London

 i spent 7 enchanted days in london exploring every nook and corner of one of the worlds greatest cities and i was helped by the fact that in early june the sun was shining everyday-not like my previous visit when the whole of england was blanketed by a grey foggy atmosphere with rain being omnipresent.
            i am not enclosing any photos-because the standard photographic impressions of london do not convey the mix of history, culture,and the vibrancy of this great city.
            i would get up every day and get into one of the big bus tours-common to most big cities where you purchase a ticket for 24 hours and then on and off exploring as you want-and then come back on the thames cruise.what impressed me was the way buildings 1000 years old have been preserved along with modern developments and there did not seem to be a contradiction between the ancient and the modern-the tower, buckingham palace-westminster abbey-westminster palace-all have been preserved along with the london eye and other modern symbols.
              the plus points were surprises like the kerala restaurant in oxford street where i had chemmeen curry and biryani with kingfisher beer-the uninhibited  talks in hyde park-and the wonderful experience in covent garden-where you can buy anything from a cap to handicrafts, while watching a punch and judy show on one side-or an opera imitation on the other at the same time enjoying a glass of wine.
                                       going to trafalgar square-discovering that two of the people immortalised are napier -famous or infamous for capturing sindh and sending a telegram-peccavi-i have sinned-which may be true-and havelock-if i am mistaken -he is immortalised for crushing the sepoy mutiny-i was a bit crushed till i walked into the national arts gallery-and discovered titian,rubens ,michaelangelo,and all the other great painters.
         madame tussauds is derigeur-an added attraction was a recreation of the ship in the pirates of the carribbean -and there was a pirate at the entrance looking through the window-and of course people would touch him and go in-and this posed pirate would suddenly turn and growl at the visitors.and surprise of surprises sharrukh was featured with a continous tv relay of his songs and movies-all the other indian icons-the mahatma,nehru,indira,amitabh,aishwarya etc.
             some one told me kensington palace the last home of diana is to be visited-and i was a bit disappointed by the size of that palace-former residence of british kings-rooms the size of 12 by 12-a lawn which in the surprised words of an australian visitor,summed it-dont they have a lawn mower.and the final word -as the tourists get out-an appeal from the guides-please contribute-neither the royal family nor the british government contributes to the upkeep-the british are still a nation of traders.
   the biggest surprise was the huge amount of indian tourists-outnumbering all other nationalities-the revenge of the colonised!