ValleyLines142
Established Member
Morning all,
My next report comes from my overnight trip to London on Wednesday 17th and Thursday 18th July 2013, hope you all enjoy:
Wednesday 17th July 2013:
Woke up at the slightly unearthly hour of 4.15am in order to have a shower and meet my three friends. We had a Megabus booked for 5.30am to London. We arrived at the Kingsway in Cardiff (where I live) at 5am, as I know the queues can get busy for the Megabus as it is exceptionally cheap and we wanted to try and sit together. Not only that, but it got to London for 9.10am so it is generally a good bus to catch as people have the whole of the day in London.
At Kingsway, a single-decker approached the coach stop. I thought this was rather unusual, as I've been told that all Cardiff to London services are double-decker coaches with the exception of the 0400 service. Anyway, it turns out it was the 5.25am to Leeds via Bristol and Birmingham; this explained why the coach stop was so busy. However, not that many people got on. By this point, we were at the back of the queue, and with a shed load of passengers in front, I was worried that we would not get a seat together. Luckily, our coach arrived behind, and as we were at the back of the queue we were able to board first because it pulled up before the Leeds service had left. It was again another single decker coach though, which I found surprising. Anyway, we boarded and luckily we managed to find seats together. It seems somewhat ridiculous that it was a single decker coach because it got EXCEPTIONALLY busy. We left on time and the journey went well into London.
Now in London, coach drivers normally decide to take one of two routes into Victoria coach station upon arriving at the junction of Earls Court Road and West Cromwell Road. One route, normally the most common, is to go straight on along Cromwell Road, along Brompton Road, through Knightsbridge past Harrods and around by Buckingham Palace Road. The other, normally when there's traffic, is to go straight down Earls Court Road and along Chelsea Embankment through to Royal Hospital Road and Pimlico Road. We went the latter way, arriving into Victoria only five minutes late.
Our first plan upon arrival at London was to see Freddie Mercury's house at Garden Lodge, just a short walk away from Earls Court, as one of our friends is a huge Queen fan; Freddie Mercury is his inspiration. Of course, we had just passed through there just a few minutes ago, so it's a shame the Megabus couldn't have dropped us off there! I know some National Express coaches do though. Anyway, we had decided to do this first, as Earls Court is only four stops west from Victoria on the District Line. The journey over was fine and we alighted at Earls Court at around 9.50am. We were relatively peckish at this point so we stopped for an hour in Starbucks before going to see Freddie Mercury's house. We then had a look at Garden Lodge, and what a truly phenomemal sight that was. On Logan Place, where the house is, a plastic sheet is fixed to the wall, where fans of Freddie can put messages of love and support on there. There were people from as far away as Australia, Argentina, Spain and Poland. People had also written messages on the floor too. It is clearly evident that Garden Lodge receives absolutely billions of messages, as the earliest message we could find was from 9th June 2013, so his partner Mary Austin (who is still alive and still lives there, who I think we could hear sweeping the back garden) must empty the board when full and store them somewhere. After a very emotional fifteen minutes, we made our way back to the tube station, for the journey Leicester Square, which was seven stops on the Piccadilly Line. We were meeting our friend there, and we wanted to see a show in the evening so we planned on getting cheap tickets in the booking office in Leicester Square station. We managed to get tickets to see 39 Steps for £25 which wasn't bad at all considering it was for that evening. We then had a look in Chinatown, Piccadilly Circus (including M&M World) and then we made our way on the Northern line to Waterloo.
The reason we were at Waterloo was because we were going to Kingston to meet our other friend for the day. The first National Rail journey of the day was with South West Trains, on 2H31, the 1242 to Shepperton, formed of 455724 and 455723. This got to Kingston for 1303. The journey ran to time and we exited the station, before meeting our friend and going to the Bentall Centre. We then went for a meal in Zizzi's, before going to The Ram for a pitcher of Pimm's. The rear of the pub looked out onto the Thames, so we sat on the wall in the gorgeous weather. We then made our way back into the main town and went to Creams Cafe for ice cream, as it had air con and it was getting incredibly hot! Our time in Kingston came to an end and we then caught the 281 bus to Twickenham, where our hotel was, and it also happened to be where our friend lived! TA313 (SN03DZK) took us on the journey from Kingston to Twickenham via Teddington. I must admit, the automated announcements which say '281 to Hounslow Bus Station' after EVERY stop are highly annoying! But it is useful nonetheless. We then checked into our hotel in Twickenham and had an hour or so relaxing, as we'd had a busy day!
