Do We Have Too Many Site-Seeing Buses In London?
On Friday, I needed to get from Piccadily Circus to the Aldwych, which is a simple one bus journey on a 6, 13 or 23. But the whole area was in chaos because of large numbers of site-seeing buses. This one was even parked so that it blocked the Haymarket.
Do We Have Too Many Site-Seeing Buses In London?
Hopefully, when more New Buses for London are delivered and take over routes in the centre, the economics of taking of the annoying tourist-ripping-off site-seeing buses will take a well-deserved nose-dive.
I’m also getting rather fed up in some places in London by the annoying ticket touts for these buses, who I keep telling to Foxtrot Oscar.
Cambridge Tries Its Hardest To Discourage Visitors
I changed trains in Cambridge yesterday and as it was a convenient time for a meal, I took the opportunity to go into the centre to have a late lunch in Carluccio’s.
Every time I go to the city, these days, it would appear that the bus stop layout is different and further from the main entrance to the station. And there’s no simple information, which has a map of the various stops and go to bus stop X for the city centre.
The first stop you come to, tells you all about the Cambridge Busway, but I know that the bus-way at the station goes to Addenbrooke’s and not the city centre.
After waiting at the wrong stop for a couple of minutes, only to see a couple of buses I could have taken, go past. So I waited ten minutes, when if there had been proper information, I’d have waited one.
When a bus did arrive, it was the usual scrum at the single door used for all entrance and exit. Visitors from London, who use the capital’s buses must really fume at the slowness. It’s even worse for people like me with a Freedom Pass, as you must take it out of your London folder to put it flat on the reader on the bus. Surely, we could have a touch and enter system based on Oyster technology all over the country now, as it’s been working in London for several years.
I knew where I was going, but I didn’t know exactly where the stop I needed was. I guessed wrong, as Cambridge buses don’t display the stop names or announce them as all sensible buses do. It must be a nightmare if you’re blind!
Coming back it was a repeat of the process; guess the stop, ask the driver, fight your way through the scrum and then walk farther than you used, to get to the train station.
It really is rather Kafkaesque and how much does it cost the city in lost visitors?
I suppose the only beneficiaries are the taxi-drivers, as those probably get a lot more business.
From Poplar To Canary Wharf
I walked from Poplar Station to Canary Wharf, taking pictures of the Docklands Light Railway and the building of the Crossrail station at Canary Wharf.
It’s going to be an architectural masterpiece when it’s finished. Or I certainly hope so!
One of the great things about using the Docklands Light Railway is that on a hot day like yesterday, it is a great way to explore the Eastern parts of London. Most of the stations have lifts and give good views of what is going on. The area is steeped in history and some great architecture from the old to the very modern.
The ticketing system is effectively, hop-on and hop-off, so you just use your Oyster once or buy a paper ticket and you’re away.
Someone needs to write a proper tourist guide to the Docklands Light Railway.
Wandering Around Copenhagen
I didn’t sleep well, as the hotel was just so hot and the windows didn’t open easily.
About eight, in the morning, I’d had enough, so I checked out and went to the station, where the ticket office was at least open and I was able to buy my ticket to Hamburg on the 15:44 train. But I did have to queue up for perhaps thirty minutes, as there were no machines.
I then decided to put my case in a left luggage locker. Not a problem for me, as my case, only weighs a few kilos, but access to the lockers in the basement of the station was down two staircases and very difficult with a heavy case. There was a lift, but it was very small and slow. When I thought about using it later, someone was in it with a bicycle.
So I said goodbye to the station and started to look for some breakfast. But nothing seemed to open until eleven. In Stockholm, things started to happen earlier. but eleven is just too late for tourists. I got the impression, that I wasn’t the only visitor aimlessly wandering looking for something to do.
In the centre of Copenhagen, I never saw a map on the street, something that I rely on for directions. I did have a guide book, but with my gammy left hand, walking and reading a map is not on.
I did find the Danish Design Centre, which according to my guide book had some good exhibits on Danish design. But the exhibits have now been closed.
Currently We Have No Exhibitions
So I just had an excellent coffee and left.
As I walked, nothing was open, but at least there were a few seats, where I could sit by myself in the sun.
A Seat In The Sun
I’d come to Denmark partly to get ideas for my house, so in the end I walked to the Danish Design Museum, which although it opened at eleven, was open by the time I got there. I’d actually wasted a lot of time, talking to other tourists, who were standing around just looking aimless. It was also raining by now, which made my map useless, so I was glad to be in some shelter.
A Pretty Well Organised Tourist City
On arriving in the centre of Geneva, I needed to find my way to the hotel, I’d booked at a very good rate.
The tourist office was a short walk towards the river and I got one of the best free maps, I’ve ever got from such a place. I’ve even be charged for an awful map in some places.
I actually walked to my hotel in the Old City, which wasn’t that far. One of the reasons for walking was that I knew hotels were supposed to give you a free travel ticket, for whilst you were in the city.
It was a bit cold, but a pleasant walk and I crossed one of the many bridges of the Rhone.
The Rhone At Geneva
Admittedly, I had to climb up to the hotel, but despite my problems, I managed it well. I took this picture from the top on the Saturday morning.
The Climb To The Hotel
This shows the advantage of travelling light, as I always do.
Note however the maps and signposts grouped together. Geneva is a well-mapped city and others could do worse, than follow Geneva’s example.
