Traffic

Going to a city where traffic goes ‘the other way’ is a challenge. You don’t even have to drive a car: crossing the street is a major achievement. And the big letters “LOOK LEFT” or “LOOK RIGHT” are probably not just for the tourists. One way streets warp your sense of direction even more. You have to keep looking every way, especially because bikers and hasty drivers don’t observe their lights very much. Zebra crossings are more or less respected, but right of way seems to be a foreign concept (excuse the pun). I don’t wear a helmet when riding a bike, but in London I would!

In general, the city is very pedestrian-unfriendly. The little red person performs a LOT longer than its little green friend. Moreover, a 2×2 lane street is often divided into two crossings, which operate independently. So you have to watch closely which green man is yours, and how far he will get you. We did see some LGBT-lights as well.

The Underground (“Tube” or “Metro”) is as old as 1863. The 11 lines and 272 stations carry up to 5 million passengers a day. Meaning you can get around quite easily (especially now that the Oyster card has been largely succeeded by your smartphone) although some connections have endless meandering tunnels and stairs. And man, it’s hot down there: the older lines (7) don’t have airconditioning – but the tunnels get steaming too.
Worst part, however, are the disruptions. During our visit, the two crucial lines District and Circle were only going on and off. And the digital time-shields were unable to convey the correct message: “2 minutes” could easily last up to 20 minutes. How difficult could that be?

There also is an Overground: the relatively new Elizabeth line took us to the far-away ABBA Arena.

We discovered, thanks to Mr. Google, that buses are an easy way to go too. Only thing is that they are bothered by other traffic, which can cause a lot of delays. I did not see many dedicated bus lanes, so both the regular red buses as well as the double-deckers get stuck in heavy traffic. The trip from Portobello to Kew Gardens took an hour and a half with but + train.

We did not take any taxis, but saw that Uber is also available: a dedicated pillar in our hotel facilitated this service.