After a quick relax, we then made our way to Twickenham station, to proceed to central London. We aimed for the 1911 to Waterloo (2C60 1812 from Reading), formed of 450002 and 450082, which was very busy, but we managed to find a few seats scattered across, but it wasn't too bad and was only a twenty minute journey. We then made our way to Piccadilly Circus on the Bakerloo Line to go to the theatre to see 39 Steps. It was a very good performance and we then went to Piccadilly Circus to see street entertainment and to stock up on nibbles from Tesco. It is amazing how Piccadilly Circus is still booming at 10.30 in the evening; it is incredible. We then made our way to Piccadilly Circus station, as our friend, who'd we met at Leicester Square earlier in the day, was going home. We took the Piccadilly Line to Green Park, and then the Victoria Line to Victoria. Our friend, who lives in Sutton, caught 2E32, the 2326 to Horsham via Epsom, formed of 377417. We then made our way on the District Line to Westminster, and then the Jubilee Line to Waterloo, where we caught 2C79, the 2350 to Wokingham, formed of 450543. We finally made it back to Twickenham, at about half past midnight, and had a good old sleep!
Thursday 18th July 2013:
We woke up and had breakfast, before making our way to Twickenham station. Our first train of the day was the 1011 to Waterloo (2C24 0912 from Reading), formed of 458009 and 458013. When I got on at Twickenham, I found two empty seats, one facing backwards and one facing forwards, my friends just stood in the vestibule as I don't think they have the balls to ask to sit next to someone, but I do!! I'm not a great backwards traveller so I opted for the forward facing seat; however, a lady sat opposite said that someone was sitting there so I sat backwards instead. This said woman still hadn't arrived by the time we got to Richmond. At Richmond, a VERY heavily pregnant woman got on and attempted to sit in the still empty seat, but the other companion said 'oh sorry you can't sit there, someone is sat there'. I thought this was absolutely outrageous. It just shows that in a leading global city such as London, people don't give a hoot about anybody; it really is such a shame that society falls to this kind of level. I imagine most commuter trains in and out of central London are similar. Coincidentally, a gentleman sat opposite and myself stood up and offered our seats; the gentleman opposite said it was fine for me to stay and that he'd stand. I checked if this was okay and he confirmed it was, which was very nice of him (thank you to you sir, if you ever see this!). Fair play I do take my point back about people in London, but it was still unbelievable that this other woman was so obnoxious and seemed almost oblivious to the fact that this poor woman was pregnant and would have to stand for the fifteen minute journey into Waterloo. The other woman, who I presumed had gone to the toilet, finally returned back to her seat upon departure from Richmond. She should be lucky that the seat was kept free; I imagine in other parts of London people would sit there anyway!
At Clapham Junction, a lot of people got off, so we then managed to find a group of seats together for the last leg straight into Waterloo. We then arrived on time and made our way to the tube, where we were planning on taking the Jubilee Line to Baker Street, to meet yet another friend who was coming from Uxbridge on the Metropolitan Line. A Jubilee train was standing into the platform at Waterloo heading towards Stanmore, but unfortunately a failed train in front at Westminster meant it had to terminate, so we had to alight and catch the Bakerloo Line instead; it's good that there are two routes between Waterloo and Baker Street. Interchange between the Jubilee and the Bakerloo Line at Waterloo, however, is not the easiest of changes; it involves going on a travelator, but at least it is step-free. We arrived at Baker Street more or less on target for 11am and met our friend. We then made our way back on the Bakerloo Line to Oxford Circus, where we changed onto a westbound Central Line service to Shepherd's Bush, where we were going to Westfield in White City. We got off and spent a few hours in Westfield, which is an incredible place! I do like the fact that there are free phone charging boxes, where you can charge mobiles for half an hour. This is a good idea indeed and I used this!
