Day 9 - Chelsea FC ,the London Bridge experience and the Tombs, HMS Belfast and another play at the Globe!

We were at Sound(night club) the night before and hence had decided to stay in London itself. We stayed at Hotel Goodwood in central London for about 30 pounds per person(incl breakfast) which I think is reasonable. Hence, travelling next morning was less and fast.

The morning of Day 9 was dedicated to one person - Kunal Shah. One of my best friends at IIM Indore who passed away in a tragic accident about a month back. He loved Chelsea FC. I had told him a lot of times this term how I was going to make him jealous by calling him from Stamford Bridge. I was at Stamford Bridge alright. But there was no one to call.

The slide show below is self-explanatory. Alpesh accompanied me as he was on a 3 day holiday taken specially for me.



He then had to go to college for a presentation and I went for the London Bridge Experience and the Tombs. It has been voted as UK's scariest attraction. I went here as I had nothing to do in the afternoon and it was covered in my London Pass. After the dungeons, I was tuned to this format. It was still very good although the novelty factor had gone out for me. I would reiterate. Umang FA committees should visit these attractions. They are just so brilliantly done. The tombs are really well done. It will definitely scare 7 in 10 people.

I then proceeded towards HMS Belfast. It was one of the warships used during the World War II. Since, the Britishers excel at monetising history they had done a great job with this as well. I have never been on ship of this size even in India and the exhibits on HMS Belfast were so real you almost feel you are in those times and are living in the ship. It was eye-opening for me as I have no clue about the navy and life on a ship. Imagine life on a war ship in the 1930s or the 1960s. Slideshow below should help:


The evening was spent near Hays Galleria at the Queen's walk on the bank of River Thames. Suddenly, Alpesh felt like visiting the Shakespeare's globe as he had never been there. The play was ' The Comedy of Errors' and it was sold out. But, we've never returned from a play/movie theatre without actually watching it. No matter when it was sold out. The record is intact in London too. We got tickets which were returned - 4 standing and 1 sitting. So we saw another play. 2 actors were playing a double role in this one and the play was extremely hilarious. All the actors did a tremendous job but you have to specially commend the 2 who were playing double roles.

So I watched 2 comedies at the globe in 2 weeks and I couldn't be happier! Sadly, the next day this memorable trip was drawing to a close.