Leeds Castle - 03/Jan/2009

It has been a long time i visited some place outside london. Also since dostana1 (if you dont know who is dostana1 please read Mahindra City Memories - Part I) was here during the new year holidays, i thought it will be mutually beneficial if i go along with him to some place outside london. I then decided to go (rather take him) to Leeds Castle. Along with us, my roomie - Sri joined.

This leeds castle is in Kent county - south east part of England. To reach leeds we took a train to Bearsted station (which costs just 10.55 pounds - return ticket inclusive) from London victoria. There are two stations we can consider to reach this place. One is this bearsted station and the other one is maidstone station. But since bearsted station is closer to leeds castle and as it is the station that was mentioned in the leeds-castle.com site we took train going via this station.

Planning went for toss as usual. We planned to start by 10 AM atleast, but then by the time we boarded the train from east croydon it was almost 11.20 AM. Our journey plan was something like this.

East croydon - London Victoria - Bearsted station - Leeds Castle.

Breakfast?? - my money saving mind worked again. If we buy a croissant in some of the shops like upper crest, Delice de france, caffe nero it will cost around 1.5 pounds per croissant. But if the same purchased in some super market stores like somerfield, tesco or sainsbury it will cost only 40 pence. So I purchased a pack (which contains 4 croissant) of croissant from somerfield super market near east croydon and also got chai latte from caffe nero. We finished our breakfast during our travel from East croydon to london victoria.


We had a train from London Victoria to Bearsted station around 12.15pm and we reached Bearsted station around 1.15 pm. Once we reached the station we asked station keeper how to go to leeds castle from there. He informed us that there will be a bus in another 5 minutes, so we rushed to the bus stop which was just outside the station. To our dismay we did not find any buses going that way. A cab driver came to rescue us (some other indian friends were also waiting for the bus) offering drive till leeds castle. Dostana1 said that it should be free of cost but i know for sure that he was trying to indulge himself in joking mood which he can never ever do that. To prove my point the cab driver collected 10 pounds for the whole drive (We are totally 8 so it just costs 3 pound for 3 for us).

Once we got down i took out my samsung omnia phone (as we did not carry any other good cameras ;)) and starting shooting our Dostana1 and Sri.

The landscape around the castle was too good and we got to see goose, peacock and black swan (believe me it is really black swan !!!) roaming freely.
Also we saw that air balloons carrying people to have a panaromic view of leeds castle (costs 15 pounds per head :) - so obviously he he he)

After giving poses in various scenic areas, we got into the castle and awestruck the way it was built. I got to know little bit history of this castle. To get a good idea about the history of the castle please read it from wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leeds_Castle

Oh yeah, you need to purchase entrance ticket to get in leeds castle but yet there is a way to enter for free!!!! I let you to find out how to do that.

Once our visit of castle is over, we again started taking snaps. But at this moment the temperature was getting down drastically that we are not able to stand without shivering. To add to this shiver, we found that no cab was available from the leeds castle towards bearsted station and also came to know that the public service bus is available only once in a hour. To make sure that the train availability/frequency is good, i used my samsung omnia to connect to internet (i really got to know the power of my mobile at these crucial times :)) and found that there is a train in another 30 minutes. So i asked Sri/Dostana1 to inquire about the cabs in the nearby souveneir shops. They did inquire about this and a lady helped us by calling a local cab driver. Cab driver arrived on time (Thanks to Sri who found out that the cab driver was waiting for us without even giving us a hint that he is a cab driver :)) and helped us to reach the bearsted station just 2 minutes before the train arrival. We had to shell extra of 4 pounds for this than we had spent for the cab earlier.



Once we got into the train we found out that we are in a compartment where there was no heater. You could imagine what was the state of Dostana1 and Sri in this case.

To summarize and to give some useful information from the above trip:
1) Take train to bearsted and from there take cab to leeds castle. Cab will be standing in the bearsted station itself.
2) Check if you can visit the castle for free of cost.
3) Go for air balloon ride (I will go once i become rich ;))
4) If you dont get cab to return to bearsted station - dont look any where else, just go to souveneir shop and ask for help.

