THE WALK (Part 1)

It was a fine Friday. Fine in terms that my regular official meeting was cancelled due to some reasons and I had a whole day free. It was raining since morning and it was getting cold and cold but I am a mad guy who loves rain. Also I had to see my long distance beloveds, The Thames and The Tower Bridge.

I left home at about 2 pm in the noon, and instead of taking the bus or the tube, I decided to walk for as long as I can. I personally like walking for as long distance as I can, not to keep me fit, not to save money but because I can observe better while I am walking and I can easily get lost in the streets which is what I want.

The first stop I made was at the white chapel gallery. Frankly I had expected more from this gallery, it was good but not as good as I expected. Another reason can be that I do not know much about art. Well I liked their video gallery and also the video which was being aired over there which was something like “Not an Ordinary Protest”. It was about some kids talking about saving the endangered species of animals and birds. Some science models were also over there and yeah an abstract painting of the whole wall length which for me is something like the paint spilled over the canvas :D.

I left the gallery and continued towards The Gherkin, the building which I see almost daily from far away. Suddenly on the way the clouds roared (for the first time in the past month I heard them :p) and it was raining heavy suddenly. So I had to get under the shade of a building for some time and when after the rain (in 10 minutes) when I started again while crossing a road I ran in to another man busy with his camera and in try to avoid it when I turned there was this beautiful street the “Leadenhall Market” on my left side. It was beautiful, the lights, the buildings (and the people too :p). just like a tourist, I took some photos and just moved forward from there too.

At that point I could hear some bells and they were ringing constantly, I moved towards that sound just like a kid following the flute sound of the Pied Piper and there was this tall, thin and old minaret with some sort of carved stories on its base and some idols on the very top just like a golden crown. This building broke the enchantment of those bells and that bell sound was coming from somewhere even ahead. I was like I have to get up on this tower, I need to see London from its top. I went ahead and took the ticket, and now I had to climb 311 helical stairs to get to the top.

I started it and frankly it was easier then climbing the stairs to get to “Loe Dandi” behind the shrine of Bari Imam in Islamabad Pakistan.

When I get to the top, the worth of the scene was much more than the £5 ticket cost. I could see the London eye from over here, the London bridge, the tower bridge, the shard and almost half of the London. I stayed, I watched, I relaxed for like 45 minutes up there staring at the sky of this part of the world. Then I started moving down the stairs, and that was the time I realized that I still do not know anything about the history of this tower :D.

I came down and asked the girl on the ticket counter about it and she gave me a pamphlet having the whole history of this tower. It was constructed in 1677 in the memory of the great fire of London which almost destroyed the whole city in September 1666.

My day and my walk didn’t end here but the blog is getting lengthy so I am going to tell rest of the story in part 2.