We then decided that after a spot of lunch sat outside the fountain area and after a quick shop, we'd go to Harrods. Knightsbridge is the nearest tube station, but it is not the easiest of journeys. From Shepherd's Bush, the quickest (but not necessarily the easiest) way is to take the Overground to West Brompton, take a District Line train to Earls Court and take a Piccadilly Line train to Knightsbridge. We got to Shepherd's Bush mainline station for about 1340 and had planned on taking the 1353 to West Brompton (2Y61 1305 Stratford to Clapham Junction); however, there was an obstruction on the OHLE which was causing delays (and a tree on the line which caused a small fire later in the day at around 5pm which caused even more delays), so the 1353 didn't even turn up. At Shepherd's Bush, 378224 was stood on platform 2 forming what I believe was 2L10 1316 Clapham Junction to Stratford. We had seen it stood on the platform walking past the station, before entering the station and onto the platform. Unfortunately, it was still sat there at 1410, FORTY TWO minutes after it was supposed to leave at 1328. 377204 had arrived at 1352 with 2M39 1307 South Croydon to Milton Keynes, but had been re-routed to use platform 1 instead. Our plan, once 377204 had departed, was to catch the 1407 instead (2Y63 1400 Willesden to Clapham Junction), but that didn't turn up either. All of a sudden, 378224 left the station, but only to the end of the platform, where it then reversed back out in the direction of Kensington Olympia. Eventually, 377205 turned up with 2O43 1313 Milton Keynes to South Croydon. We were sat at Shepherd's Bush for nearly forty-five minutes, just to do a six minute journey. We had contemplated going back on the tube, but that would mean going all the way over to Holborn and back down on ourselves, which really is out of the way (in hindsight we should have done this, but it was nice to go on the West London Line too, as it was the first time for most of us and we'd been on the tube several times before so it was nice to do something different). We also didn't expect a ride on a 377 either! We then saw 378224 sat outside Shepherds Bush station stabled. We exited at West Brompton and made our way to Knightsbridge, where we had a look around in Harrod's. I noticed a genuine crocodile skin leather jacket, which cost a staggering £65,000! It amazes me that people would pay this money for it!
Our final plan for our trip was to go on the Emirates Air Line. The nearest station for this is North Greenwich, which is eight stops east of Green Park, once making the short hop on the Piccadilly Line from Knightsbridge. I had no idea that platform edge doors were installed at all stations west of Waterloo too. I hadn't covered that stretch of the Jubilee Line either. We exited the station at North Greenwich and made our way to the Air Line. We got our 'boarding passes' and hopped on one. I must admit, it's very high, but an incredible view! Because there was six of us, and the males of the group all sat on one side, we were actually tipping sidewards slightly, but not too much. One part of the 'flight' (I do love how marketing literature borrows language from the airline industry, such as boarding pass and flight!) that I wasn't keen on was where it sagged in the middle, as with the weight of our pod it didn't look as if we were going to descend over the third pylon! I then found out that this was natural, as one car in the opposite direction with just one passenger on board also sagged in the middle too. We were in pod 36, for those who are interested.
We alighted at Royal Victoria (where I noticed a fake beach on Royal Victoria dock!) and had an ice cream before making our way to the DLR station, where we decided to head to the Olympic Park. A train to Tower Gateway shortly arrived (I believe with units 146+153+110, but don't quote me on that!) and we made a change at Poplar to head northwards towards Pudding Mill Lane. At Poplar, I put my Oyster card on the machine, and, to my absolute shock, I found out I was -£7.10 in debt?!?! I didn't see how this was possible, as I thought Oyster cards reach a price cap. I then topped up to be on the safe side and found out that I had £15 on there after once I'd tapped out at Pudding Mill Lane, which I then felt was too much and I know you can't take money off an Oyster card once you've finished using it. Oh well, at least I have plenty on there for my next trip, and hopefully I'll learn how to not go into debt!!
