Trip to Stone henge and Roman Bath

It was less than 6 degrees and everybody around was still asleep including myself thats when my alarm rang, time was 5 am in the morning. We had decided to go to Stone henge and Bath, 2 very good places on the same day in UK. I had the task of waking up my friend too. By 7:20 we were at the YMCA, there was quite a big crowd by the time we started from YMCA, I think it was around 50.  It was a bad start as none of us were able to grab anything for breakfast.

It was the first time I was seeing the sunrise in weeks. within few minutes we were out of the city life and was passing through the army quarters and country side. We had a wonderful guide who was introduced by the organisers. Forgot to mention, earlier in the day as soon as we came to YMCA, my friend wanted to take a pic in front a plant next to Gandhiji's photo. while I was taking the picture behind came a comment from Mike saying  the plant behind my friend was good. me and my friend both were laughing at this, now it was the same guy who would be a guide for us the whole day.

Starting from where we had left, Mike started explaining about the country side and the place that we were going "Stone Henge". Stonehenge is a  prehistoric monument located in the English countyside, One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of earthworks surrounding a circular setting of large standing stones and sits at the centre of the densest complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred burial grounds.

We were there at Stone Henge within 2.5 hours and we were having about an hour to finish Stone henge and back to the coach. Almost all of them who came with us were hungry, luckily bread slices that i had carried early in the morning helped a lot, at one time we had even eyed the bananas brought by another gang. As soon as my friend saw the Stone henge first response from him was " this is the same picture which is on my Windows desktop", one other friend answered him, yes Microsoft stole it from here.

We spent some time watching and listening to the history of the place and of course taking pictures from all the angles. Even before we can think of we were back on the coach. Organisers were little upset as few of them came as late as 30 mins. It was a tight schedule as we were about to cover 2 places on the same day.  Starting from there, it was very nice country side that we passed through and althrough the journey we had nice hindi songs played by the guys behind us on their mobile. Every now and then Mike used to give us details about the place.

By the time we reach the Roman bath it was nearly 1 and all of us were hungry. But Plan was to visit the Bath first and then have our lunch. It was a tough feeling to carry our lunch and take photographs and roam around the roman bath. It was a wonderful ancient place, though I wasnt very interested in listening to the history, enjoyed viewing the exhibits. 

The Roman Baths complex is a site of historical interest in the English city of Bath. The complex is a well-preserved Roman site for public bathing.The Roman Baths themselves are below the modern street level. There are four main features: the Sacred Spring, the Roman Temple, the Roman Bath House and the Museum holding finds from Roman Bath. The buildings above street level date from the 19th century.

From there we went on searching for the River side park, and after huge effort of nearly 40 minutes, we were on the bank of river Avon. Overlooking the river and the Pulteney bridge we had our lunch. We were accompanied by a friend from meghalaya, to be surprise she was the first person from meghalaya whom I had met.  With all our energies refilled, we were ready to explore the city of bath. 

First thing that caught our eye was St.John's Evangelist Catholic Church. It was a wonderful church and one of the best that I had seen. we didnt get in as there was a mass going on during that time, From there I took my friends saying I will show them the Cathedral ( though I dint really know what it was and how to go).  It was a long walk and at last we saw a beautiful building which i convinced my friends that it was Bath University. But it was St.Mary Virgin church. 

Next stop from there was at the Pulteney bridge which is the next best thing in Bath after the bath and Abbey. We didnt spend much time enjoying the bridge. This bridge is the only bridge in UK which has shops built on the Bridge. From there we went to the Abbey, for our dissaapointment, the entry was closed for the abbey tower. Spent some time viewing the abbey and headed back to our coach.

Speaking to others from our group, we came to know that we had missed viewing Royal Carnival too. Back on our way we spent most of the time in talking as it was already getting dark and we could hardly see anything outside. Overall it was a short wonderful trip.

Thames path from Putney Bridge to Richmond

It was a wonderful journey from London Eye to Putney Bridge, that inspired me to continue with the rest of the trail. Finished writing my blog for the first length of the trail and slept deciding that I will start early in the morning for the next trail. But by the time I got up it was 9 already. Got ready fast and prepared a simple curry for the sandwich and packed it for my trip. Learning from my previous trip, also packed a bottle of water and some biscuits. By the time I started from home it was already 11.

