Useful, if trivial, information about London and Londoners
London is one of the most historic and beautiful cities in the world. There are many articles about what to see and to do and these are invaluable.
This, however, aims to help you with little things that may help you to understand London and Londoners a little more and make your visit that much easier.
BUSES
Contents
You need to flag a bus; no matter if you are standing there, as so many buses come along, you need to indicate which one you are after.
You enter at the front, swipe your Oyster Card, and exit from the back. It works.
People stand in an orderly queue at the bus stop – equidistant from one another. We are used to the mad dash.
You can pick a real Londoner on the buses because they can apply their make up beautifully and know how long each red light lasts for, thus not smearing their mascara.
WALKING
There is no beeping to indicate that you can walk across the road as we have in Australia, so you could …like we kept doing ..stand for ages ..waiting. I don’t know how people who are blind understand when to cross.
In saying that, people walk across the road whenever, even if the red man is showing. The red man is a suggestion only in London.
There is a lot of dog poop around, despite many signs and doggy poop packets available so mind your step.
London is not as manic, traffic wise as what I expected
London is very very easy to walk around.
The people of London are not as good at multi-tasking as Australians are.
You rarely if ever see a Londoner walking to work while talking on their mobile/cell phone AND carrying a takeaway coffee.
Whether this is an indictment of the coffee ..I don’t think so. See Brick Land Coffee and look mum! no hands.
Maybe it is an evolutionary process
The TUBE or UNDERGROUND
The people at the tube stations know exactly what they are talking about, so talk to them. They will tell you exactly which train to get and where to get off .in the nicest possible way
The trains are clean and are very punctual though we may have well got very lucky. However coming from a country where a train buy cialis black online timetable is just a work of fiction; think 50 shades of crap.
In case you forget anything, there are non-stop announcements to help you to know what to do. “mind the gap”, “mind the step”, “breathe”
SECURITY
There are CTV cameras everywhere, and I am saying everywhere. A lady told us once that she was confronted by an unsavory person, and just pointed at the CTV camera, and said “really”. The thug walked away.
There are literally signs everywhere warning you about everything. The classic one was “this is non climbable paint” … seriously. Gordon would not allow me to test whether this was true or not
LOCAL PUBS
I am talking local pubs here and maybe where we went, but it was like an episode of East Enders, which I had not seen but after one pub visit went and watched one. Pub grub at really local pubs is not good at all. The beer is not as warm as we were expecting. They seem to argue about anything yet it is not a fight. Sometimes we saw some argy-bargy (see it is catching), but it ended with another patron removing the offender.
GARDENS
There are beautiful gardens everywhere, some large and some very small. All that we have seen on extensive walking around are beautiful, and we found some Notting Hill (as in the movie) secret gardens, everywhere.
THE PEOPLE
The Londoners that we met are friendly. They don’t mind helping you out at all.
They do seem to like to be told what to do and they seem to do what they are told to do. … except obey the red man at pedestrian crossings.
This goes to show that Londoners may well have a bit of a rebellious streak…if they are told that this is ok.
Visitor Information for London
London Pass
The London Pass is a sightseeing city card ,which gives you entry to a choice of over 60 popular tourist attractions in the city. Available for either 1, 2, 3 or 6 days, it makes sightseeing easy and affordable by giving you access to top sights in the
Oyster Travel Card
A swipe card to get you around the city of London city –
London Tourism Bureau.
See here for all information about what to see and do in this great city.
It’s always nice to learn trivial information about places, thanks for sharing.
Thanks, I may well do more of them
Haven’t been to London in decades, thanks for the info. Sure are looking forward to going back.
I really liked London also, and am looking forward to a return visit soon
Interesting. I didn’t know you need to flag a bus! and I will definitely look for those secret gardens in Notting Hill next time I’m in town.
Yes you do need to flag a bus and I guess this makes sense when there are so many. The gardens are just amazing in London
Lots of great tips here. But I have to admit that the anti-climb paint piqued my interest.
Mine too. I thought it was funny
Great fun to see London through your eyes. Sorry you had such a bad experience with pub food though. I love pub grub (although usually it’s not very healthy).
I am sure there are some excellent pub grub places in London. I loved London and will be back.
I invariably walk whenever I’m in London, particularly if where I’m looking to get to is just a few Tube stops away. I’d also put in a word for Google Maps when you’re in the city and looking to get somewhere. It’s really useful for telling you the best way to get from A to B, and when the next bus or Tube is coming…
I love walking also and it is a great way to see things that you weren’t expecting.
What eminently practical advice—definitely not trivial! Thanks for sharing your observations.
Thanks, it was fun watching and learning.
It certainly is a great walking city. I don’t do subways these days so it’s those fab double decker buses for me.
I love the double decker buses because they are so iconic. That and walking and London is easy to get around.
I will be baby-sitting my 8th grandchild in London next year. These are very useful tips! Thanks.
Make sure your grand child doesn’t climb up any paint.
London has such a distinct personality and your post paints the picture beautifully. We can’t wait to visit.
It does doesn’t it. We are looking forward to return and explore it further.
Fun post! Good point on the orderly queues at the bus stop. Brits must think we are barbarians here in Toronto where most often everyone just barges to the front of the line pushing and shoving rather than waiting their turn!
I can see now why Canadians and Australians get on so well. We are not an orderly people.
I love London (for a few days at a time and then I want to get out into the countryside) and this post made me a little “homesick” for it, although it has never been my home. I’m hoping to get back there this fall.
I loved London. It just seemed to me to be so different. So much history but some interesting quirky observations that I have noted here.
Oh this makes me laugh and what we are like!… but you missed the key point – never talk or smile at anyone on the bus or tube as they won’t know how to behave, no eye contact ever made on public transport (apart from in the Olympics though)
Now I get why no one would acknowledge us in London 🙂
Haha funny post. Such information that is just “stuff” you pick up. Good post Paula!
Thanks, I love observing these things
The “anti climb paint” sign is a gem! Made me chuckle 🙂 thanks for sharing these London travel tips.
I seriously couldn’t believe it. So funny.
Great post. This is what I love about travel blogs, you get so much ordinary information. The kind of information which all the locals know and the travellers don’t.
true – we were lucky yo have a local who told us lots of day to day trivia