Germany Trip - 14/August/2006

Day 3:-
The previous night was very cold as myself and ICC did a stupid thing with the heater. We both placed our wet clothes (on day 1 rain) on the heater thinking that the next day our clothes will be warm. But this idea back fired during night as the heat emitted by that thermostat was absorbed by wet clothes leaving the room chill. At midnight i was not able to sleep so I rolled the bed as a bedsheet and crept into it.

Morning:

"I dont want to do this any more - I can never take away his life" - The song by Rihanna - Unfaithful. This is how ICC woke me up on this day by playing MTV loud. Of course not to forget his famous morning wish - "Lieber Kollege - Gutten Morgen". ICC was getting ready to go to office and i was planning to go to a place called "Ulm".
ICC treated me with breakfast - Cornflakes with sugarless milk and a banana. After breakfast we rushed to catch metro. Once we reached metro we met ICC kollege - a tamilian staying with his family in stuttgart. He gave me some tips on what are the places that i can visit in Ulm.
ICC and his kollege got down at a station near to their workplace and me started moving to Hbf.

This day was a different day in my europe stay so far. Yes. This day was the first day where i am alone in a country without friends surrounding.

Since this journey to Ulm from stuttgart Hbf is going to take around 1.5 hrs of journey i decided to buy one orange juice at the station but unfortunately the attender there do not know english. But there i had a man (i suppose he should be from Deutche bank as he was in full formal dress - with dark colour blazer with contrast color in shirt and trouser and tie blending with the color of shirt) to help me out and he did the needful. I said only "Thank you" as "Danke" would not fit realistic for that situation.

I was in 9:20 AM train going towards Ulm. As the train moved on i started on with "Angels and Daemons". Suddenly some police man in the train bought another senior officer in the train for checking my "foreign validity credentials". This is the first time in my europe till now where i was asked to prove my credentials are right. I showed him my valid passport, VISA, work permit and White card. Then came a series of questions from him.

1) Where are you coming from sir?
2) How are you going to sir?
3) How long will be your stay in stuttgart sir?
4) What is the purpose of visit to stuggart sir?
5) Where you stay in stuttgart sir?
6) Do you have return ticket to Brussels sir?

These questions were somewhat heavy for me as normally i have heard from my friends that enquiry will be over with first 3 questions after all document verification. Then something striked in my mind. This day was exactly 4 days after the London aircraft hijacking - liquid bomb incident. "Every action which is extra normal has a in one way or other a minor intention" - i realised.

Did you notice something strange in his questions. He appended "Sir" at the end of every question. This habit of mentioning sir has absconded in software industry - as every one used to call their colleagues (kollege for ICC) with their first name only irrespective of wherever they are in organisation hierarchy.

After all these verification - the senior officer said OK and wished me a nice journey. And that is the indication of end of verification and i am authorised/authenticated to be in germany.
I reached Ulm at around 10:45 AM wondering how will be the places Mams and ICC suggested to visit. The activities they suggested to me were
1) Visit a church which is has a steeple - largest in the world.
2) Birth place of Albert einstein.
3) Boat ride.
4) Art Museum.

I headed towards the travel information center which will be present in all european cities at railways station and asked for a map. You will feel how important a map is if you visit any country outside india in particular Europe/USA.

As Mams/ICC suggested i moved towards the church with directions in the map. The travel guide maps will not have scale (i dont know if there is really one and i missed it out). I just travelled along the direction and found that huge church. The steeple was very high and i got the ticket to climb to the top of steeple.

Good exercise:
As i started walking to the top of the steeple I realised the drop in air pressure. I hope that you now require the height of steeple. It is 1270 metres = 1.27 KM. This distance i would say is the distance between our college library till our bus stop - vertical. Gasping for breath i stopped in middle and started thinking should i go up or not. There are none of my friends to help me if i fall down due to dizziness. I have no other option than continuing.

Amazing architecture:
The path towards steeple was two way. A way to get down and a way to go up. But there should a place where two paths meet. And i was thinking that the place will be top of steeple. But it did not. At one point nearly 250 metres from the top of steeple the two paths met. This is the place where the church care taker will come and ring the big bell (if there is any exact term for this bell in church literature please let me know). Beyond this place the path becomes one way clearly showing that it was designed that this path should be used by one person monitoring the city. What was more amazing is that the support pillars. I do not see any support pillars for these steps. I was expecting more support pillars for this very high steeple.