It took me 2 hours before which I could reach Putney Bridge from  my place. Beautiful Putney rail bridge was in front of me within moments of getting out of station, Thames was flowing with more majestically today than what I had seen last time. Crossing over the bridge and over a few steps I was next to Putney Bridge, next to the bridge is putney pier where I saw series of boat houses, also read that this place is famous for annual oxford -cambridge boat race. The other side of the river is complete with the Fulham palace Gardens.

Crossing over a small footbridge I was completely out of city life, it was as though i was inside a tunnel made out of trees, the place is called Beverly Brook.

It was a tree lined mud path from there on, soon I approached an old building Harrods Furniture Depository. few minutes of walk after that i was next to the beautiful Hammersmith bridge, The bridge which has the history of not getting damaged even after several bomb attacks. After the bridge I arrived at something called Leg of Mutton Nature reserve, sadly it was fenced and i couldnt go through, that ended my mud path and I was back on to the road next to the under repair Barnes Bridge. It was a beautiful as I had seen in pictures, but now it was completely covered and was being renovated.

I could not bear my hunger anymore, hence sat there on a bench viewing the rowing boats pass through. The sandwich that I had brought from home, went inside one by one without complain. At this point I was thinking how better to plan if I go for a long hike with a Non vegetarian group. Thames path author suggested that it might be wet here, but since Thames was flowing more quietly now I could easily continue along the side walk. Beyond this point it was Chiswick bridge which had a very big path and I could see many joggers and cyclists around. After passing the bridge, its all luxury houses all long until we approach the Kew rail bridge. I was imagining myself staying in one of these luxury houses with my family, hope it doesnt stay just an imagination.

Kew rail bridge and Kew bridge leed you to Kew Gardens, which is welcomed by the beautiful Kew Palace in front of it. Thames get very wide beyond this point wherein we have the Grand union canal next to the Syon house. Thames path here is separated by a small stream to prevent illegal entrants to kew gardens. Once you pass the kew gardens you reach the Deer garden, heard there are lots of deers in this garden but i couldnt sight any. At the end of the deer garden, I saw a place where it was marked the standard time, this standard was used before the current GMT standard.

Across the other bank, I could see a beautiful village and a place call Gordon house which was beautiful. Walking along the path, I was near the richmond lock, where thames path was almost at the water level. had good look at the richmond lock, and Twikenham rail bridge.  As soon as I crossed the bridge, saw water flooding into the path, few joggers were returning back seeing the flooding, I was determined not to turn back, removed my shoes and went ahead. It was a few minutes of water walk for me, before which I saw a corner back to road. I was a celebrity here, few amateur photographers were capturing me on their DSLR. Gave them a broad smile and was back on road.

Richmond was a beautiful place with old houses, soon I was in front of a cricket stadium, rested there for a few minutes watching the match and headed towards the Richmond station.




I acknowledge the author of thames path for guiding me all the way through this source 

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra 

After 3 days of holidays there was no interest in me to go back to work and sit all through the day in front of the PC, but cant help it. As a sudden spark of rescue I found one of my colleague who started discussing about classical music, though he was not much interested in it, I showed little interest and he offered two tickets to a Western classical music by to one of the best Classical music Orchestra. I scanned through whole of my known people list who can potentially join me, but with no luck. My colleague had given me all the details including what time I should reach the station and how many minutes I might have to walk and where to buy a sandwich too. I Really appreciated it.

At last it was 6 and I could not find any and I decided to go alone. Though I was a bit late, I arrived at the Royal Albert Hall just in time for the show to start. I was paralyzed by the view the hall offered me, never in my life had I seen such a beautiful hall for a show. Two wonderful classical music shows, first one was Haydn's  military classic and the second one was Shostakovich's Tenth – one of the composer's most popular symphonies.

The Hall was completely full and audience were even standing to see the performance and it was a continuous 10 mins applause that we could hear at the end of both shows. I should really thank both BBC proms and my colleague who gave me the tickets and made me to visit Albert hall.

