A day in London

What would you do, if you had one day in London and it was your first trip to the city? Well, here s what I did.
The first question I asked myself is that having seen a few other European city what is it that sets London apart . The obvious answer which came to me was the monarchy and all things associated with it.
So my tour began at the Westminster Abbey where having only an hour to spare I had a sort of whirlwind tour. So I spent some time at the choir area, tombs of Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots and saw the coronation chair where for seven hundred years the monarch has got his/ her throne. In fact the abbey is the place where all the important functions of the monarchy have been held. St Paul's Cathedral is the other famous place (made more famous by the shot of Diana and Charles after their wedding, while her funeral was held at Westminster). The most time I spent was in the world famous Poet’s Gallery where you feel almost all of English literature lies buried and a few additions from the world of cinema and music like Sir Larry and Handel. To my surprise I never noticed much of Newton there even though The Da Vinci Code kept referring to it.
The rest of my morning was spent in witnessing the spectacle called ‘The Change of Guard’. I had already made great friends with a taxi driver (whose favourite cricketer was Sachin and professed to have played cricket with Saurav!) and he had explained the best way to see this event. Let me share the secret with you. The change of guard begins with the cavalry change of guard at Whytehall. So catch that first and then cut through St James Park and come out in Constitution Avenue in time to watch the infantry march out of their barracks. Walk down with them all down to the Victorian Monument in front of Buckingham Palace. This is where you face a bit of a problem in being able to cross the street to get to the gates of the palace inside which the rest of the ceremony takes place. There is always a crowd and so getting a view is not easy but my Indian friends if you can manage to get into a Bombay local why can’t you push your way through a crowd of foreigners J Even you can’t initially just hang around there for a lot of people come expecting to see guns booming and when they realize its all about music and not guns they leave and you can step up to take their privileged wasted seats.
After a lunch of very bad ‘fish n chips’ by Trafalgar Square I made my way to the final stop in my itinerary where I spent the rest of the afternoon, The Tower of London. Now, the tower was the residence of the royals prior to Buckingham Castle and the best way is to get a tour conducted by the Yeomen Warders or the ‘Beefeaters’ as they are popularly called. You can follow it with your own tour through the Crown Jewels (yes, that’s where the Kohinoor is), the ravens (whose wings are clipped since it’s believed that the British monarchy will survive till the time the ravens are there) and the armoury. Henry VIII and his absolutely mad ways form a lot of the stories here, including the ghost of Anne Boleyn believed to still haunt the place. You finally end with a walk through the Tower Bridge from where you get a good view of the Thames and its banks, along with the London Eye in the distance.
Dinner done safely and cheaply at Mc Donald’s I headed for the most expensive and enjoyable part of my trip, a musical at West End. I didn’t manage to get tickets for Les Miserable but I did get for Sound of Music. Now if you knew me you would know what this meant to me for ever since I remember anything I have been singing these songs. Palladium, the place where it was being staged is beautiful to say the least and Maria was brilliant (Von Trapp wasn’t). However I still think Phantom of the Opera at Broadway was a better show that I saw.
I consider this trip just an appetizer and would love to go and spend at least week exploring only London.