This time four of us relatives went there for a wedding. I will visit you next time and would love to meet Poohi and you!


writerzblock: I was there for a couple of weeks. Came back last Wednesday.


evanescentthoughts: Yes, this place should not be missed, Ashwini!

R. Ramesh said...

Thanks ya:)

R. Ramesh said...

Thanks ya:)

kanagu said...

the pics are really beautiful :) I loved them..

I always like UK and other European countries more than US because of their history... also there seems to be no hurry in their life..

Someday I have to visit UK for sure and ride those boats, have food in those open restaurants :) :)

thanks for sharing those wonderful pics :)

radha said...

Welcome back. Hope to able to go to London again in June ( daughter lives there). And will try and visit this place. Am in total agreement with whatever you have to say about the place. History is so well preserved here.

Chandrika Shubham said...

Wonderful pics and wonderful discription. :)
I liked first, second and last pic. :) Beautiful!:)

Sandhya said...

Kanagu: Yes, UK is beautiful with full of ancient buildings, castles etc. Maybe we are more familiar with them because we had been familiar with them and their culture for ages!

US is very modern compared to this country. This country is a quiet place and yes, there seems to be no hurry in their lives, Kanagu.

You are going to do a post like this one day and I am going to read it...make it fast, Kanagu!


Radha: This town is very beautiful and serene. Please visit without fail!


Chandrika Shubham: Thank you, Chandrika!

Anonymous said...

I wish i'd known, would have loooved to meet you!!

Anonymous said...

Welcome back! That was a wonderful account of your trip. The pictures spoke volumes of the beautiful place you'd been to.

Anonymous said...

You at London??Cool..

Enjoy the journey dear..

Loved the snap of swan....

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