At this place there is a rest room where people can take rest before they want to make their step towards top of steeple. In that room they have placed pictures of all tall towers in the world. And i saw tanjore temple photo there feeling proud about our architects.

Now standing below just 250 metres from the top of steeple - i decided to reach the top and started climbing in that one way path. The path is very very narrow having a risk of path getting struck if two huge people meet face to face opposite. Two solutions exist.

1) The entire queque climbing up should go down (the place at 250 metres below the top of steeple and where the rest room is).
2) The entire queque coming down (to the place 250 metres below the steeple and where the rest room is) should go up.

Option #2 can be chosen if and only if the top of the steeple can accomodate number of people going down + 2 huge people stuck + number of people already present in the top of steeple. This is quite risky.

You see lot of mathematics is involved for the above case. All these flashed in my mind before i made my first step from the rest room space toward the top of steeple. I prayed that the above case should not occur especially after reaching mid way. I got the blessings from god and reached the "top" safely. The force of wind at the top was fierceful and this made me to think why aero dynamics is important. I still love mechanical engineering - mother of all engineering.

After breathing very fresh air at the top of steeple for more that 15 minutes i started coming down and reached the bottom - ground level very soon. Moving towards gravity is always quicker eh?

Afternoon:

Now having almost 2.5 hours spent visiting this steeple i was left only with 2 hrs to catch the 4'o clock train - so that i can go back to stuttgart at 5:30 PM. Mams and ICC has promised me that their work will be over for the day by then and hence can spent some time for shopping.
Now i started scanning the map for other places to visit. The map seems to have a very closer scale (meaning every 1 Centimeter in map is around 100 metres). I saw that all the places that i need to vist are in and around 500 m radius from the church.

Eager to visit einstein birth place i reversed back towards the railway station of Ulm (the map showed that the einstein birth place is close to ulm railway station). To my dismay i saw a only a monument - an inscription just stating "Birth place of albert einstein". It was a disappointment for me. It seems that einstein has not lived in that place for long time except that this place was fortunate for dedicating a renowed scientist to this world.

Then i started to look for boat ride and found the same after 250m walk. I spent a wonderful 45 minutes boat ride inhaling fresh air across river (Danbe i guess). The time was already close to 3'0 clock and Mams called me just to check my status. That lake is wonderful and suited very much to live a life for people post retirement.

After the boat ride i moved fast to catch my 4'o clock train as i had only 15 minutes to go back to railway station which is 300 metres from the boat ride place. Just before entering the railway station i grabbed french fries from mc donald (pomme frites in deutche and frites in french) as it is going to be my lunch. Vegetarians will have a tough time anywhere outside india - i realised.

Missed out to visit was art museum i felt. I had seen enough at brussels and amsterdam and going to see the big one at paris. So skipped.

Evening:

I did catch my train and reached stuggart station with dan brown and music player entertaining me during journey. ICC was already there. I came to know that he has also undergone the same enquiry from one of the police in the stuggart station. Normal i felt. Mams also joined with his friend Arun (the same mams friend i was mentioning in my germany trip day 1). We all roamed with the plan of me buying a swatch chronograph watch and a germany tshirt. Swatch watch i found bit costlier than in brussels and hence i dropped the plan. T-shirt with Germany title was not found in most of the shops and hence that plan was also dropped.


Dinner at Thai restaurant:
Finally i promised to give treat to mams, ICC and Arun for my trip to europe. I asked them to take me to a pizza hut. But mams with his expertise in research of restautrant, quality of food, price etc advised me that the thai restaurant will be best. Yes indeed mams was right. I found lot of vegetarian items and also the price was also reasonable. We had a nice dinner and finally we moved to their respective places. At this time i was under impression that August 15 is the holiday for mams and ICC. But they gave a punch on my head stating that it is only for the munich state and not for stuttgart. So one more day i have to spent without my friends around. Tough time buddy.

Germany Trip - 13/August/2006

Day 2:-
If you feel that you are not getting things below then it is clear that you haven't read my first part. Please read the first one.

