Before planning my travel to UK I explored questions like – how to go about places in UK, how many days we need to cover the historical places, how much I have to WALK ON FOOT daily and how much purse need to carry. Really speaking I did not get complete answer to this until I finished my travel. Some operators claim to cover UK in one week.
I am hereby jotting down all my experience specially suited to serious travelers who do not go just for photos but for feeling the throb of beauty or history sleeping in it. In UK you have to be ready to walk on foot as you may have to climb steep, stairs, walk long distances, transfer quickly on underground railway stations, catch buses quickly. But do not worry if you are even above 65 and average knee health you can do it easily.
- No. of Days – 28, Total Distance covered by Walk – 170 KM (Average 8 KM per day of outing)
- Entry Fees – £400 per person, Train and bus – £350 per person,
- Bus tour Scotland – £55 per person Tour Operator- Rabbie (very popular in UK and Europe)
- Living expenses – £1200
- Hotel \ Apartment – Varies from £1000 to £3000 pm
There are several tour operators in UK but these turn out to be very costly and it is much better to cover these places by bus, subways and national railway circuit. Even you go through tour operators you would have to walk even more as private parking places are bit far. Public transport reaches you very near to tourist spots. If you are traveling with family, each person has to carry his own credit cards as in same transport, one card will work only for one person. I observed Oyster card is popular in London for local purchases, traveling tickets etc. I used Libera SIM card for international which costed 10 Pounds for 2 months (cheap).
This country knows how to earn from tourism. They have promoted their imperial past in majestic and regal way, preserved the imprints of history, carried forward the stories of their past and preserved the dresses, cots, thrones, crowns, rooms, furniture of the kings. They have maintained the forts well. British know that people from Europe and Asia take deep interest in exploring the past life style of their kings who ruled entire world once. There are debates in Britain to end monarchy but government defends monarchy as it will hit back tourism.
We can see thousands of people daily from entire world to Tower of London to see the Kohinoor, Cullinan and golden crowns of majesty of England. Their jaws and eyes are open in dismay to see this glamourous wealth of Britain accumulated. The yeomen guards guarding the palace since 500 years. crowns of England, Edward I and Charles II living and bed chambers, death point of Charles II in Tower of London, story of crows of Tower of London. People pause near the hanging point of queens of Henry VIII.
In Greenwich there are well knit stories of Cutty Shark, links to China Afeem war, astronomers of Royal observatory. There is big rush of people taking the memorable snap at Equator line drawn at Royal observatory.
They have burial yard, coronation venue and chair, burial of Newton and hundreds of kings and nobles in Westminster Abbey. An old guide clad in blue gown explains me the burial of ashes of Stephen Hawking in 2018 which took place inside the Westminster Abbey. Who would not like to see such place.
The Windsor castle is still live and guide show the corner where Queen Elizabeth II still lives, the cot where Napoleon slept and spent night. Hampton Court still so beautifully maintained with huge green grass fields around, kitchen of Henry VIII and predecessors, parlor and secret room of Edward I, the banquet hall of kings that all are so much attracted and lose themselves in that past. They think is this the place where the rulers of world lived? What quality of life and what qualities they had that they ruled us.
Buckingham palace still we can see the big iron gates made on name of countries they rules from Canada, Australia, Newzealand. The entry to palace is restricted and we can only see from its walls.
Even today tourists find interest in seeing the marriage venue inside the magnificent St. Paul’s church. I entered the church for free at 4 PM and could see the church and prayer inside.
If we see the places list below the number is not large but they carry weight of imperial glamourous England which ruled entire world. Each of these points need about a minimum of half day to feel their past and of course almost all countries history is also connected to these gigantic monuments.
