Yesterday morning I visited the Battersea community, which is in London city itself. Saju was kind enough to pick me up at the Clapham Junction and then show me around the community, the school and part of the city too.
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| The Salesian residence at Battersea, London |
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| The Westminister Cathedral |
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The Westminister Cathedral
I think it has more side-altars than all the number of altars we have in our Salesian houses in my Province! |
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A view of a modern building right opposite to the Westminister Cathedral.
Couldn't help notice the amount of glass used in modern constructions - for light and heat. |
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| Another photo of the same modern building - this time with the famous trademark London bus |
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Right in the midst of all modern and tall skyscrapers was this 'puny' old building.
I guess this is an old building declared a heritage site - or else developers would have gulped down
this prime spot long long ago.
Clicked this photo also for the contrast: the modern building on the side, the posh car in front and the old building, between. |
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| The Westminister Abbey, mother of the Anglican Church in London. |
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The Big Ben
Was surprised at the amount of security - or lack of it - around this and other official structures.
Am told it has 'increased' after the recent terror attacks!!
Perhaps 'digital surveillance' makes up for the human guards. |
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| The London eye, from across the Thames and the ferry. |
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One building covered with ivy. Looked really beautiful from far.
Natural changing colours and lively too - all round the year. |
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| The Trafalgar square, London |
The school impressed me immensely. The wide variety of possibilities to learn and study was amazing. Honestly if only education of this quality were to be offered in our schools in India, there wouldn't be any need for intermediate or degree studies at all. One could straight away apply for post-graduation or ph.d. Besides the quality, the number of courses and options offered is truly unbelievable. With such a wide option range, one could dive into any field of choice easily. It truly opens up the youngsters mind to various avenues of career and profession. I'm told, Asians and non-Europeans in general make the most of this chance. Local residents, don't! They seem to be content with social welfare offered by the government.
The house, a newly constructed one, was nothing less than a 5-star hotel, by any Indian standard. I'm beginning to wonder if that's how all the houses are or is it that we Salesians are used to this posh life? Am visiting the Salesian Sisters this afternoon at Oxford, got to see. Theirs surely will be much better than ours. So can comparatively guess a common man's house.
The city: Wow! Neat and clean. With thousands around, there wasn't any bit of paper, plastic or any kind rubbish found on the streets. The traffic very orderly, and pedestrians following the rules too. A general observation: there are much more non-locals than the local Brits in London! Say this not because of the 'tourists spot' that I visited but from what I've seen in the past three weeks.
The best for the last: As we started back towards Victoria station, I was very amused by this sign board outside a pub... so were quite a few!
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