[nipcarlover]

Wow! That must be an awesome trip! The amount of nice cars in the UK is just astounding! Did you spot all those supercars on one day?! And the tuned Jap cars were also fantastic!

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by StrangeWizard

Part 4 - Bicestor Shopping Village.

The next day was spent resting and then we made a plan to go to Bicester Village (pronounced Bistor) and then Oxford City if we get time.
Left from Leicester in the afternoon and reached there in an hour or so. It started raining slightly by then.

Bicestor Village is a big shopping village designed in a very classy way. There are shops made in shapes of houses. Only premium brands are available here. Don't know what else to write about this place. Oh and if you visit this place sometime don't forget to taste the crepes here. There is a stall at one corner where you get these. Loved the cheese flavored and hazelnut flavored ones the most.

Some pics:

We had actually planned to go to Oxford City also but due to lack of time we went there the next day.

Bicester Village is a great place to buy big name clothing and accessories brands at relatively inexpensive prices, when compared to normal Mall, Department and High Street Stores.
I love shopping there when visiting the UK. Very well worth a trip. It is about 40 min from Oxford Town by car.

[StrangeWizard]

Part 6 - Glory Glory Man Utd!

I'm a Manchester United fan ever since I was 7 and played fifa 2000 on my first PC.
Always wanted to visit the Old Trafford and couldn't get a better chance than this.
So, I checked the Man Utd website and saw that the stadium and museum tours are conducted on certain days and hence we made a plan to go to Manchester city.

Parked the car in the parking lot and already saw a couple of exotics. The parking lot is huge and even though there was no match that day, it was half full.

Went inside to the reception and booked the museum + stadium tour for 3 people. Costs around 20 pounds IIRC.

Our slot was after an hour or so, so we spent some time looking around in the museum first. Once our slot was announced we went down and there were others also who had come for the tour. We were greeted by a gentleman who is the guide there. He was quite knowledgeable about the team (obviously) and his sense of humour while talking made things interesting.
We were told each and everything about the team; its history, past players, various wins and trophies etc etc.

We were then taken to the stadium and shown each and everything.

A local match was also going on but hardly any audience.

Once we were done with the tour, we went to a nice mall called Trafford Centre to eat something and then head back to Leicester.

[StrangeWizard]

Manchester United pics continued -

[StrangeWizard]

hey guys I'm sorry but due to some problems I won't be able to post updates for 3-4 weeks.
So sorry.

[AbelAFC]

Very well written travelogue StrangeWizard, loving the pictures as well! Coincidentally, I had spent the summer of 2012 in England too - from March till May. That was my third trip to the UK, and trust me, more than the famous landmarks we spent more time just admiring nature and things that seemed mundane to the Brit folk - like greenery.

I know you haven't posted the entire travelogue yet, since I hope you visited the Lake District. This is probably one of the most beautiful places in the world I have been to. The serenity of the place around 6pm is something we just cannot experience back home in India. And I think the excellent bed-and-breakfasts add to the charm of the Lake District.

Also, being an avid football fan, I had been to the Emirates and watched a game there. Maybe, just maybe I should post a thread on that. You should have watched a game while you were there - the atmosphere at a football game is something surreal for people like us who experience it once in a lifetime. Also, hurling abuses at the referees when you're sitting in the third row can be a massively calming experience.

Once again, great thread, but your pictures have sort of thrown me into depression!

[sajusherief]

such a lovely travelogue, literally you took me for a walk through those streets! thanks for taking the pain in sharing this.

[New.Novice]

Originally Posted by nipcarlover

Wow! That must be an awesome trip! The amount of nice cars in the UK is just astounding! Did you spot all those supercars on one day?! And the tuned Jap cars were also fantastic!

Must say.. when I was in London I couldn't help but notice that every second super car that I spotted was driven by an Indian (or could be pakistani as well). And most often then not a punjabi munda (now please dont tell me you can't tell). Honestly, was feeling good to see that. They have really made it big there.

I am sure OP and all other who frequent UK can vouch for what I said about most super cars owned by Indians there.

[9thsphinx]

Thanks for the wonderful travelogue!

Brings back memories for when I made my trip to UK back in 2002 - the setting was not much different then, except those fancy wheels on the road

Lovely pictures - please share the rest of your journey with us when you can.

[StrangeWizard]

Sorry guys I couldn't update this travelogue for some weeks.
Anyways here I am.

So our next plan was to go to Bournemouth. It is located somewhere on the south coast of England and is quite popular with tourists. It is the Goa of England!

It was a 3 hour drive from Leicester. Once we reached there we started looking for a nice hotel because we were planning to stay there for 2 days.
Found a decent hotel which offered bed and breakfast for a good price.

After having some food and taking a short nap we went out for a long walk to check out the place. There's a nice beach here and some great restaurants too.

Then we had dinner at Pizza Hut and went to the local Tesco to get some snacks and chocolates and stuff for the next day.

Next day we went to see Brownsea Island. It is across the sea on the other side and you need to go there in a ferry.

You have to pay some nominal entrance fee at the entrance of this island.
Then you have the option of either taking the services of a paid guide (i think) or just explore the place on your own.
Well there's not much to see here. Its just a big jungle with lots of trees and some peacocks. You need to walk everywhere and it takes a couple of hours to completely see the place. Might as well avoid going to this place.

Once this was done we headed back to London where we were supposed to meet some other relatives.

Bournemouth is a great place if you want to visit it sometime but avoid going to the island where I went, unless you like walking and greenery a lot.

[StrangeWizard]

Brownsea Island pics -

[StrangeWizard]

Ooops! completely forgot to post here!

Anyways we were back to Leicester. Since we hadn't seen London properly yet we decided to there again for 2-3 consecutive days.
This time we decided to go by National Express coach. Booked the tickets on the website. Each ticket costed around 20-22 GBP for the to and fro journey.

Do note that if you book tickets well in advance you can have them for way less prices!

So the next day we were ready by 7am and our bus was to leave from Leicester at 8am. Took around 2.5hrs to reach London. The bus dropped us at Victoria Terminus IIRC.

I had a local map so we started exploring the place walking around everywhere.
I had packed some chocolates and chips and drinks and we had lunch at pizza hut, subway or any other random place.

Places we checked out are : Oxford street, Regent street, Leicester square, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Knightsbridge ( Do visit Harrods ), Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Madame Tussauds etc in no particular order.

Do go to Haagen Dazs at Leicester Square.They serve excellent icecream!

Couldn't go inside the Palace as preparations for the Queen's Jubilee were going on. I did see the Queen's procession where she traveled in a boat through river Thames along with 100s of other boats. There was a hell lot of rush in the Westminster Abbey area that day. Even the trains were crowded like hell. Reminded me of our local trains

We also took a guided tour in the open bus which took us through some of the above mentioned places. It also had a ferry ride in the river Thames.

Now I won't write much about all these places because I really don't know what all to describe. If you guys have any questions you can ask me.

Uploading better pics this time hope you guys like them.

[StrangeWizard]

Some more pics continued

[Ramanjit]

Very nice pics,seems like we were there with you all the way.It would be good if you could give out the entry fee to all the tourist attractions.Love the yachts, which port is that?