Having experienced Westminster Bridge a few times in the last few days, I can personally vouch for this phenomenon.
I have to say though, they didn’t make much difference to the already very heavy tourist traffic on the bridge, some (or more) of which may have included us. Maybe they need to move some of the landmarks to a quieter, less central bit of London.
We had a superb day in London. We spent plenty of Rands, yes, but we’re on holiday and so we’re allowed to do that, apparently. And that’s good, because nothing is cheap here.
London Eye, ice skating outside in the sunshine under the wheel, and then on to the (rather divisive among Trip Advisor users) Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. Expensive, but absolutely amazing.
The disaster occurred on the train on the way in to do all this. A dropped phone, a smashed screen, some internal tears. I’m going to see if I can get it fixed tomorrow, or I might cry some more.
Photos (and there are plenty) are on the camera and will be uploaded from Sheffield upon our return.
I’M ON A TRAIN!!
We did London today. All of it.
Yes, I was surprised too.
Tomorrow, we’re going to go back and do the bits we didn’t do today.
Shouldn’t take long, because we did it all already today.
Three hours (and four minutes) from Sheffield to London on board an East Midlands train would maim anyone through boredom. But with two kids in tow, it’s a killer. And the scenery isn’t exactly riveting through Leicestershire: power stations, wet fields and dirty horses. Then, to add insult to injury, you end up in Bedfordshire, which seems like some sort of post apocalyptic wasteland.
Suddenly, Leicestershire seems picturesque.
There’s a tip for the Leicestershire Tourist Board, right there. Compare yourself with Luton.
Still, as with many places in the UK, there’s free, fast wifi on board, so the kids are kept amused watching NatGeo videos. Although, there are only so many NatGeo videos you can watch before you get tired of watching NatGeo videos.
There’s a French Bulldog just across the aisle from us. It’s off to a French Bulldog meet in London. It has its own Instagram account. It’s standing on the table that people need to eat their food off. Ugh.
Nearly there now. Just passing through St Albans. Also nicer than Luton. I’m going to go and help my daughter colour in Spiderman now, so I’ll be back later. Sorry for the rambling, but it was surely worth it for that Leicestershire tourism tip. Right?
Really interesting, this one. And nice to blog on a busy day because the explanatory work and analysis is all done for me on this BBC Magazine webpage. There are some fascinating insights into London life in the twelve separate infographics, maps and graphs, but there were two that stood out for me.
Firstly, this one, depicting the average monthly rents along the Central Line:
Not just because of the obvious trend of increasing rents as one heads towards the centre of the city, but also because of the clever way it has been expressed. And Bond Street, fully 30% ahead of its nearest rivals along Oxford Street, despite only being about a kilometre from each.
Right now, £4,200 is R74,251.04, by the way. For a two-bedroom flat. Per month.
Wibble.
So how come so many young, single people can afford to live in the centre of London? Because that’s what they do:
And then as their lives become bogged down, sensible and boring complete and filled with the love of another, and kids and beagles come along, they move further out so that they can maybe afford a small garden for their beagle to dig up and destroy.
As an indication of how we conform to the way our Western lives are supposed to work, it’s almost too perfect, isn’t it?
There’s more to see on that link: shipping, flickr, lost property, football clubs – it’s just really interesting if you like data and numbers. And especially so if you have a London connection, I suppose.