Incidentally the first thing I got from reception in the hotel along with the room key, was a Geneva Transport Card, valid from Friday until Sunday. You even get them if you are camping, rather than in a five star hotel as I was!
Here’s what the Visit Geneva web site says.
When you stay in a hotel, a youth hostel or at a campsite, you receive free of charge a Geneva Transport Card. Taking the tram, the bus and the train on Geneva territory will not cost you a penny. You even can cross the lake with the yellow taxi-boats for free.
This personal and non-transferable card is offered to you at arrival. During your stay in Geneva, you can use the entire Geneva transport network (UNIRESO: bus and tram (TPG), train (CFF) and taxi-boats (Mouettes Genevoises).
If you arrive at Geneva International Airport, you can get a 80-minute ticket free of charge for a ride to the place of your accommodation. The ticket machine is in the luggage retrieval hall.
The map I have, also points out the location of some of the large free museums in the city.
The View From Hay’s Galleria
I’d gone south from the Angel to London Bridge station, with the aim of walking along the River Thames to see Tower Bridge.
To get to the bridge, I took one of the exits onto Tooley Street, crossed the road and walked through the Hay’s Galleria. I took these pictures.
This is one of the best ways to get onto the walk beside the Thames. There are also a couple of restaurants and cafes, in and by the Galleria, if you want to eat or drink.
Gluten-Free Pizza At Pizza Express
For many years, Sunday afternoons and evenings for C and myself had a rhymn. We would go to the cinema at either the Cambridge Picturehouse or the Cineworld and then we’d go for a pizza in Pizza Express, often at the Pitt Club, where I always had a Capricciosa. This pattern stopped in the early 2000s, when I was diagnosed as a coeliac, so sometimes I would have a salad Niçoise, or more likely we’d go to an Indian restaurant.
But all that has now changed, in that Pizza Express have produced a new very coeliac-friendly menu. This is the gluten-free page.
Last night, I went with two friends to the newly-refurbished Pizza Express at The Angel in Islington. We sat upstairs and for an avid street watcher like myself, it is a great place to sit.
I started with a bottle of my favourite long drink; Aspall Cyder.
Aspall Cyder At Pizza Express
They also have Green’s gluten-free beer, but I do prefer my Celia, when it comes to beer. The cyder is better than both with pizza.
I also had a Capricciosa, for the first time in perhaps ten years.
Gluten-Free Pizza At Pizza Express
It tasted just like it did all of those years ago.
I think a personal tradition of a film followed by pizza is going to be revived. all I need now is an attractive lady with whom to enjoy the experience.
I think too, you can’t accuse Pizza Express of being backward about going forward.
Advertising In Stereo
These two signs were outside.
My only problem, is that near me, there isn’t a Pizza Express with the quality of building of the Pitt Club in Cambridge.
I have a feeling that in a few years time, this will rate as one of the most significant events in dining out for coeliacs in the UK.
I wasn’t diagnosed as a child, but it must be very difficult, for both a coeliac child and their parents, when say at a birthday party, they get invited to a family restaurant. Now they can at least eat pizza.
I think it is going to start a ripple in the various chains of restaurants, as they’ll have to follow suit. After all, Carluccio’s and Jamie’s Italian, already operate a sensible policy on gluten-free food, and I suspect others do.
It’ll certainly make things much easier for me on my travels. It’s already happened in Ipswich, in that the town has two Pizza Express restaurants. It’s just a pity, neither is close to Portman Road.
This will probably mean that the UK, will become one of the most coeliac-friendly countries for coeliacs to visit.
What’s Wrong With Me?
I took this picture of an advert for four of the major tourist attractions in London.
What’s Wrong With Me?
I did go on the London Eye once, but you get better views from the Emirates Air-Line and One New Change, at a much lower cost.
But the London Aquarium, the London Dungeon and Madame Tussauds, would be prime examples of the sort of places, I would never chose to visit.
The latter must be one of the most over-hyped rip-offs in London! If I want to see likenesses of famous people, I go to the National Portrait Gallery, which shows Tussauds t0 be the crap it is. And the National Portrait Gallery is totally free, except for the special exhibitions.
Booking To Geneva And Rotterdam On Eurostar
As an experiment, I just wanted to see if I could book direct to Rotterdam on the Eurostar web site.
You can’t, but you can book direct to several Swiss cities in one go on the Eurostar web site.
I was also able to get a ticket to Brussels for just £38 on the day I wanted. To get to Rotterdam using another site, adds another £21. But I want to go to The Hague. That cost £76 or twice the London-Brussels fare.
I suspect tourists, who after spending a few days in London, who perhaps wanted to see Europe by rail, wouldn’t start by going to The Netherlands. But they might go and look at the pleasures of Switzerland.
Is This Britain’s Worst Tourist Attraction?
I’ve never liked waxworks. I went once to Madame Tussards in probably the 1950s with my mother and we weren’t impressed. To me once was enough!
So when I see the pictures and read the reports in today’s Times about Louis Tussauds House of Wax in Great Yarmouth, it doesn’t change my opinion on waxworks. Read what Trip Advisor says here. The Telegraph doesn’t mince its words either and describes the attraction as facing meltdown.
On the other hand, I might go there, as it sounds so awful. But then there are much better things to see in Great Yarmouth.
The Anonymous Widower 