Day Two in London: The Unplanned Bus Tour of the Suburbs

Cheri and I flew overnight from Newark to London arriving around 9 a.m. London time on Saturday. Sarah met us as soon as we cleared Customs (she’s the blonde in the pictures in case you haven’t seen her in awhile), and off we headed to arrange transportation to Harrow.

	While Cheri and Sarah went off to get us week passes for the bus and underground system I stayed in the bus terminal with the luggage. Fortunately, I had something to keep me busy watching the local pest control program in action. In case you can’t tell, the animal near the light is a falcon.
I tried to get his picture while he was facing me, but he jumped up just as I focused and shot. You can see him a little better with his handler in the other picture.

We then took the bus to the hotel in Harrow, checked in, gave Sarah the special items we had brought over for her—crunchy peanut butter, candy bars, homemade cookies, cheese—at our own risk, and since it had managed to become 1 p.m. we decided a nap was in order. Sarah and I first made a quick run to a news stand to pick up some sodas and Sarah continued on her way to the tube back to her house.

Sarah came back and met us around 3 p.m. and we headed out walking through the Town Center of Harrow—mostly shops and restaurants, no touristy types of things. We then walked over to Sarah’s house and got a tour of where she is staying—pictures another time, I didn’t get the camera out this time.

Then it was a walk back past the hotel area and over to the Westminster University Harrow Campus. Unfortunately, the buildings were closed to visitors so we will try again later this week. Andrew’s flat was near the campus so we picked him up and headed out to a pub in Harrow for dinner. After that we decided it best for us to head in for the evening and be ready to go the next day.

Day Two: Somehow on Sunday morning we both managed to sleep in until 10 a.m.! Of course this is only 5 a.m. on the East Coast, but it certainly isn’t in keeping with my normal early hours. Sarah had to work from 11 to 5 so Cheri and I were on our own. We headed for the Underground Station that Sarah recommended for us (Northwick Park) only to find the rail line under repair and the need to use a double-decker bus to take us to another station.

The bus trip wasn’t too bad and it did allow us to see some more of the suburbs, but it seemed to take quite a long time to go a relatively short distance. The station we were re-directed to is Wembley Station which is also the site of Wembley Stadium—Soccer, Rugby, US Football when played in London. Fortunately there were no events there today or we’d still be on the bus.

Once we reached Wembley, we were told that rail line was also down and that we needed to take a separate bus to Finchley Road Station, transfer to a bus to Baker Street Station, and from there we could get on the Bakerloo Line of the Underground. This started to remind me of some of Dan Manz’ escapades in airports and flight connections.

We got on another double-decker and this time we went upstairs to get a better view of the neighborhoods. The bus wound through many back streets and, again after a fairly long time, brought us to the Finchley Road Station. Fortunately, just as we were getting off the bus the Underground staff informed us that the Underground from that station was now operational so we gladly entered the station and started to head further into London.

Several stops and one train change later we were at the Embankment Station. Our plans were to head out to Greenwich and I wanted to take the water taxi.

Here is a shot of the boat tying up to the landing. It is a catamaran style, so fairly smooth and easily fast in river.

Being on the River gave us an opportunity for some good pictures of the sights along the way. First there is the House of Parliament along with shots of first Cheri and then me with the Tower house the bell “Big Ben” behind us.

All of this helps to show that we are actually here! I then went on to take some pictures of the London Eye,

Tower Bridge,

a bridge yet-to-be-named but having a double-decker crossing it,

a side shot of Cheri, and then the HMS Belfast.

We finally arrived at Greenwich and started out by heading to the National Maritime Museum. I think the items were of more interest to me than Cheri, but I also think we had a good time. Next it was on to the Queen’s House and tour through the house. I did take the opportunity to take a couple of pictures in the house, one after asking and one when I should not have. The picture I asked about was out of an upstairs window looking over the old hospital with the modern city in the background.

The picture I didn’t ask about is looking up the spiral staircase. It became patently obvious that I shouldn’t have taken this shot when Cheri pointed out the no photography sign at the bottom of the stairs.

We then headed up through the drizzle to the Royal Observatory and the marking of the Prime Meridian (zero degrees longitude). Looking down the red line in the picture all West Longitude is to the left and all East Longitude is to the right—so I literally straddled East and West to take this picture. Looking up at the building they have also added a green laser line that more finely depicts the center of this demarcation. You can see some of the raindrops passing through it in the picture.

From Greenwich we hopped back on the water taxi, back to the Embankment Station, on to the Bakerloo Line and out to the Pub where Sarah works. We had a great Sunday Roast with Sarah, we met one of the owners of the pub, and on the way out got a picture of Sarah with the pub sign—Duke of York—in the background.

Our travels back were re-directed because of an emergency in the station we had arrived through, so it was off to another station for one stop and then onto double-deckers again for the ride back. We were able to get front row seats on the upper deck so the ride was more exciting (particularly with narrow lanes and driving on the left).

A great Day Two in London!