A Stratford service arrived at Poplar and we got on the rear unit (155). I must admit, the stretch between Poplar and All Saints is absolutely atrocious when you're travelling backwards where it bends right round; it made me feel very sick indeed! It was interesting to go past the DLR depot on the way though! We then alighted at Pudding Mill Lane and made our way to the Olympic Park to see what was going on. It still is a huge building site, similar to what it was when I was there two months ago, but it was very interesting! We then decided to head to the other Westfield centre in Stratford, a mere hop back on the DLR. At Puddng Mill Lane, I observed Greater Anglia units 360106+360113+360119 working 1N47 1605 Clacton-on-Sea to London Liverpool Street, as well as a 12-car 321 formation!
Stratford is a huge station, but we exited and went into the Westfield centre, where I managed to find another free phone box (as they do in White City) to charge my phone and we went for a meal in Giraffe. All of a sudden, I realised it was coming up to 8pm, and our coach was at 9pm from Victoria! I looked on my app and realised that it took thirty minutes to get from Stratford to Victoria via Green Park, but that doesn't take into account having to leave the centre (we were on the fourth floor!), walk through the station, walk to the platform (Stratford is a massive station!), wait for a train and go, complete the half hour journey AND walk to Victoria coach station, so I honestly thought we'd miss our coach. It was 8.15pm at Stratford and we'd only just boarded a westbound Central Line service, and we still had NINE stations to call at. At Liverpool Street, I basically told the group not to bother rushing because we were NEVER going to make our coach. I wasn't sure how much the admin fee was to change the time of coaches, but I was praying that it was relatively low. However, luck was in the air and a Victoria Line service pulled up straight away and we exited at Victoria, said bye to our friend from Sutton who headed home (didn't see what service or unit he had as we were in a mad rush!) and legged it to the coach station, and somehow made it with about ten minutes to spare. How we made it was absolutely beyond me, but there we go! I was sweating like a horse for the next fifteen minutes after my 'jog' through Victoria, but cooled down when the aircon turned on on the coach. We had National Express route 509 on the way back, and we left via the alternative route again along Chelsea Embankment. We then left London and headed back to Cardiff with a slight diversion at Bristol (going past my uni at UWE Frenchay!) due to roadworks at Junction 19 of the M4. We soon rejoined our normal route and arrived back in Cardiff on time, and eventually pulled into my house at about 00.45.
All in all, it was a great two days out, very hectic indeed, and I do have some photos, but I'm not too sure on how to upload them or put them in the right order, but I will see how to do it later on! Looking forward to my next trip, when I have two pennies to rub together!
Thanks for reading!
My next report comes from my overnight trip to London on Wednesday 17th and Thursday 18th July 2013, hope you all enjoy:
Wednesday 17th July 2013:
Woke up at the slightly unearthly hour of 4.15am in order to have a shower and meet my three friends. We had a Megabus booked for 5.30am to London. We arrived at the Kingsway in Cardiff (where I live) at 5am, as I know the queues can get busy for the Megabus as it is exceptionally cheap and we wanted to try and sit together. Not only that, but it got to London for 9.10am so it is generally a good bus to catch as people have the whole of the day in London.
At Kingsway, a single-decker approached the coach stop. I thought this was rather unusual, as I've been told that all Cardiff to London services are double-decker coaches with the exception of the 0400 service. Anyway, it turns out it was the 5.25am to Leeds via Bristol and Birmingham; this explained why the coach stop was so busy. However, not that many people got on. By this point, we were at the back of the queue, and with a shed load of passengers in front, I was worried that we would not get a seat together. Luckily, our coach arrived behind, and as we were at the back of the queue we were able to board first because it pulled up before the Leeds service had left. It was again another single decker coach though, which I found surprising. Anyway, we boarded and luckily we managed to find seats together. It seems somewhat ridiculous that it was a single decker coach because it got EXCEPTIONALLY busy. We left on time and the journey went well into London.
Now in London, coach drivers normally decide to take one of two routes into Victoria coach station upon arriving at the junction of Earls Court Road and West Cromwell Road. One route, normally the most common, is to go straight on along Cromwell Road, along Brompton Road, through Knightsbridge past Harrods and around by Buckingham Palace Road. The other, normally when there's traffic, is to go straight down Earls Court Road and along Chelsea Embankment through to Royal Hospital Road and Pimlico Road. We went the latter way, arriving into Victoria only five minutes late.
