London eyes!!

We were quite excited to be reaching London to start our Europe tour. I always had an aura for London especially as I had visited Europe twice earlier but London had remained out of bounds for me because of a visa. We had reached in the morning and had a full day free to us, so in spite of being tired and sleepy we wanted to make the best of it. In no time an impromptu group of 13 people was made, who arrived at a consensus for a programme for the day. My confidence made me the leader of the group. I knew that I would be using same Modus Operandi that I had used for other European cities in previous years. We walked to the nearest metro or 'tube' station as it is called in London and had a glimpse of Wembley on the way. Wembley stadium was right next to our hotel. For a change, language was no barrier and we had decided that we were going to the Picadilly Circus. We wanted the best bargain and so we wanted to buy the tickets in a group and asked for help from an official there. The station master got back and told us that it was not possible to buy a group ticket as the counter had been closed for some reason and therefore he allowed us to board the train and instructed the team at our destination station to let us out, where we could buy the tickets. We were happy at the courtesy extended to us and were grinning to our widest in the coach.

In London 'Tube"

The whole coach was for us as it was not a rush hour and the train traveled beautiful country side before diving underground. After a change, we reached the Piccadilly Circus. It's a small crossing around a circle with a statue in the center. The hallmark are the big hoarding and signs on top of the surrounding buildings. There is a statue in the center and I asked a guy about it, what looked like 'cupid' to me. He told me that that is the statue of 'Eros'.

Shaftesbury memorial for Anthony Ashley Cooper: The aluminium statue of 'Anteros' at Piccadilly circus

Later I came to know that what is 'Eros' in greek mythology, it is 'Cupid' in classical mythology. In Greek  mythology Eros is considered a primordial God and represents God of love or sexual desire.  However, in another version, Eros is considered to be son of Aphrodite or Venus and Ares, the God of war. Sometimes Eros is seen as a member of a group called Erotes, gods of love. They are seen as winged males with bow and arrow, sometimes as cherubic boys. This is usual portrayal of Cupid. Anteros, one of the erotes is considered to be the twin brother of Eros, and is the god of unrequited love and creativity. Anteros, is the angel of Christian charity and that is why it has been used for the memorial of the philanthropic Earl of Shaftesbury at the Piccadilly Circus.

There is an interesting story of Eros and psyche, who is the deification of human soul.

"The story tells of the struggle for love and trust between Eros and Psyche. Aphrodite was jealous of the beauty of mortal princess Psyche, as men were leaving her altars barren to worship a mere human woman instead, and so she commanded her son Eros, the god of love, to cause Psyche to fall in love with the ugliest creature on earth. But instead, Eros falls in love with Psyche himself and spirits her away to his home. Their fragile peace is ruined by a visit from Psyche's jealous sisters, who cause Psyche to betray the trust of her husband. Wounded, Eros leaves his wife, and Psyche wanders the Earth, looking for her lost love. Eventually she approaches Aphrodite and asks for her help. Aphrodite imposes a series of difficult tasks on Psyche, which she is able to achieve by means of supernatural assistance.

After successfully completing these tasks, Aphrodite relents and Psyche becomes immortal to live alongside her husband Eros. Together they had a daughter, Voluptas or Hedone (meaning physical pleasure, bliss)."

Near the Anteros statue there were people demonstrating their skills as artists by being dressed up as statues. The lady who looked like a bronze lifeless statue suddenly sprang to life as soon as I put a Euro coin in her bowl and was enterprising enough to take pictures in various poses with whole group. This is a common phenomenon seen in western world, somehow beggars in India have different techniques.

We decided to go to the Trafalgar Square from the Piccadilly Circus. Next we came across a restaurant called 'Little Britannia'. Around the corner was a fountain with bronze statues of four horses, 'The Horses of Helios'. In fact spent few minutes there as it had a lovely feel about it. Helios essentially refers to Sun, who is supposed to travel from East to West everyday in his chariot drawn by four horses  named  Pyrois, Aeos, Aethon, and Phlegon. In Greek mythology Apollo is considered the Sun God, the god of creativity, medicine, plague etc. Generally Apollo, Helios and Sol are equitable gods in greek and classical mythology. However, while Helios is considered to be son of Titans Theia and Hyperion, Apollo is an Olympian, son of Zeus and Leto, whose twin sister is Artemis.

In Hindu mythology, Sun god 'Surya' has seven horses in his chariot.

Our path from Piccadily Circus through
Trafalgar Square to Leicester Square

 

Bronze statues of Four Horses of Helios

We took the right turn after the horses and were at Haymarket, though no one was selling Hay there. It housed the famous 'Her Majesty's Theatre- Phantom of Opera' and we were delighted to see its exteriors, wishing to watch a play someday in future.

We reached Trafalgar Square famous for it's pigeons. Its a remarkable open space in front of National Gallery with many monuments. Trafalgar Square commemorates victory of British Navy over French & Spanish forces at the Battle of Trafalgar. It was led by Vice-admiral Nelson, who lost his life soon after the battle and is thus a great british war hero. A very tall column with his statue at top has been erected here and is called 'Nelson's column'. It is guarded by statues of four Lions. There is a fountain that adds life to the place and this is the plinth where most people and pigeons are found. There are statues of George IV, Henry Havelock and more. I think Trafalgar Square was designed by Edwin Lutyens, same guy who designed new Delhi.

From Trafalgar square, we went to Leicester Square and saw a live acrobatic street performance, characteristic of Western world. There is statue of William Shakespeare in the Shakespeare park and the square is quite a happening place besides being an important metro station.

The 'Tower of London' ; There's the kohinoor!

We took the tube to Tower hill station. Its a wonderful view as one comes out of the underground station. One can see the 'Tower' which is the fort where Kohinoor is kept. It was the erstwhile residence of the Tudor kings before they shifted to the Buckingham Palace. It sounds surprising that its called a tower as there is no tall building there and the whole area is named after it. However, its a magnificent monument, I can say, the most towering fort that I saw in Europe. Exterior is wonderfully preserved and the surroundings are impeccably clean and tastefully designed. The tower is located right next to Thames and reminds one of Shah jahan's idea of making monuments on the banks of river Yamuna.

Right next to the Tower, on the river is the London's iconic Tower bridge that has two tall towers on each side joined at two levels. the lower level is a road bridge that opens to let the ships cross by. We were delighted to watch the bridge open and close.

We went to the upper level that has a glass bottom and one can experience kind of sky-walk with road and river below. The experience was very enjoyable. There are a lot of stories related to the bridge. One interesting story is about an incident when the bridge started to open while a public transport bus was climbing the bridge, by the time the driver realized that bridge was opening, the bus had come quite close to the mid point and stopping the bus would have led to vertical fall back of the bus. The driver continued driving and jumped the bus across the gap to the other side of the opening bridge. No passenger was injured.

Next day we took the city tour of London and saw the City of Westminster. Buckingham Palace, Premier's residence, the monumental St Paul's Church, Hyde Park, London Bridge etc. We saw the Savoy hotel, the first one to have telephones in the world.

Visit to Madame Tussaud's museum

After having seen a few Wax museums in India, like Johnny's wax museum, in Shimla, I was not much appreciative of the iconic Madame Tussaud's. However, it's legendary green dome and the animation movies that they played inspired awe.

Madame Tussaud's wax statue; at work!

London eye was the last attraction in London that we visited, giant of a wheel that is! One sees famous London buildings while on the ride like bell tower, the Shard and so many and one realizes that it was there, at the banks of the river Thames that settlements of Londinium started, when romans came to this area 2000 years ago and now it's one of the most famous and important cities of the world!

London eyes!!