|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Please visit our sponsors.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Trip to London May 1st 2005
Unfortunately the Llandudno event was cancelled, so we decided to have a day in London instead. (Sun 1st May) The weather was great and we had a brilliant day. We even got to ride on a Routmaster (several actually) before they are taken out of service in December. We arrived at Heathrow Airport, where we parked the car in the long stay car park, at around 10.30 am. They charge £15.00 for up to 4 days. We then boarded the free car park shuttle back to terminal 3. On route we saw many planes landing and taking off. The route also takes you past a Concorde which is parked quite close to the perimeter fence. On arrival at terminal 3 we made our way to the Underground station, where we purchased 'Day Tickets' for £6 each. These tickets allow you unlimited off peak travel on the 'Underground'; Buses and local trains. We travelled on the Underground as far as Hammersmith, took a few photo's then caught a bus to Piccadilly Circus, via Kensington. Piccadilly Circus, with the statue of 'Eros' looking down on you is a fantastic place to photograph London's many and varied buses. (We'll be producing a disk of 'London Buses' at a very modest price soon.)
From Piccadilly we set off for Westminster on a No. 138, if my memory is correct, passing the Cathedral and the Palace of Westminster. We got off our 'Routmaster' just over the bridge, which is another great spot for photographs, not only of buses but Big Ben; The London Eye and the Embankment.
We spent an hour or so here and after enjoying a well deserved ice cream below the 'Eye' we jumped on another 'Routmaster' and headed south. Enjoying the ride we were travelling through Brixton when I spotted the 'Arriva' garage. So we all trouped off the bus to see if we could get some pictures of the of the 37 RM/Ls they have there. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the staff were very friendly towards 'Enthusiasts' (not always the case) and provided we stayed on the perimeter path we could take all the photo's we wanted! Unfortunately I was using my digital camera which found it difficult to focus on the Routmasters which were parked some distance from the pathway. Also being inside the garage didn't help as the lighting wasn't perfect for photo's.
The highlight of our visit to Arriva's garage was meeting Miriam, one of their drivers, who was not only very knowledgeable about London buses but also very keen to learn about the buses from Doncaster and South Yorkshire. Thank you Miriam for making us welcome.
From Brixton we travelled on to Croydon, via Streatham, where we stopped off for dinner. We were going to take a ride on the tram but it was getting late by now and we decided to head back to central London We took a bus to Morden where we intended to catch the underground to Earls Court but found there had been a signal failure, so we had to catch another bus to Wimbledon where we managed to get our connection to Earls Court. From there it was down to the 'Piccadilly Line' where we were able to get the tube back to Heathrow.
It was a long journey home to Doncaster but chatting about the day's events made it seem quite pleasant as we'd had such a great day out. Robert and I would like to thank David Brown and his pal Ian for inviting us for what turned out to be a very enjoyable day. |
|
Ads
|