Brighton :: on a not a very bright day !!

One thing that I have learnt after coming to London is to brave the rain/ cold/wind/sun and go out on a weekend .. Initially I found it quite grey but gradually I am learning to enjoy it as well like the British do .. And now that we are to go back in couple of months time I am all the more determined to see new places as much as I can :)

Anyways ..so last Sunday we had planed to go the beach town Brighton .. a one hour train ride from London ..

 We had kept this trip for the summer months but as I mentioned we are to head back to India soon so we took the trip  ..

Its a beautifull town on the South coast of England .

We first headed to the amazing Royal Pavillion

This farmhouse turned palace built for King George IV  is a must see if in Brighton .

The interior of the palace is mesmerisingly oriental ....And ineterstiingly neither the king nor the designer had travelled to China .. :)

So after our Royal Pavillion tour was done we browsed through the shop  and couldnt find anything interesting affordable ..

Next we went to the Beach !!

After strolling around for a while in the beach we headed towards  Brighton Pier

The Pier had lots of interesting stuff in it :: kids play area,game zones.pub, cafe,and restaurants ..

We went around and to warm up ourselves settled down with tea and some fish and chips :)


By that time the sun showed up a bit so we went down to the beach once more dipped our feet and sat on the pebble for a bit ..By that time lot of the crowd had already jumped into the water :)

By 6:30 we left the beach and walked a bit more ..saw the clock tower

And then took a bus to the station ..

It was a good trip ..had it been a sunny day ofcourse it would have been great ..

Anywyas lets see if we get some sunny days ahead and I get to enjoy the British summer I might coax the husband to make a second trip to Brighton !!

The Sun is out !!

The sun is out ..make the most of it ....read a news paper article header :) .. So yes we finally have summer here .. I was quite taken aback  actually as it seemed the temperature went up overnight .. Anyways I am too happy to dump the overcoat , layers of clothing,muflers ,boots and bring out the soft summery dresses  :) :) .

So to make the most of it we headed out to Greenwhich without any particular plan in our mind ..

By th time we reached Greenwhich it was almost lunch time so we walked around a bit and spotted a nice homely restaurant and had our saturday roast there :)

It was my first  time trying out a traditional British roast and hardly could finish it up !!

Anyways  .. after that filling lunch we strolled around a bit .. I was seeing a different picture of London altogether it seemed ..Suddenly London seemed more colourful ..

While walking around we spotted Greewhich Picture House and decided to go for The Dictator movie .. We had sometime before the show started  so headed out to Greenwhich park ..Lazed around a bit there in the grass with the warm sun and the cool breeze which made us almost go zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ..but we made it for the movie just in time !!

The movie was quite hilarious made us laugh a lot . I enjoyed quite a lot of my "firsts" this weekend ..

All in all we were quite happy the way this unplanned Saturday went by :)

Trip to the Scottish Highlands

So after much of postponing , planning and what not our trip to the Scottish highlands finally happened . We went there during the Easter holidays . We have our extended family in Edinburgh so I was much looking forward to the trip :)
Its a 10 hrs long journey from London to edinburgh by road .. Though  one could choose to fly as fare has hardly any difference . In UK trains aremost expensive !!


Any way armed with some good books , music and nibbles we started early in the morning :)

My husband often tells me that am always soo eager to reach the destination that I never enjoy the journey !!  But this was one trip wherein 10 hrs I did not sleep a wink .. I thoroughly enjoyed the scenic beauty out of the large window :)

     And for once dint even realised when we reached Edinburgh !! Sometimes the husband is  so right :P

          Ah !! the green meadows, sheeps grazing ,sea, small towns passing by ..

        It was a journey I am going to cherish forever in my heart ..

The images donot do any justice to the beauty that experienced as they were clicked from a moving bus ..but I really wanted to share them hence this post ..

Linking my post to Patty's weekly story ..
                             

Shubho Noboborsho/ Rongali Bihu/ Baisakhi

Cherry Blossom : Princes Garden Edinburgh Scotland

May the new year bring hope ,prosperity & happiness to all of us !!

PHOTO A DAY

Golden sky ..

                                             Took this photo while coming back from a stroll in the evening .

PHOTO A DAY



Not sure what they are called but they had a sweet fragrance .

Spotted at Hampton Court,London

When the Sun God is happy so are we !!

Ever since I came to London the only colour I could see was GREY !! The skies were grey , the buildings grey roads, river,trees even people here  wore either black or grey !! I was just dying to see a dash of sunshine , colors ,happiness in here :)




But this week and the past week finally the Sun God was happy it seems cause he smiled :) and it was all sunshine evrywhere !!

So out we went to soak in as much warmth as we could and enjoy the outdoors :) We went to Hamstead heath and once I reached there I was soo happy !!  Though my husband had read about the place many a times , I had no clue about the place bu it t turned out to be just perfect :)

Hamstead Heath is a vast expanse of grassy land surrounded by greens , ponds, ancient woods and some beautiful view of London .

Actually it has one of the highest points in London . I could feel sooo close to nature people enjoying their stroll , kids playing running , joggers ,dog , sweet happy couples evryone seemed happy . Ahhh !! I soo wished  I could fill my lungs with the sweet warm air ..



Also close by was Keats House where the great poet John  Keats spent some years of his life and wrote some memorables poetry !!

It is here that Keats wrote his 'Ode to a Nightingale' . Never had I thought I would have the good fortune of coming here ..Have read so much about the poet in college !! ahhhh :)

It is the view from one of the parlour in the house .. The management is indeed doing a good job of retaining the original look and feel of the house ..

After all the walking, seeing and reading it was time for some hot chai . We spotted a small & sweet cafe Poly's nearby and went to sip and nibble something :)

And after I gulped all this down I was still hungry !! No not for food but for some more roaming around !!

So off we went to check out another awesome place !!

More on that in another post !!

Couldnt have been a better way to end the week :)