Me in the Empire Where the Sun Never Sets...

...unfortunately though, it gets dark by 4:00 PM here :-)

Flashback Part I -> Here Please!

Part II:

And then, at last I landed in my place of dreams – yes, the one and only London. Heathrow airport welcomed me with a chill wind and I realized how just 8 degrees can be chillingly cold! Thanks to a friend I had a cab awaiting my arrival. So 2 hours after landing in the airport I was in the Hilton Metropolitan London Hotel, in the cozy bed sleeping and dreaming about getting a full day off on Sunday so that I can visit every place in my list (My list had grown to an unreasonable length by now. To visit all the places in my list even the 10 full days of my official stay in London would not have been enough, but I was not bothered, I kept updating the list anyway! :-) :-))
View from the 10th Floor of Hilton London Metropole
The next day – Saturday, started well, with a quiet breakfast alone in the Hilton Restaurant. I decided to take a small walk around the hotel to enjoy in solitaire as it is. I imbibed whole of the London winter and the British climate within me as I walked past the shops and hospitals. London is beautiful at 9:00 AM in the morning. The chilling wind was still blowing but thanks to the leather jacket I enjoyed every bit of the walk, every bit of the English climate.
Buckingham Palace

When I came to office, my business was waiting for me. I was supposed to have a meeting with colleagues whole of the next day – Sunday and almost the whole of that day – Saturday (Wow! That was great news! I saw my list being burnt and my plans and dreams going up in flames and my heart broke into a thousand pieces!!). But then luck was on my side and we finished off the meeting earlier than expected! (To say I was overjoyed and exultant would be an understatement!! :-) :-))
Big Ben
So off we went, the 3 of us – 2 of my Korean colleagues and myself. Me as usual carrying my digicam planning to click every small thing of this big city. We first went to the usual places Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, British Parliament and London Eye! I clicked every popular and unpopular building that I saw. Wow! London is beautiful at 3:00 PM in the afternoon. And then we went to the shopping street –Oxford Street, a la T.Nagar Usman Road! It was already dark by then and I was losing my patience because the first place to visit in my list had been '221b Baker Street' and the second place was Platform 9 ¾ Kings Cross Station (sounds weird right? Not being satisfied by watching the Palace and the Parliament and wanting to visit 2 not-so-popular-places! But then these 2 were the real reason why I was excited about coming to London, I would have missed the Palace and Parliament but not Baker street and Kings Cross Station!! :-) :-)) and my colleagues seemed least interested in either of them and I was least interested in shopping with them.
Parliament
So there we split, deciding to meet in the same place in 2 hours. They went off to shop and I made my way to Baker Street. Alone in the London Jungle armed with only a Tube Map (The underground railways in London is called Tube) and a London City Map, I decided to pay a visit to Mr. Sherlock Holmes, the greatest detective of all times who had made 221b Baker Street his home for more than a century. After a couple of goof-ups – I took the train in the opposite direction from Oxford Street and then had to alight at the next station and again take the right one; even after coming to Baker Street, I missed 221b, would have almost walked till 300 Baker Street perhaps, but then one good hearted Samaritan, showed me the way to the coveted Holmes' residence!

...flashback to conclude