Yes. As you know myself, Mams, ICC and Mams friend were in that festival place (called as Konstanz, thanks to mams for reminding me about the place name) till midnight. Just before the midnight mams and icc had the thought of going to discotheque. But they did not know the place. So mams planned to ask some one and he went straight ahead to a cop to ask about this. ICC still not completely recovered from his hangover went straight ahead to a lady taxi driver to inquire the same. The reply from cop was "There was something like discotheque in that festival place itself". The reply from lady taxi driver was "You can find one down the straight road and a left turn - first building". Now ICC blushed - "Huh, females are more informative than males". Then mams not willing to spend some bucks just for killing time by dancing said "We will go that festival place itself". Now we were in a place where we heard "We will We will....". Every one there were dancing and some of them in special were dancing with beer glasses.
When everyone there were just moving their hands and legs in the name of dance one guy to impress every one started dancing like Michael J. But no one turned towards him. But then everyone started looking at couple (could be) in which Romeo did not dance at all but Juliet was dancing excellently. Mams and ICC applauded her for the "Hands on the hip..." action. Now this is mams just to prove that he has some logical thinking than his mechanical brain said "I think the guy is an engineer and the girl is arts student". I said to myself - "This statement if avoided could have saved some energy for mams". There were some other songs from More hits no words, Hips dont lie, World Hold on.
ICC now completely recovered from hangover started commenting about couples over there. There was one lady who was crying and ICC was about to say "Dont worry babe. I can take care of you. Do you like to have my company?". At this time since mams has already got aligned with frequency of ICC and hence said "Hair is gone. Dont be emotional". You got a question. What exactly mams mean by "Hair is gone?". Well i need to explain some words which were recently conceived in mams brain and coined the same. You need to translate the following in local language.
"Hair is gone"
"Itching?"
These words doesnt imply that mams is into marketing of products which will negate the above effects. He simply means the usual thing that he means in college but with some flavour.
Now it is the time when every one started leaving the festival place and move to their home. But we are having train only at 4 AM to singen. Now the time was almost close to 3 AM - still need to kill an hour more. But we did not know that our data about train timings were incorrect.
Once we reached the railway station Mams and his friend as they were were familiar with taking tickets and time table print outs from the machine chose the language as deutch and started touching the touchpad screen very fastly as if they are overcoming the speed of Microprocessor/Microcontroller installed in the machine. At one time they did not understand what the machine said and hence changed the language to english. Now i saw ICC teasing smile towards them. Mams finally declared that there is a train only at 5:40 AM. "That is disgusting" - ICC screamed. "But what can i do" - Mams replied back. We had no other option than waiting in the railway station.
Mams, ICC found a place suitable for sit/sleep and occupied it quickly. These three people (Mams,Mams friend,ICC) with their heads down in sitting position started sleeping. As it was very cold i dont feel like sleeping and hence started to listen the S.Ve.Shekhar drama that i have carried in my MP man. Time passed by and finally at 5 AM mams woke up and purchased the ticket from the machine.
Train arrived promptly and we got in. Train reached singen in 20 minutes but i had a very good sleep. Once we reached singen there was a connecting train to stuggart in the next 20 minutes and hence we got in that train. When we all are about to sleep in that train, a "Techno" music was played by one of the passenger in the train which added oil to the fire.
We somehow managing the "Techno" finally reached the stuggart. I felt as if i reached heaven - just for the reason of getting relieved from that "Techno". Mams friend left to his place and we three started moving towards mams place - favoritepark. At this point, the time was around 10 AM. Yes indeed. It took almost 2:30 hrs from singen to stuggart. Now we all were hungry and hence as soon as we reached mams place we finished all our morning "duties". There was a wheat bread mams had already bought and that saved us till we cooked the food.
Mams and I got into the kitchen. I assisted mams in making the mixed rice and egg curry. ICC was very busy watching our nearby north state language movie and hence did not come to kitchen at all. Food was prepared and we had enough.
The food started showing its power. We all were sleeping till 7:30 PM. Mams was very generous and asked me and ICC to have dinner there itself. But i wanted a tea at that time. Mams felt the same but ICC did not. When the tea was ready ICC as if he has relieved from his confused state said - "I also want tea".
After tea it was Mams who took the entire responsibility for making the dinner - Pasta. The pasta was very nice. Good work mams. When everything was done it was almost 9:30 PM and I and ICC planned to move. Where? Of course ICC room.
As we started moving towards ICC room, ICC started explaining the stop at which i should get down and things like that.
We reached ICC room. Now ICC was looking relaxed and started explaining me about his italy trip along with his male and female Kollege. He also revealed his crush towards one of his female kollege. That crush was crushed down to earth because of one his male kollege itself. Finally he said "Why it always happens to me like this?". This statement doesnt allure towards his previous hitches and patches for sure.

