We took a holiday in the hills recently, and as always I was mesmerised by its sheer beauty. A post on the hills will soon follow, but first the warmth of the cafe nestled snuggly right at the gates of a lesser known town, here in the hills.
That late autumn afternoon we walked into one of the clock tower cafes, a cafe, as the name suggests, situated right at the base of a towering Big Ben like structure. The cafe was made of red painted walls resembling bricks and wooden doors and windows with glass panes. It was breath taking and beautiful standing out amid the crowd of other run of the mill constructions for shops and hotels.
Yes, just before you step into the lesser known hill town this cafe is the last refuge where one can seek solitude from the maddening crowd, and solitude I sought (for it was a holiday in the hills) and solitude I got!
Oh, did I mention, the hills! The hills... Just a small jaunt away from the cafe, where we would be going rested the real hills of noisy cicadas and nagging non stop cricket cries!
That late autumn afternoon we walked into one of the clock tower cafes, a cafe, as the name suggests, situated right at the base of a towering Big Ben like structure. The cafe was made of red painted walls resembling bricks and wooden doors and windows with glass panes. It was breath taking and beautiful standing out amid the crowd of other run of the mill constructions for shops and hotels.
Yes, just before you step into the lesser known hill town this cafe is the last refuge where one can seek solitude from the maddening crowd, and solitude I sought (for it was a holiday in the hills) and solitude I got!
Oh, did I mention, the hills! The hills... Just a small jaunt away from the cafe, where we would be going rested the real hills of noisy cicadas and nagging non stop cricket cries!
And lo! Just as I entered and picked myself a spot in the less crowded cafe I confront these adorable pictures of Audrey Hepburn from Breakfast at Tiffany's! What an apt allusion, I said to myself as I sat myself down on a soft, squishy (good squishy sofa) and looked around.
There were lamps and pieces of cloth roughly cut and draped all around it. There were polka dotted cloths of red and blue and even yellow and green! It was just amazing to look around the little cafe so well adorned and cared for. It was quite obvious that each poster on its wall, each of the lamp shades and all the little things that made it look so gorgeous and vintage and a suburbia cafe like was picked up with utmost care and love!
Then I spotted the most interesting and perhaps the most prized posters of the Clock tower Cafe! The Woodstock Poster! Not just any, but the WOODSTOCK!! Wow!!! I never thought until then that they would have a peach coloured Woodstock Fest poster on print! Life's little surprises, I think...
Above is the view of the cafe from my seat. It was simple with brown flooring, colored tiles on the table and a riot of posters and lamps and small knick-knacks on the walls! Just adore the seventies wall lamp hanging from the wall in the picture below! I faintly remember seeing a similar one in my Grampa's house back in the north east, but that was long ago...
And, here is my seat. I was lucky enough to grab the most coveted seat by the window in the cafe. You can see the faint outline of the hills that seem to be just so casually laid out in front for the spectacular view - something that for the hill people is nothing more than a 'threshold brook' as Keats would have said, but for us city people it is something I have pined for ever since I left the mountains... many years ago now.
That old fashioned telephone we grew up seeing being used in movies was actually here for us to touch and see and marvel at! Boy o boy, was I jumping with joy!
And below the beautiful and dignified sign at the entrance door. Maybe this is the reason why it was so less crowded...
And below the beautiful and dignified sign at the entrance door. Maybe this is the reason why it was so less crowded...
 The colorfully tiled tables, as I mentioned earlier! |   Oh! Bliss oh bliss! Can't wait to go back up there once again and bring some more memories for my vial of nostalgia that seems to be running dry fast! Love, Moi |
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