Day 8 - An experience of British Pomp and Luxury
I always beleived that Fairy tales were stories that were restricted to the books and the Knight in the shining armour was only seen in movies be it Bollywood or Hollywood. Ofcourse there were some movies that always became aspirational in terms of love stories like Pretty Woman or DDLJ . Like most of the girls , my Jr. Cultet also grew up listening to Fairy Tales as a part of bedtime stories from me. The stories then had to be tweaked by giving the Cruel Stepmothers and the Mighty Beasts some different roles. As she grew up , these came on screen in animation and then in movies. As a teen , one real fairy tale , I read about about was that about Princess Diana and Prince Charles. There will be very few people who will not be besotted by her overall personality and aura. Soon I learned that the Jr. Cutlet too was following a lot of news and trivia about the Royals.
Therefore , today when we dicided to visit the Buckingham Palace in the morning , on our way to the Palace , I was given a complete heads up on the Royals. Their lifestyle, their dressing protocals, their eating protocols, their residences and so much more. I had my jaw open while listening to her and wondered how and when she managed to gather so much trivia. I had planned the visit to palace on a day when we could watch the famous Change of Gurad ceremony , which I was told by someone took place 4 days a week at 10.45 am. We had decided to reach there an hour before to get a good spot to view the ceremony , since I had heard that it is jam packed by tourists who come to watch the ceremony. We managed to reach an hour before , however to our dismay , most of the prominent spots were taken by the tourists. We managed to scout for a spot and took position to view the ceremony. However we had an hour to kill standing in one spot. Fortunatley the weather was on our side , and we managed to strike a conversation with few tourists around getting to know about their country and telling them about India. In no time it was time for the ceremony. Honestly speaking, it is the New Guard exchanging duty with the Old Guard routine that is glorified and made to look ceremonial. And they surely make it look ceremonial and pompous. No wonder there are hundreds of tourits and locals who throng to the Palace premises to watch it. It a good one time watch ceremony. The palace (we did not take the tour from inside) however looks stunningly huge. It has 775 rooms , with 12 rooms occupied by the Queen. It has 800 servants with about 190 rooms dedicated for the servants onsite. After a brief tour of the palace and its premises from outside , we decided to take leave; the Jr Cutlet still in awe of the entire experience. Since this was my penultimate day in London , I kept looking to eat a Bristish delicacy called Jacket Potatoes . I found it in a quaint British Cafe and immediately ordered it. It is a large potato that is over baked and roasted, broken in between and topped with baked beans , cheese and some salad. Delicious and not hyped at all. I thanked my stars for having found one just in time.
The next half of the day went shopping and soaking in as much London as we could. Both the Cutlets has truck loads of memories to carry back. I could manage to scribble just few of them here. The Tube , the weather, the streets, the prominent places , the atmosphere and also the people. We have only good things to talk about all of them. I found the locals very friendly and helpful (compared to my experience of the locals in other EU countries) maybe because language was not a barrier here. A famous English Writer Samuel Jackson once said " If you are tired of London, you are tired of Life". As we pack the bags, do the web check ins, gather the last minute stuff, I am getting restless to go back to Aamchi Mumbai as soon as possible. My family, my friends, my well wishers and my routine are calling me back. Which makes me realise that when most of the times , we crib about our routine, these breaks make us realise how precious and valuable our routine is. I will leave you with this thought , with this trail and take this opportunity to thank each one of you for being with us The Enthusiastic Cutlets, on our very own London Trail. Signing Off for a brigther tomorrow.
I always beleived that Fairy tales were stories that were restricted to the books and the Knight in the shining armour was only seen in movies be it Bollywood or Hollywood. Ofcourse there were some movies that always became aspirational in terms of love stories like Pretty Woman or DDLJ . Like most of the girls , my Jr. Cultet also grew up listening to Fairy Tales as a part of bedtime stories from me. The stories then had to be tweaked by giving the Cruel Stepmothers and the Mighty Beasts some different roles. As she grew up , these came on screen in animation and then in movies. As a teen , one real fairy tale , I read about about was that about Princess Diana and Prince Charles. There will be very few people who will not be besotted by her overall personality and aura. Soon I learned that the Jr. Cutlet too was following a lot of news and trivia about the Royals.
Therefore , today when we dicided to visit the Buckingham Palace in the morning , on our way to the Palace , I was given a complete heads up on the Royals. Their lifestyle, their dressing protocals, their eating protocols, their residences and so much more. I had my jaw open while listening to her and wondered how and when she managed to gather so much trivia. I had planned the visit to palace on a day when we could watch the famous Change of Gurad ceremony , which I was told by someone took place 4 days a week at 10.45 am. We had decided to reach there an hour before to get a good spot to view the ceremony , since I had heard that it is jam packed by tourists who come to watch the ceremony. We managed to reach an hour before , however to our dismay , most of the prominent spots were taken by the tourists. We managed to scout for a spot and took position to view the ceremony. However we had an hour to kill standing in one spot. Fortunatley the weather was on our side , and we managed to strike a conversation with few tourists around getting to know about their country and telling them about India. In no time it was time for the ceremony. Honestly speaking, it is the New Guard exchanging duty with the Old Guard routine that is glorified and made to look ceremonial. And they surely make it look ceremonial and pompous. No wonder there are hundreds of tourits and locals who throng to the Palace premises to watch it. It a good one time watch ceremony. The palace (we did not take the tour from inside) however looks stunningly huge. It has 775 rooms , with 12 rooms occupied by the Queen. It has 800 servants with about 190 rooms dedicated for the servants onsite. After a brief tour of the palace and its premises from outside , we decided to take leave; the Jr Cutlet still in awe of the entire experience. Since this was my penultimate day in London , I kept looking to eat a Bristish delicacy called Jacket Potatoes . I found it in a quaint British Cafe and immediately ordered it. It is a large potato that is over baked and roasted, broken in between and topped with baked beans , cheese and some salad. Delicious and not hyped at all. I thanked my stars for having found one just in time.
The next half of the day went shopping and soaking in as much London as we could. Both the Cutlets has truck loads of memories to carry back. I could manage to scribble just few of them here. The Tube , the weather, the streets, the prominent places , the atmosphere and also the people. We have only good things to talk about all of them. I found the locals very friendly and helpful (compared to my experience of the locals in other EU countries) maybe because language was not a barrier here. A famous English Writer Samuel Jackson once said " If you are tired of London, you are tired of Life". As we pack the bags, do the web check ins, gather the last minute stuff, I am getting restless to go back to Aamchi Mumbai as soon as possible. My family, my friends, my well wishers and my routine are calling me back. Which makes me realise that when most of the times , we crib about our routine, these breaks make us realise how precious and valuable our routine is. I will leave you with this thought , with this trail and take this opportunity to thank each one of you for being with us The Enthusiastic Cutlets, on our very own London Trail. Signing Off for a brigther tomorrow.






































