(Links to all parts of the series are at the end of this post.)
June 11, Tuesday
We said goodbye to the scenic, serene northeast of England. It was a fabulous five days of seeing new places and learning new vignettes of history.
The second lap of the tour is London. Sreerekha and I had booked a train ticket on Trainline from Newcastle to King's Cross. We were sceptical about a train journey because of threats of snap strikes by unions. The alternative was a book a bus journey. That would have taken longer.
We kept our fingers crossed, and everything was fine.
We took a metro from Northumberland Park Station to Newcastle Central Station, from where we boarded the 10.27 am train. It was a very pleasant three-hour ride and we reached King's Cross around 1.30 pm.
PLATFORM 9 3/4
My son, a great Harry Potter fan, had told us to make sure we go to Platform 9 3/4 at the King's Cross railway station.
Platform Nine and Three-Quarters is a fictional platform at King's Cross Railway Station. It is the departure point for the Hogwarts Express, the magical train that takes students to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
We alighted on platform number 11, so it wasn't difficult for us to figure out where Platform 9 3/4 is.
While the platform itself doesn't physically exist, King's Cross Station has created a popular photo opportunity with a Platform Nine and Three-Quarters sign.
Upon reaching there, we were completely taken aback by the huge crowd and the long queue of fans to take photographs with a luggage trolley. We didn't know it was so hugely popular!We hung around there for a while, soaking in the enthusiasm of the young children.
WANSTEAD
We then got a prepaid Oyster travel card for commuting on public transport around London. It was very nice to see that at the automated ticket dispensing machines, there was an official to help out people like us who were new to the place and needed assistance.
It's not a surprise, actually, considering the number of first-timers coming to London.
We then took a tube to Wanstead, where we will be staying for three days. It is a suburb in the east of London. It takes about 45 minutes by tube.
We spent the rest of the day today walking around Wanstead and seeing the place. Since the sun would set only by around 9.45 pm, there was plenty of daylight time to walk around and see the place.
Though a very urban setting, the entire locality has a quiet ring around it, almost village like. We didn't see any heavy traffic.
I am not good with architecture, but many buildings had a Victorian / Edwardian look about them. Nice to see the old retained in the midst of the new.
There were a lot of open spaces. We went to Wanstead Park. It's really a vast stretch of greenery. Some people were exercising, some others walking their dogs, some children playing, some others just relaxing reading a book.
(I thought I had taken some pictures of the park and some streets. But strangely, they are not to be found.)
The park was a part of Wanstead House, a magnificent mansion built in 1722 by Sir Richard Child, an English politician who was a member of the House of Commons from 1708 to 1734.
Wanstead House was so magnificent that it was hailed as one of the finest houses in the whole of England! What is now the vast Wanstead Park was the garden of the Wanstead House!
The mansion was demolished in 1825 because the owners fell into financial difficulties.
Today was all about travelling to London from the northeast of England.
There wasn't much time to see any place, nor did we have the energy. We are conserving whatever we have for tomorrow, which is going to be quite hectic.
(To be continued)
Here are the links to all parts of the series:
02 -Dockwray Square, Tynemouth
04 - Howick Hall Gardens & Arboretum
07 - The Holy Island of Lindisfarne