I saw no less than three thousand visitors the first day in British museum. There was no less crowd even on second and third day in thousands. It takes about 3 days to see this museum. I am sure if Britain charges entry fee into this museum I am sure at least a quarter of British economy this museum can fetch.
| Day-1 : London Eye, Sea World, The Thames, Big Ben, The Jewel Tower | Day-2 : Rest | Day-3 : House of Parliament, Buckingham Palace |
| Day-4 : West Minster Abbey | Day-5 : Rest | Day-6 : Tower of London |
| Day-7 : St. Paul’s church, The Great wall of London, London Bridge, Thames bridge | Day-8 : Greenwich, Cutty Shark | Day-9 : Rest |
| Day-10 : Windsor castle | Day-11 : Rest | Day-12 : Hampton Court |
| Day-13 : London Museum | Day-14 : Stonehenges | Day-15 : Rest |
| Day-16 : London to Scotland train journey | Day-17 : Edinburg Castle, Royal Mile, St. Giles Cathedral, Scot Monument | Day-18 : Lochness, Glancoe and Highlands tour |
| Day-19 : Calton Hill | Day-20 : Scotland to London train journey | Day-21 : Rest |
| Day-22 : Roman baths | Day-23 : British Museum | Day-24 : British Museum |
| Day-25 : British Museum | Day-26 : Canterbury and Dover castle | Day-27 : Rest |
| Day-28 : : Rest | Day-29 : Departure |
We take national railway from King’s cross railway station to cover 5 hours journey from London to Edinburg. The route was scenic but not as I imagined. But i could feel the countryside life, flora and fauna and developments around. As soon as Scotland started the nature beauty was more with train running along the North Sea coast. I strolled inside Edinberg castle and end of Royal Mile road. This castle has lucrative chambers of prisoners of World War II, the tragic story of queen Mary Of Scots and her son James I. James I became king of England later and united England and Scotland. It needs minimum 2 days to roam around Edinburgh and 1 day for Loch Ness tour. Local traveling in Scotland was tough experience as only few people know English and buses there is no display of “next station”. You have to depend only on GPS in bus to track your destination station.
I had explored a lot about Scotland in internet and thought there are a lot of places in Scotland. But after landing here I contacted the most famous tour operator Rabbie and they gave me below itinerary. They start from Edinberg and cover three points Loch Lubinaig, Glencoe and Loch Ness and Highlands. I think that is enough to know Scotland.
Lake in Scottish is called Loch. Glencoe is tough and unpredictable rough weather mountain range and High lands are nothing but higher altitude Scotland land which starts from 50 miles away from Edinberg. So in Scotland you take this one day tour and 3 days in Edinberg the Scotland tour is over.
Scots outwardly show themselves as “Scots” but inwardly they are happy to be part with England. This is what I observed here. But they hare proud of their past and national heroes and project this in their monuments everywhere.
Earlier in 2008 I had traveled to London with SOTC group and we were tied with time of three days. This was not enough even to see two historical sites of London itself.
This time son was available in London and so we planned a 4 weeks stay in London. England is of course one of the most costliest countries of world. Rented accommodations, hotels are too costly specially if you take in London city (Rs. 2 to 2.5 Lakh pm 1BHK) but not cheaper even very outskirts of London where it ranges from 1 – 1.5 Lakh pm.
It is not unwise to take the accommodation outskirts of London as transport in England are super in form of Metro and buses. You can NOT afford taxis in England and Scotland as fares are exorbitantly costly. On an average you spend £10 as train\bus fare everyday in above itinerary.
Epilogue
While roaming in UK, eating in restaurant, flora and fauna all look same as India then why to spend so much to see this country? The best thing I liked in UK was its helpful people, easiest transport and the way Londoners have preserved their forts, monuments. Their presentation of their heritage to tourists is amazing. We do not find this spirit so much in Europe. Today’s Londoners do not talk about their past supremacy over world but present their monarch’s life that impresses tourist by arousing the imperial past of Britain back of their mind.
It is the only country which has three sovereign states Welsh, Scotland, North Ireland, England yet they are united as United Kingdom. UK as a whole has many immigrants from India, Pakistan, Turkey, Africa but they are respected and regarded as origin from English soil. This is another peculiarity about UK which I did not see in Europe.
Every inch of England is made historical and if you want to see history there is no such country in world apart from India. It will take about 3-4 months to see United Kingdom. It is blend of natural beauty, history. It has amazing transport system. On an average you can see this country on your own with expenditure of Rs. 2,50,000 per month per person.
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