London travel arrangements

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GuyBarry
The Twilight Zone
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Joined: 01 Aug 2011, 09:24

Re: London travel arrangements

Post by GuyBarry »

Leaving Bath in a couple of hours' time. Getting really excited now...
Undefeated Tumbleweed champion, Oct 2015

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GuyBarry
The Twilight Zone
Posts: 5464
Joined: 01 Aug 2011, 09:24

Re: London travel arrangements

Post by GuyBarry »

Well that was fun (mostly), although it didn't work out entirely as planned...
Walk from Waterloo to London Eye
We'd actually planned to have lunch in The White Hart in Cornwall Street, the other side of Waterloo station, before setting off for the Eye. Unfortunately I left Waterloo by the wrong exit and we ended up in some awful little place that didn't serve food. Fortunately we found an All Bar One on the approach to the Eye.
Thames Clipper to North Greenwich (£4.75)
The boat was just leaving as we got there, but they stopped to let us on, which was extremely nice of them. You wouldn't get that on the buses! The trip itself was very enjoyable although I wish I'd known that there were open-air seats at the back of the boat. One thing that surprised me was that the cable car wasn't signposted from the exit from North Greenwich pier, although it's pretty hard to miss with the damned thing up there in the air in front of you.
Emirates to Royal Victoria (£3.40)
Definitely the high point of the visit for me (in both senses). The views were absolutely stunning and the commentary was entertaining. We were given a cabin to ourselves, which I wasn't expecting. Would happily do it again.
DLR to Stratford International (nil)
The TfL site gave me the impression that there would be a through train, but there was a change at Canning Town, which I simply wasn't prepared for. I'd assumed it would be a simple cross-platform affair - I hadn't realized you had to go right down to the Jubilee line platforms, then yet another level lower. I managed to lose sight of my friend for a while and thought he must have gone to the wrong platform (which he hadn't). It didn't help that the Jubilee line destination was also "Stratford", though a different Stratford station. Very confusing.
Southeastern High Speed to St Pancras International (£6)
This was the bit that my friend specially wanted to do, although he seemed a bit disappointed that it was mainly in a tunnel - I suppose I should have warned him in advance! He took a few photographs of the Javelin trains at St Pancras, then we took the lift down to ground level (fun!). Both rather thirsty at this point.
Walk to King's Cross
You wouldn't think this bit could be difficult, would you? But we didn't actually recognize the back entrance to King's Cross at first - it's changed out of all recognition. We spent ages wandering round looking for a pub and gave up. Did the tour of the new development as planned, then spotted the station bar upstairs which was really rather pleasant. Decided we were too tired to stop off at Leadenhall Market and would go straight back to Waterloo instead for more drinks. A very helpful customer told us how to get to the White Hart from Waterloo.
EDIT: Victoria line/Bakerloo line to Waterloo (nil)
This was the Orange One's recommended route, and it worked like a dream - we got off the train at Oxford Circus and straight onto the other in less than a minute. Very grateful to him.
Total cost including £12 Travelcard fee: £26.15
Pretty good value really, although when I got home I found I'd spent a total of £72 including food, drinks and incidental expenses. Forgot how expensive London prices were - I'll leave you to guess how much we had to drink on the day!
Undefeated Tumbleweed champion, Oct 2015

Inventor of Grumbleweed, Nimbleweed, Timesnap, Postsnap and several other silly games
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