Vacation in Actual Vilayat and the land of Kilts and Bagpipers!

I am not talking about Salman Rushdie's book 'The Satanic Verses' where Angel Gabriel Lands in Actual Vilayat. I am just talking about our own vacation in 'the Actual Vilayat’ AKA London. For the un-initiated, Vilayat means 'foreign land' and in Indian context before the USA became the second home for many Indians any trip abroad would mean Vilayat and which in turn would, more often than not, be London. So after this trip I can call myself Vilayat returned.
We took a vacation to London and Scotland from 20-26 July 2011.
UK brings up the images of Royalty, and yes, we did experience royalty. My friend Yogesh Tandulwadikar lives in Milton Keynes with his family and we had both planned this vacation together. The superb hospitality extended by Yogesh and his wife Gauri made us feel nothing less than Royalty. Their little Kid Varun, he was a perfect company for my little ones. The Kids had the best of time, from fun to tiredness, from Laughter to tears, from playing to fighting, from sharing to snatching, in short they were everything from angels to little imps! Thanks a lot Yogi, Gauri and Varun...you guys made our UK trip one of the most memorable of all trips.
On day one, 21 July, we started our day with Gauri and Varun, from Madame Tussauds, everybody knows about this, so life like, so beautiful and all. The one thing we felt was, the statues of Hollywood stars were the best and those of the Bollywood stars are a disgrace to the museum. No, not because of the stars, but because of the unlikeliness of the statues to the start. Aishwarya would have looked like the statue , if she was born of a British linage , it was like a Firang wearing a saree and posing for a pic. Such a disgrace for the impeccable beauty of Ash. Salman was cross between actual Salman and Sylvester Stallone, Amitabh was looking like some Punjabi shopkeeper in London. Only Hritik was almost like Hritik. Anyways, we moved on. Oh showers! Anyways we let the showers pass on and used up the time for quick lunch. Then to the London eye, the verrryyy big wheel and you can see the entire London cityscape travelling in the capsule of the wheel, wonderful sights. Donno what Shashank and Sneha understood, but they were super excited and enjoying themselves, showing sights to each other !!! Then Gauri took us on a walk from the London eye, passing the WWII memorial to the Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and many many places, Such a long walk, but so beautiful and relaxing. Oh ya, we did not keep our date with the PM, as we skipped the lane to Downing Street. Then go back home, lovely meal prepared by Yogi, umm, yummy and sound sleep. Sapne mein bhi vilayat !
Next day, 22 July, it was Yogi with us.... started with the Buckingham Palace, saw the Royal Pomp and ceremony of Change of guards. Even if you are not a big fan of Royalty it is a good sight to see. The garden outside the palace is such beautiful and pleasant and kids loved running around there. The buildings surrounding the palace add to the Majestic look of the place. We walked all the way to the Trafalgar square. I am losing the count of how many times I am using the word beautiful, But cannot help it, I have to use it. Nice place to spend some time. By the way, amongst the Nelsons column, the Lions and the fountains there is also a status of Henry Havelock (he was the one who led the British forces against the Indians in India's first war of Independence 1857) commemorating tis 'campaigns' which we Indians call as Massacre and even in the words of British, his job was ' to pursue and utterly destroy all mutineers and insurgents'. Surely as Nepolean once said, History is written by the victorious. After this we moved on to see the 'London Dungeons', dramatic exhibition of the dark and horror filled history of London enacted by the actors, where you walk into dark chambers and rooms. It is a good effort, sometimes gives you real scares. And for a person like Sonali, it sure was a very horrible place. In one of the places they were showing the life and times of Bloody Mary (No, not the cocktail, the actual one) They asked me if I can be a part of a prank where they will prosecute Heretics (meaning who believe in Pagan rituals and non-christian belief's) I agreed, in a dark room after a mock trial Bloody Mary's jury sentenced me to be burnt alive at the stakes, till this time Sonali was fine, or may be she was not showing her fear, but suddenly there was all smoke and I vanished..... Sonali started crying...all the people had left and I am nowhere to be seen, burnt alive ! Only some creepy sounds to be heard....I loved it!!! Again I want to thank the Tandulwadikar's. This time Yogi and his brother Arvind. As we could not take kids into the dungeons, Yogi and his brother took care of the kids for a good one and half hour ! Thanks Yogi once again. Then we had a leisurely walk from the London Bridge to the London Tower. By the way my kids just looked at the bridge and immediately recollected the video of the rhyme 'London bride is falling down .....' and were singing that. What could be more pleasing than this? One more surprise was the Bridge opened to allow a tall ship to pass by. This was a bonus . Not to forget the photo and book exhibition near the tower bridge. Then Yogi took us the Sultan Bazar of London AKA Piccadilly Circus. So many desis you would not see at a time in even the Sultan bazar of Hyd. We had dinner here and called it a day.
Third day, 23 July, was the start of our Kilts and Bagpiper tour...Scotland tour. This time instead of booking a hotel we booked a self-catering apartment just opposite the Edinburgh railway station and just few minutes’ walk from the Old town. The Lane was called ' Flesh Market close '. Just out of curiosity I asked our apartment owner why every street name ends with a close... He told me it not the English word Close it was the Scottish word, meaning 'Lane'. Some titbits of gyan!
Edinburgh is a very old town and has maintained its old, antique, majestic look. Especially the walk on the Royal mile from the Castle down to the end of the street. All the buildings have a uniqueness either in architecture, or history, or the stone pathway, the winding side lanes, the Scottish Whiskey shops or just the hordes of tourists walking by...the walk itself is a good experience.
Next day, 24 July, we started on a Highlands tour in a private car, with our apartment owner as our driver and guide. Then we came to know he was also a history book on the move. He took us to may such remote places which the usual tour buses don’t take you to. One such village was Culross, just by the river Forth. Now many structures of this village are taken over by the National trust of Scotland and being maintained as it was. Some houses date back to 1400 AD also and most surprisingly people still live in these houses. The Church abbey dates back to 1200 AD and still servers as the church abbey. We then further proceeded to see the many Lochs (Lakes in Scottish) went up to Lochness and Inverness. On the route we passed by the Sterling Castle, the monument of William Wallace (remember the movie Brave heart) and the village of Glencoe, the site of the horrible massacre of Mc Donald clan by the English, after being their guest for a week and enjoying their hospitality ! So Typical! .We proceeded till the city of Inverness. This scenic route reminded us of Switzerland sans all the snow. This route has to be seen to actually appreciate its beauty. This was really fantastic! After returning home that day and me and Yogi went out to have a 'feel' of the Edinburgh city by night. 'It' was awesome. Period.
Next day 25th July we went to see the Deep Sea Aquarium and the unique 'Our Dynamic Earth' I just loved the ODE. But due to the lack of time we had to give the Castle a miss... Sorry Gauri! There is always a next time. Then on the last day of our vacation 26th July we just relaxed in Yogi House and then back to Frankfurt.
So all in all we had a lovely one week , of Royalty, Scenic beauty, Leisurely walks, beautiful sunsets, medieval villages and Horror. Not to forget the amazing time the kids had.