Germany Trip - 12/August/2006

Day - 1: 12/August/2006
This is the day i felt the meaning of every second.
I need to catch train to Frankfurt from Brussels Nord Station. The departure time was 6:33 AM. I slept only at 2:30AM after packing important things needed for travel setting the alarm in my mobile phone to 4:30 AM. Two hours i needed because i still need to press some of my clothes and to do a complete packing. The inner alarm indeed woke me up at 4:00AM but the laziness devil made me to feel sleep thinking that i will wake up at 4:30 when alarm rings. But it did not happen. The alarm should of course has rung but i have shut it off. Consequence? I woke up at 6:10AM. With just 23 minutes left to board the train, i rushed and brushed my teeth just to avoid bad breathe and took some unpressed clothes, dumped in bag and left. Until then my plan was to catch a metro and go to the station which will hardly take 10 minutes. So i still thought there is a possibility to make it.
I left home at 6:20 AM and reached metro station at 6:23 AM just to see the metro train has gone to the next station less than a minute before. I am a strong believer of "God gives more oppurtunities any time". I thought still there is a chance to make it. I did not give up. I came to the main road and looked for a taxi. But alas i dont know where the taxi stand is. I went to a person who was standing close to me and asked "Do you know where the taxi stand is". He replied in french which i could figure out as "Sorry i dont know". I had nothing to say other than "Merci beacoup". And now it was almost 6:28 AM.
Now god gives his helping hand in the form of a taxi which came via the road i was standing. I stopped and told him my requirements clearly. "I need to go to Nord station within 4 minutes. Is it possible?". He replied - No problem. Thinking how he could manage i just got in and he flied. God again made my path clear by showing no red signs in the road. Finally by travelling around 100kmph he dropped me at Nord Station at exactly 6:32 AM. There was exact change with me so i had no problem in settling the amount for taxi.
Now still i need to find out which platform the train is in within a minute and board the train. When i reached the square - where the details of departure/arrival trains are displayed i saw my train was in platform # 3 which was close to where i was standing. I ran to the platform and jumped into the compartment. I turned back just to know how early in terms of seconds before 6:33 AM. The comparment doors were already closed.

Actual Destination: I have planned my trip such that i will go to stuggart where my friends live and stay with them and roam around. My train reached frankfurt at around 10 AM. My next train to stuggart was at 10:20 AM and i came to know that it will reach at 12:00 AM. The train did as what it supposed to do. My friends there were waiting for me from 11 AM and finally we exchanged our "formal" salutations. There was another small challenge awaiting for us. There was a festival at a place close to singen and my friends were actually planning to spend the whole night there. The train to that place was at 2:30 PM. But since i was not fully ready (not shave, not had bath, not had food etc) i need to go to my friends place get ready and come back to the same station before 2:30PM. From here i will address my two friends as follows.

• Friend #1 - ICC Member One.
  
• Friend #2 - Mams.
  

Mams place was at a place called "favoritepark" which will take 20 min travel from Haufbahnhof station. Here i have to explain something about german metro train system. To put in a simple way.

• Hbf - Haufbahnhof - Any main station will be called with this name. Example Frankfurt Hbf.
  
• S Bahn - Stadschnellbahn - Sub urban metro trains.
  
• U Bahn - Untergrundbahn - Underground metro trains.
  

The difference between S Bahn and U Bahn is that the former will connect stations which are atleast some 3-5 Kms away but the latter will connect more closer stations. Now by taking S bahn (S4 i guess towards marbach) we reached mams place at around 1 PM. The next train from favoritepark to haufbahnhof was at 1:32 so i was asked to finish all my "activities" soon. Indeed were were able to manage to catch the train from favoritepark to haufbahnhof and from there to singen. While travelling we saw people enjoying their life by having tins of beer preparing themselves for the festival. Both Mams and ICC got tempted after looking those tins of beer and planned to buy once we reach the place.

