ok here is the next edition of my travelogue…..
May be the tour of the countryside was worth all the trouble we went through! Just a few words about Cardiff though…..It is in Wales … (Great Britain of course comprises of England, Scotland, Wales ) It appears to be  kind of a hill station and is situated at around 31/2 hours drive away from London!
The first thing I noticed when I got out of the plane was that the sky is really “blue”. It was a colour had not seen before! The drive was lovely…the lanes were narrow and on both sides there were this HUGE meadows in various shades of green stretching as far as the eye could see! There were just a few houses scattered here and there and they were exactly like the houses we used to draw back in first standard! An inverted “V” and then a square within which there are 4 small squares for windows and a small chimney. Most of the houses did have “Red-roofs”!!
All the road signs were in Welsh and English for example Cardiff in Welsh is CArdydd and the word lane is “llath”! The landscape didn’t vary much …Alternating shades of yellow and green could be seen! with grazing animals. I saw the Jersey cows (they are just a bit longer than Indian but they are somehow more elegant!)
Most houses had paddocks with horses in them and some even had the jumping bars for the horses. Also Welsh being the country of shepherds there were plenty of sheep!!! I could almost see what Enid Blyton wrote in her books about sheep in the hills and actually looked quite hard for a glimpse of the “shepherd!”. But you know the funny thing is that in the three hours that we had to get to London I didn’t see even a SINGLE person on the road..All the ppl were moving about in cars. Huge flock of sheep, herds of cows ,horses …even goats but no man!! The cars in England are somewhat conservative compared to the more jazzier American ones and smaller too…Many cars had bicylces taped on at the back!
Welsh is separated by England by a channel of water which our airhostess called the English Channel( i am not sure but I though that was between England and France!!) The best part is that travelling in England is very familiar …… road signs are as familiar as Andheri, Borivili or Dadar……I mean when you see Eton and Reading and Swindon you feel you are on familiar ground! i saw a part of the grounds of the Royal Ascot ( all I could make out was that it was huge!!) And i got such a thrill when we passed thru Bath!! Agreed the countryside hardly differed ( it didn’t throughout most of the journey ) but Bath was Bath!!! We passed through the counties of Wiltshire and the royal counties of Berkshire
The only “spot” that I really saw was the Windsor Castle. It looks just like the castle should look like,,,with moats and turrets and towers!! The Heathrow air port is a HUGE place …it takes a long time to get to the airport after getting in the main gate! Most of the bus drivers in England were sardarjis .with “dadi” and pagdi! The weather was very nice and pleasant except that it got a bit chilly at night ..It rained a bit in Wales but it seems it always does!
Something about the food ..the veggies would have had a real problem.. because here they mostly don’t bother to ask whether you want veg stuff! At the Sheraton all the veggies could have was a few boiled vegetables and asparagus soup! Even the non-veg was bland…I finally understood the importance they give to “carving ” the chicken …each piece was a huge chicken itself!! I could just manage a few bites!! And yes I had the “authentic English apple pie and it was delicious!!..
Thats all I saw of England…
