For any Australian visiting London there is a familiarity about this vast metropolis that is both welcoming and challenging. The splendours of London are still there to delight in---the British Library, the British Museum, the Tate, the National Gallery, the Portrait Gallery, the parks, the palaces, the traditions, the art, music, films, drama and the buzz. But there is also the size, complexity and the density of population to challenge you every day. The capacity of public transport to move a billion people across an underground system (begun in 1863 and still far from modern), or to bus masses of travellers through a maze of old, narrow streets and traffic-clogged roads or other sagging infra-structure is amazing, but not always reliable. So it is a brave antipodean grandparent, who sets off alone from one side of London to the other to visit family.
This undertaking involves first a bus journey, then an underground train, a change to another underground train, a final bus trip and a walk, so you can be sure that there will be something to challenge you in this endeavour. It might be that you negotiate the first stages fairly easily and then arrive in the tourist-packed area of London to catch the bus that leaves from Westminster Bridge, only to find that the bus-stop has been
temporarily moved and there doesn't appear to be a replacement stop in sight. This will probably entail walking across Westminster Bridge (and further) to try to catch the bus at the next stop
It could also be that such a walk develops into a taxing struggle to force a path through an avalanche of people stretching across the complete width of the bridge and surging towards you. You will congratulate yourself if you finally emerge at the other end in one piece and only a little the worse from some (accidental) head-buttings, wrestles with prams (accidentally turned into weapons) numerous rib-jostles, pushing and shoving and near encounters with the pavement beneath your feet.
Of course, if you are making this journey on a Sunday, you may not only look for the replacement bus-stop in vain, but also for even a few of the people normally massing at this site. It could then eventuate that, after you have made an unimpeded walk across the bridge to the next bus-stop, you find this lack of traffic a little unsettling, until finally a lone passer-by informs you that central London is on diversion today, from which you will correctly deduce that your bus won't be coming over the bridge any time soon.
And so it eventuates that you will search frantically for any sign of where your bus is most likely to be diverted to, or for any sign of a new bus stop or, finally, for any sign of a number 12 bus anywhere until, eventually, a likely bus appears. You will probably leap on board to be quickly told that this bus is going back in the direction from which you have just come!
This event, however, will lead to directions towards a distant spot where the right bus will now stop and, after a considerable walk, you arrive at this place along with the bus and you will finally get on it. The ensuing trip will take 40 minutes, as the bus stops at every stop and 20 people get off and another 20 get in, thus ensuring that the best part of the day has been spent in getting to your destination.
It will take almost as long to get back that evening, especially if you (unaware of the cause of the bus diversion---a fun charity run in the middle of the day) try to find an alternate route back. It is unfortunately most likely on this Sunday evening that,(unintentionally of course) all three alternate routes have been rendered un-useable (closed, blroken-down, or undergoing maintenance). There will be nothing for it but to re-board your bus, retrace your journey and hope to arrive back at your abode sometime within the next two to three hours. This will, of course, most likely be the case.
Just one more reminder that you really are back in the same old London.
This undertaking involves first a bus journey, then an underground train, a change to another underground train, a final bus trip and a walk, so you can be sure that there will be something to challenge you in this endeavour. It might be that you negotiate the first stages fairly easily and then arrive in the tourist-packed area of London to catch the bus that leaves from Westminster Bridge, only to find that the bus-stop has been
temporarily moved and there doesn't appear to be a replacement stop in sight. This will probably entail walking across Westminster Bridge (and further) to try to catch the bus at the next stop
oIt could also be that such a walk develops into a taxing struggle to force a path through an avalanche of people stretching across the complete width of the bridge and surging towards you. You will congratulate yourself if you finally emerge at the other end in one piece and only a little the worse from some (accidental) head-buttings, wrestles with prams (accidentally turned into weapons) numerous rib-jostles, pushing and shoving and near encounters with the pavement beneath your feet.
Of course, if you are making this journey on a Sunday, you may not only look for the replacement bus-stop in vain, but also for even a few of the people normally massing at this site. It could then eventuate that, after you have made an unimpeded walk across the bridge to the next bus-stop, you find this lack of traffic a little unsettling, until finally a lone passer-by informs you that central London is on diversion today, from which you will correctly deduce that your bus won't be coming over the bridge any time soon.
And so it eventuates that you will search frantically for any sign of where your bus is most likely to be diverted to, or for any sign of a new bus stop or, finally, for any sign of a number 12 bus anywhere until, eventually, a likely bus appears. You will probably leap on board to be quickly told that this bus is going back in the direction from which you have just come!
This event, however, will lead to directions towards a distant spot where the right bus will now stop and, after a considerable walk, you arrive at this place along with the bus and you will finally get on it. The ensuing trip will take 40 minutes, as the bus stops at every stop and 20 people get off and another 20 get in, thus ensuring that the best part of the day has been spent in getting to your destination.
It will take almost as long to get back that evening, especially if you (unaware of the cause of the bus diversion---a fun charity run in the middle of the day) try to find an alternate route back. It is unfortunately most likely on this Sunday evening that,(unintentionally of course) all three alternate routes have been rendered un-useable (closed, blroken-down, or undergoing maintenance). There will be nothing for it but to re-board your bus, retrace your journey and hope to arrive back at your abode sometime within the next two to three hours. This will, of course, most likely be the case.
Just one more reminder that you really are back in the same old London.
No comments:
Post a Comment