16/02/2012
Posted: 16 Feb 2012, 23:34
So, the day started with a ridiculously early start, rolling out of bed at 09:10 in Milton Keynes. The day started with a narrow start, just made the 09:47 London Midland service into Euston. (to protect the route I used, times given will be vague).
Starting point was Euston armed with the almighty zones 1-6 travelcard!, chosen because it is the terminus farthest from the centre of London. From there, I travelled to Embankment, making a swift change to the district line, eastbound. One station later, disaster struck! I got completely lost. I looked at my tube map frantically, but it turned out I was holding a photo of last night's spaghetti bolognaise! I decided the best action to take was to go on the london eye, to get a birds eye view, perfect for recalculating my route. From there, it was clear to see my next step was to knock out the River Taxi branch of the Waterloo and City line. From the London Eye pier, I then knocked out the Embankment Pier, the Blackfriars Pier, etc all the way to the Greenwich pier. Quickly doubling back on the 14:43 Thames Clipper rolling stock, I alighted at the Tower pier, dashing quickly over the Millenium Bridge (avoiding the sick), dodging my way through the Tent City and boarding an eastbound central line train at St. Paul's. From there it was onto Stratford, idiotically stopping for a snack break at the John Lewis viewing gallery over the olympic park. All was not lost however. On returning to the station, perfection occurred! Rolling into the station, the most delightful train appeared, Woodford via Hainault. The prospect of a perfect 'loop' gave me hope, that a completion, and quite possibly, a record time was achievable. Alas, no, a 5 minute delay occurred due to a train on platform 2 at Hainault. One can only assume the driver ate too many pot noodles, and got stuck in the driver's cab door due to being incredibly fat. It was at this point I lost hope, I decided achieving a record time was impossible, and a completion was doubtful. Such a shame, the day started out with such promise. After the fat train driver chaos, the only other stations I managed to visit were Chancery Lane and Holborn, before WALKING from Holborn to Leicester Square (eating delicious noodles from the noodle bar opposite Leicester Square station in the meantime), before heading back up the way I started, the northern line to Euston, and then back to MK, arriving home around 22:00.
Tube -1.5 stats: Stations visited 31/270
Time taken ~10 hours
Projected time for 270/270: LOL
Yeah, the day wasn't about tube challenging, it was in fact my Dad's birthday trip to London, he wanted to do the Eye, get the river taxi, view a couple of sights etc. I did manage to persuade my family to travel round the Hainault loop with me, my dad understands how my brain works! The sick on the millenium footbridge was actually my fathers, not the highlight of the day! :/ Me and my sister took quite a few funny photographs, and there were lots of laughs. A good day.
The above story was certainly how I imagined the day went, though! It makes me excited for the potential of an eastertime attempt, I just need to get my butt in gear and actually plan it!
Starting point was Euston armed with the almighty zones 1-6 travelcard!, chosen because it is the terminus farthest from the centre of London. From there, I travelled to Embankment, making a swift change to the district line, eastbound. One station later, disaster struck! I got completely lost. I looked at my tube map frantically, but it turned out I was holding a photo of last night's spaghetti bolognaise! I decided the best action to take was to go on the london eye, to get a birds eye view, perfect for recalculating my route. From there, it was clear to see my next step was to knock out the River Taxi branch of the Waterloo and City line. From the London Eye pier, I then knocked out the Embankment Pier, the Blackfriars Pier, etc all the way to the Greenwich pier. Quickly doubling back on the 14:43 Thames Clipper rolling stock, I alighted at the Tower pier, dashing quickly over the Millenium Bridge (avoiding the sick), dodging my way through the Tent City and boarding an eastbound central line train at St. Paul's. From there it was onto Stratford, idiotically stopping for a snack break at the John Lewis viewing gallery over the olympic park. All was not lost however. On returning to the station, perfection occurred! Rolling into the station, the most delightful train appeared, Woodford via Hainault. The prospect of a perfect 'loop' gave me hope, that a completion, and quite possibly, a record time was achievable. Alas, no, a 5 minute delay occurred due to a train on platform 2 at Hainault. One can only assume the driver ate too many pot noodles, and got stuck in the driver's cab door due to being incredibly fat. It was at this point I lost hope, I decided achieving a record time was impossible, and a completion was doubtful. Such a shame, the day started out with such promise. After the fat train driver chaos, the only other stations I managed to visit were Chancery Lane and Holborn, before WALKING from Holborn to Leicester Square (eating delicious noodles from the noodle bar opposite Leicester Square station in the meantime), before heading back up the way I started, the northern line to Euston, and then back to MK, arriving home around 22:00.
Tube -1.5 stats: Stations visited 31/270
Time taken ~10 hours
Projected time for 270/270: LOL
Yeah, the day wasn't about tube challenging, it was in fact my Dad's birthday trip to London, he wanted to do the Eye, get the river taxi, view a couple of sights etc. I did manage to persuade my family to travel round the Hainault loop with me, my dad understands how my brain works! The sick on the millenium footbridge was actually my fathers, not the highlight of the day! :/ Me and my sister took quite a few funny photographs, and there were lots of laughs. A good day.
The above story was certainly how I imagined the day went, though! It makes me excited for the potential of an eastertime attempt, I just need to get my butt in gear and actually plan it!