UEFA 038 - Cliff Richards & The Shadows

UEFA 038 - Cliff Richards & The Shadows

Unexpected European Fabulous Adventure

The train brought us from Ramsgate to the

Victoria Train Station. We checked at the Bed & Breakfast counters and chose to stay at Kingshill Hotel in Paddington.

I remembered it was 40 Pound Stirling a night. The counter girl showed the map, and the way there by the subway train, which the English called ‘tube’.

It was an easy ride, although the map looked a little complicated, with so many colourful lines.

The hotel was a nice stay. We took a short nap and woke up around 11am. We ploughed the streets of Paddington and found an Indian restaurant selling briyani rice. It was 8 Pound Stirling per plate. It was an expensive ‘royal lunch'. We tried a plate, and found that it was a royal serving enough for 2 of us.

I had been studying the London map for places of our interest to be visited. In the list were Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Regent Mosque and the Tower Bridge.

I recommended my wife a bus ride, as we can see more of London on the surface. We bought a ticket that qualified us to take as many rides as we want within a day, which, I think was 30 Pound Stirling.

Taking the conventional red double-decker bus ride reminded me of the movie 'Summer Holiday' starring Cliff Richards & The Shadows.

Following the map and physical road names sign, I mistakenly brought my wife to walk across London Bridge, instead of the historically ancient Tower Bridge.

I must confide with you that I had always thought that the London Bridge that fell down in the children nursery rhyme was the same bridge as Tower Bridge. It was only in 1994 I discovered that London Bridge is a different bridge from Tower Bridge, because, while crossing the London Bridge, we could see the Tower Bridge nearby.

From London Bridge we walked to The Tower of London. We did not go inside the tower, but was walking outside and admiring its view. One of guards of the Tower of London, an Englishman, greeted us with;

“Selamat Datang”.

We were shocked and perhaps our faces showed it, that he went to explain that he had been working in Malaysia in the British Army for many years in the 60s. He demonstrated more Malay by asking,

“Apa khabar? Sudah makan? "

I had a photo taken with him.

Due to time constraint we sufficed by viewing the Buckingham Palace, Royal Albert Hall, St Paul Cathedral, Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square from the bus. I regretted that I could not find the way to Regent Mosque. Westminter Abbey was out of my mind, so we missed it.

Breakfast at Kingshill Hotel was an interesting adventure. The bread was marvelously crispy. I liked the butter and strawberry jam.

After breakfast we took the tube to Heathrow Airport. We took the green line tube to South Kensington and then changed to the blue line tube to Heathrow. It was easy, but, changing station with luggage was a tough challenge. It was a long walk, up and down several staircases, before we could get to the right platform towards Heathrow Airport.





We fly via KLM from London to Amsterdam. On reaching the shore of Holland, I managed to peep through the window, to see the rough and fierce legendary waves of The English Channel eroding the sandy beaches of Belgium and Holland.

At Schipol Airport in Amsterdam, we had a long wait for the night flight back home to Singapore.

THE END

555 words Drafted on 07.04.2007 Edited on 04.05.2007 at 2153hrs At Woodlands Avenue 5