We reached the place - where the festival was happening at around 4:30PM. Now mams and ICC started looking for a shop where they can buy beer. We roamed in the streets but couldnt find anything. Finally we saw a man carrying crates of empty beer bottles towards a shop. We followed him and finally got the place. Now mams and ICC started picking up the neccessary items for their wonderful evening. They bought 18 bottles (330ml) of beer and all the neccessary side dish. Since i dont take alcoholic drinks they got me one orange juice. Occasionally mams smokes when he take drinks. So he bought one pack of Marlboro. So with all these items we started moving towards the festival place.

Just we are about to enter the festival place the security check was made and they did not allowed as as we carried weapons (beer bottles). So now mams and ICC had only one option. To finish all the beer bottles (all 18 bottles) within some few hours and then get in the festival place. So they started having beer sitting near the railway station stairs. ICC had little problem in opening the beer. So he requested mams to provide some training on that. Mams is a perfect gentleman and provided the teaching/knowledge transfer to that hungry ICC. ICC got trained and became a skilled beer bottle opener. One, Two bottles over. Now station guard watched us and asked us to get out of that place. So we moved to a new place carrying all those things again.

This time we moved to a place where so many people were having beer. Mams and ICC started their activity again. Mams judicially spent his cigars as he has to maintain them till the next day. After consumption of 4 bottles by them i realised that they were already in out of sense. I could realise mams talking something stupid and ICC shouting in deutch. ICC as many of you may not know, has changed his hair style. He is now looking like Leanardo Dicaprio. With his elegant hair style he was always saying "Lieber Kollege" (Dear colleague) towards all.

Mams Ideas & Experiences: It was know mams realised that he and his Kollege are in out of state/control and he said that if they go to WC and refresh they will be back in normal state so that they can continue with remaining beer. They went and came back but NOT refreshed. These two people now started off with their 5 the one. No problem. Now the 6 th one. Over. 7 the one. It was at this point mams dropped a beer bottle in the stairs (he tried to move but due to obvious reasons it slipped from his hands) which got spilled on the guy sitting below us. He said something which mams did not understand. By this time mams friend also arrived to that place and guessing the situation he simply handed over one beer bottle from us to that guy. He said "Danke" and left. Now ICC laughing at this situation was boasting that he was in a steady state. At this point we saw a family people from our native and as a mark for our tradition mams handed over one beer bottle to a family man in that gang. The family man accepted the same from mams. He also said that his wife has already bought some beer from him for tomorrows party that they are going to have. He said "You might be thinking what a family". I said to my mind "yes".

After these events mams slipped again the beer bottle but this time it did not break. But all the contents flown out and there was nothing left. If you have followed all the events properly you should realize that there should be only 3 bottles of beer left. Now ICC declared "I cannot have more....". Mams insisted "You can do it ICC. Just do it".

Confused ICC:
But ICC as usual got confused and did something other than what mams mentioned. He just called one guy who was walking towards the festival and handed over one beer bottle to him and said "Danke". Mams was in his heights of Anger. He scolded ICC. ICC did not care and took one more bottle. He is out of control and he went straightly to a gang of people having beer and started telling "Cheers" in deutch to everyone. But after telling cheers he did not drink. But he showed his attitude of being thankful to nature. Yes. He poured the contents on a tree. Mams was now blinking what to do now. He now the last bottle and finished without any problems.

Since now everything was over we got in the festival place. All along the place we carried ICC carefully as he has already started shouting "I love you" towards every one. Me now fully worried about these guys status and fear about how to carry them back to their place. The firework started. It was just amazing and i took video of that with the help of Mams friend advice. Mams and ICC did not see fireworks show as they were already flat. ICC slept in some stair close to a lake there itself. When i was back after the firework show after 1 hour or so mams and ICC were back to their normal form. All the contents were down after their small rest. Day one ends here as the time was already 12:00 AM Day 2 will be posted shortly. If you want snaps of mams and ICC status after fully drunk please mail me: thoppae.saravanan@gmail.com