BES-Assignment 8 (Wimbledon)

Wat Buddhapadipa Temple

Today we went to Wimbledon to play some tennis!...just kidding, we went for our villages of London assignment. From Putney Bridge we took a bus to the Wimbledon area, and wow I don't think I have seen such big houses since coming to Europe! I definitely wouldn't mind living in this area. Our first stop was at the Wat Buddhapadipa Buddhist Temple. I had to stop and wonder if we were still in London-with it's ornate decoration and serene streams surrounding it, it felt like we were in another country. In our bare feet we went and explored the inside of the temple. It was so beautiful! I took a world's religions class in high school, so I recognized a few of the statues and paintings, but it made me want to go back and re-learn things about this religion.

Beautiful houses of Wimbledon

Me in front of St. Mary's Church

We then made the trek to the All England Lawn Tennis Club (Wimbledon Tennis ground)-again, passing beautiful houses along the way. We saw a dead fox?...that was kind of random. But we made it to the green courts of the infamous Wimbledon. None of us are tennis fans, so we decided not to pay to go inside, but took a few pictures from the outside. We headed back up Church Road towards the high street. Along the way we stopped and looked at St. Mary's Church-I just had to (I went to St. Mary's Academy for high school). The outside was beautiful, loved the big blue doors. But they were locked so we couldn't go inside, but I imagine it was very pretty.

We continued up towards Wimbledon High Street, again (sounding like a broken record here) the houses were so beautiful. The people walking around were either old adorable couples dressed nicely, young people walking their dogs, or people driving their Mercedes. It made me wonder how much money it takes to live in a place like this? The high street was very quirky-with its shops, pubs, and little cafes. We walked in a few stores just to browse. On our way to the bus station we saw the Eagle House (owned by Robert Bell, one of the founders of the East India Company). It was a huge house-wished I could have peeked inside! While we were waiting for our bus I buzzed across the street to a real-estate agency to answer my question about how much money it takes to live in Wimbledon. I don't think I was totally prepared...to RENT an apartment, it costs 8,000 pounds a month! (for all my American friends, that is almost $13,000)! And the houses ranged from 500,000 pounds to 8.5 million pounds. Maybe that would have been a good place to hang around looking for a man? :)

Overall, I really enjoyed this assignment. I liked seeing a wealthy area of London. I could tell that there was a lot of "old money" there-which also means it comes with a lot of history. With its bigger houses and parks it reminded me of home a little bit...not that the homes reminded me of mine, I wish....but living in the city we haven't seen many real houses/neighborhoods. Although I don't think I will ever be able to afford living there, I definitely enjoy visiting it.