Thames path walk from London Eye to Putney bridge

It was a bright sunny day, I had decided to start early in the morning as I was very excited to do my first outing in London and the place chosen was a perfect starting point for my walking/hiking experience in UK.

London City, one of the famous city which I always dreamt of visiting was very new to me as it was only 2 weeks since I was in this place. I already had a task in hand to take a family for touring around London. Though it was pretty late that we started, reached the Waterloo station by 12 in the afternoon. It was just a small walk from there before which we could see the fantastic London Eye.

Within a few minutes walk we were next to world famous London Eye. At the first sight of it, I wanted to climb it but the queue in front of me pushed me back. London Eye is on the banks of river Thames, the source of my walk today. All through the path from London eye to Westminister Bridge you see lots of Street plays, I was amazed to see them. This is where I left the family to be on their own and went on my path having Putney bridge as my destination.

At the other end of the bank is the world famous London parliament house. I had always wondered when i will take a photo in front of this landmark of London. It was time now but i couldnt get a good view as my view was blocked by London eye. I decided to move ahead capturing the street plays and heading towards Westiministers bridge. It was a narrow path to cross the bridge below and the path was completely quiet. What a great difference between the two sides of the bridge, one side its completely filled with crowded people with lots of fun and on the other side its completely quiet and peace. With a few minutes walk I had a very clear view of the Parliament house captured it safely on my new Nikon Camera.

After this is a beautiful flying swan statue just next to the Battersea Bridge and on the other side is a nice statue of a family. Beyond this point thames

Wanted my own pic in front of the Parliament house tried to capture it myself but wasnt upto my satisfaction. Then a passer by helped me to place me in a pic in front of the parliament house. As I passed few steps ahead I could see the Lambeth's palace to my left, the home of archbishop of Canterbury. Church of St.Mary is next to this old palace. After I walked a while ahead and turned back it was the beautiful Parliament house, London eye and the Lamberth Bridge.

Soon after this we find ourselves next to the Beautiful or should i say one of the ugliest MI6 building. This is not very popular a building but it still has made its name by the ugliness of its shape.

Soon I was near the Vauxhall Bridge after passing MI6 building. There was a slight drift in the path and I had to deviate away from the thames path. It was already 2 in the noon, I couldnt starve myself anymore, on the way i grabbed a sandwich and bottle of fanta with potato chips. It was a strange sandwich that I had not eaten before, but couldnt help it, I had to eat. Once in between when I could look back towards where I started, it seemed to be like the London Eye has shifted banks. Continuing along the road I reached the Chelsea Bridge which was a very beautiful old bridge. Chelsea bridge leeds way to Battersea park, A beautiful park along the river thames with full of plant life. It also has a gift from japanes buddhist order a very beautiful structure " The London Pagoda". This has Buddha in four different positions on four sides of the sturcture.

At the end of the Battersea park it leads way to Albert Bridge and on continuing you can see some waterside boats used as restaurants.

path continues across beautiful newly built houses on both the banks. Few industrial buildings are also seen on the other bank. As I approached St.Mary's church thames path deviated on to the road again. Got lost here searching for my way back to the path, thanks to the old sign boards which still exists guides you every now and then.

walking along the road I could see an odd construction with old add's of coke. From there on I was back on the thames path starting with Wandsworth bridge and leading to Wandsworth park. A beautiful park with trees lined up like soliders on both sides of the walking path. At the end of the Wandworth park it leads to residential area which eventually ends up before the Putney Railway bridge. It was an awesome experience standing on top of the Putney bridge with a beautiful view of Thames river and enjoying my last sip of the drink. Crossed over the bridge and straight into the Putney bridge railway station. Captured the beautiful old railway station on my camera and the camera was back on its pouch. Soon after this I was welcomed by a district train sitting in which I payed my final wave to the wonderful walk that made my day happy.

Good Source that I had althrough my journey was a printout from the below webpage

http://www.thames-path.org.uk/thames_eye_putney.html Thanks for the person who wrote it.

yours

mitrashekar