couple of days in London.........
Discussion
Just been to london for a couple of days. Not accustomed to public transport it was an interesting little adventure.
Rang Wakefield train station to see if they have a car park - well tried, train stations don't have publicised telephone numbers anymore so had to ring rail enquiries. 5 levels of automated 'press 1 for nothing' 'press 2 for almost nothing' 'press 8 to speak to someone'. 10 minutes later spoke to someone who said that you can't have the train station number and could they help with anything else?. I asked about if you could park your car at the station, they said they didn't know.
Good start.
Got a list to the station instead and waited for my train. It was late, with a sea of people waiting to get on. s return ticket to london is £142 by the way!!!
Got on the train and found a seat. Apologies for no food or drinks - staff shortage.
Journey down was OK except all passengers in the coach were treated to a 2 hour 1 man show (1 woman actually) who clearly wanted us all to share every laugh, every email, every thought, every opinion, every sip of her £2 cup of coffee with us all for the entire trip.
Got to london - stampede on the platform.
Waited in the taxi queue of 150 people for the stream of taxis.
The taxi bit was quite relaxed. Orrrrwight saaaaan!!!
£15 for a 5 mile journey through the cess pool that IS london.
What a dump.
Sorry for boring you with my thoughts, but public transport is so wonderful I had to share them with you!
Rang Wakefield train station to see if they have a car park - well tried, train stations don't have publicised telephone numbers anymore so had to ring rail enquiries. 5 levels of automated 'press 1 for nothing' 'press 2 for almost nothing' 'press 8 to speak to someone'. 10 minutes later spoke to someone who said that you can't have the train station number and could they help with anything else?. I asked about if you could park your car at the station, they said they didn't know.
Good start.
Got a list to the station instead and waited for my train. It was late, with a sea of people waiting to get on. s return ticket to london is £142 by the way!!!
Got on the train and found a seat. Apologies for no food or drinks - staff shortage.
Journey down was OK except all passengers in the coach were treated to a 2 hour 1 man show (1 woman actually) who clearly wanted us all to share every laugh, every email, every thought, every opinion, every sip of her £2 cup of coffee with us all for the entire trip.
Got to london - stampede on the platform.
Waited in the taxi queue of 150 people for the stream of taxis.
The taxi bit was quite relaxed. Orrrrwight saaaaan!!!
£15 for a 5 mile journey through the cess pool that IS london.
What a dump.
Sorry for boring you with my thoughts, but public transport is so wonderful I had to share them with you!
EXiled Yorkshireman in London here.
London is a fantastic, infinitely varied, vibrant city witha plenty of ugly bits and an evil lizard for a mayor.
Yorkshire has fantastic countryside, the most beautiful in the world, but the Cities, with the exception of York, are all horrific. I grew up near Bradford and that is an irredeemable cesspool if ever I saw one. Leeds is is OK-ish, but even with a Harvey Nicks and some half decent restaurants, it's not the London rival that its cheerleaders would have us believe. Sheffield is and always has been a dump.
London is a fantastic, infinitely varied, vibrant city witha plenty of ugly bits and an evil lizard for a mayor.
Yorkshire has fantastic countryside, the most beautiful in the world, but the Cities, with the exception of York, are all horrific. I grew up near Bradford and that is an irredeemable cesspool if ever I saw one. Leeds is is OK-ish, but even with a Harvey Nicks and some half decent restaurants, it's not the London rival that its cheerleaders would have us believe. Sheffield is and always has been a dump.
Zod said:
EXiled Yorkshireman in London here.
London is a fantastic, infinitely varied, vibrant city witha plenty of ugly bits and an evil lizard for a mayor.
Yorkshire has fantastic countryside, the most beautiful in the world, but the Cities, with the exception of York, are all horrific. I grew up near Bradford and that is an irredeemable cesspool if ever I saw one. Leeds is is OK-ish, but even with a Harvey Nicks and some half decent restaurants, it's not the London rival that its cheerleaders would have us believe. Sheffield is and always has been a dump.
I'll take Sheff over that cesspool that claims to be a capital anytime.
You're not alone. I think London is a dump too. No different to any other really big city though. I worked in the city for a while - horrible. Some nice old buildings if you like that kind of thing.
Guess I'm not a city kind of guy ...
And as for pubic transport (deliberate misspelling), yuk. My local train to London is with Chiltern Railways who are actually quite good. The rest of the system is awful though. Mainly due to the volume of passengers trying to travel at the same time and the lack of investment in improvements over the years (see Washington Metro for an example of a good system).
Guess I'm not a city kind of guy ...
And as for pubic transport (deliberate misspelling), yuk. My local train to London is with Chiltern Railways who are actually quite good. The rest of the system is awful though. Mainly due to the volume of passengers trying to travel at the same time and the lack of investment in improvements over the years (see Washington Metro for an example of a good system).
I was born in Sheffield (but mainly grew up in Staffordshire) and went to university in Bradford. I now live in Surrey (no-one comes from Surrey, people just move there!) and work in the City.
IMO, London is the greatest city in the world. It has got everything and anything that anyone could ever want.
There are things I miss about the North and there are things I like about the South. I wouldn't say I prefer the South or the North.
IMO, London is the greatest city in the world. It has got everything and anything that anyone could ever want.
There are things I miss about the North and there are things I like about the South. I wouldn't say I prefer the South or the North.
I grew up in Wolverhampton and when I was 19 came to university daan saaf and have now lived in London for 5 years or so.
I think it's a great city but everyone seems so miserable and customer service is appalling and they charge the earth for it. This is just my personal experience but whenever I've dealt with people from 'up north' they are a billion times more helpful and seem actually genuinely interested and concerned with what you are talking about.
Just my 2p worth.
I think it's a great city but everyone seems so miserable and customer service is appalling and they charge the earth for it. This is just my personal experience but whenever I've dealt with people from 'up north' they are a billion times more helpful and seem actually genuinely interested and concerned with what you are talking about.
Just my 2p worth.
Oi! Some of just happen to appreciate civilisation, and that's wot we got up 'ere. Perhaps in due course you'll learn to appreciate it too. 
Alex said:
IMO, London is the greatest city in the world. It has got everything and anything that anyone could ever want.
Nonsense.
London may be Europe's biggest city but it's very far from being the best in Europe, never mind the world.
I've found that Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Prague, Malaga, Munich & Dusseldorf are all miles better than London.
Give me a rainy Tuesday in January in any of those cities to a summer Saturday in London.
Born and bred for 30 years in London mate, total sh**hole..... 
I'm smiling and I live here 
London is wierd... I work in the city, and love going there every day.
as a country boy, I find the people facinating. I am always polite, smile at people (that really scares them), I make apoint of saying "Good Morning" to shop keepers.
The variety is brilliant, I like going out in the evenings after work... just so much to see and do.
I like to sit back, and watch other people.... watch those in a hurry, the theatre go'ers, the posh knobs, the scummers... Most of the homeless that sit / lie on the commuter routes are a good laugh..... dont give money, but have occasionally parted company with the odd apple / orange. If i hake the bike into the city, its fun riding in "Mad Max" style too.
as a country boy, I find the people facinating. I am always polite, smile at people (that really scares them), I make apoint of saying "Good Morning" to shop keepers.
The variety is brilliant, I like going out in the evenings after work... just so much to see and do.
I like to sit back, and watch other people.... watch those in a hurry, the theatre go'ers, the posh knobs, the scummers... Most of the homeless that sit / lie on the commuter routes are a good laugh..... dont give money, but have occasionally parted company with the odd apple / orange. If i hake the bike into the city, its fun riding in "Mad Max" style too.
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