Our first plan upon arrival at London was to see Freddie Mercury's house at Garden Lodge, just a short walk away from Earls Court, as one of our friends is a huge Queen fan; Freddie Mercury is his inspiration. Of course, we had just passed through there just a few minutes ago, so it's a shame the Megabus couldn't have dropped us off there! I know some National Express coaches do though. Anyway, we had decided to do this first, as Earls Court is only four stops west from Victoria on the District Line. The journey over was fine and we alighted at Earls Court at around 9.50am. We were relatively peckish at this point so we stopped for an hour in Starbucks before going to see Freddie Mercury's house. We then had a look at Garden Lodge, and what a truly phenomemal sight that was. On Logan Place, where the house is, a plastic sheet is fixed to the wall, where fans of Freddie can put messages of love and support on there. There were people from as far away as Australia, Argentina, Spain and Poland. People had also written messages on the floor too. It is clearly evident that Garden Lodge receives absolutely billions of messages, as the earliest message we could find was from 9th June 2013, so his partner Mary Austin (who is still alive and still lives there, who I think we could hear sweeping the back garden) must empty the board when full and store them somewhere. After a very emotional fifteen minutes, we made our way back to the tube station, for the journey Leicester Square, which was seven stops on the Piccadilly Line. We were meeting our friend there, and we wanted to see a show in the evening so we planned on getting cheap tickets in the booking office in Leicester Square station. We managed to get tickets to see 39 Steps for £25 which wasn't bad at all considering it was for that evening. We then had a look in Chinatown, Piccadilly Circus (including M&M World) and then we made our way on the Northern line to Waterloo.
The reason we were at Waterloo was because we were going to Kingston to meet our other friend for the day. The first National Rail journey of the day was with South West Trains, on 2H31, the 1242 to Shepperton, formed of 455724 and 455723. This got to Kingston for 1303. The journey ran to time and we exited the station, before meeting our friend and going to the Bentall Centre. We then went for a meal in Zizzi's, before going to The Ram for a pitcher of Pimm's. The rear of the pub looked out onto the Thames, so we sat on the wall in the gorgeous weather. We then made our way back into the main town and went to Creams Cafe for ice cream, as it had air con and it was getting incredibly hot! Our time in Kingston came to an end and we then caught the 281 bus to Twickenham, where our hotel was, and it also happened to be where our friend lived! TA313 (SN03DZK) took us on the journey from Kingston to Twickenham via Teddington. I must admit, the automated announcements which say '281 to Hounslow Bus Station' after EVERY stop are highly annoying! But it is useful nonetheless. We then checked into our hotel in Twickenham and had an hour or so relaxing, as we'd had a busy day!
After a quick relax, we then made our way to Twickenham station, to proceed to central London. We aimed for the 1911 to Waterloo (2C60 1812 from Reading), formed of 450002 and 450082, which was very busy, but we managed to find a few seats scattered across, but it wasn't too bad and was only a twenty minute journey. We then made our way to Piccadilly Circus on the Bakerloo Line to go to the theatre to see 39 Steps. It was a very good performance and we then went to Piccadilly Circus to see street entertainment and to stock up on nibbles from Tesco. It is amazing how Piccadilly Circus is still booming at 10.30 in the evening; it is incredible. We then made our way to Piccadilly Circus station, as our friend, who'd we met at Leicester Square earlier in the day, was going home. We took the Piccadilly Line to Green Park, and then the Victoria Line to Victoria. Our friend, who lives in Sutton, caught 2E32, the 2326 to Horsham via Epsom, formed of 377417. We then made our way on the District Line to Westminster, and then the Jubilee Line to Waterloo, where we caught 2C79, the 2350 to Wokingham, formed of 450543. We finally made it back to Twickenham, at about half past midnight, and had a good old sleep!
Thursday 18th July 2013:
We woke up and had breakfast, before making our way to Twickenham station. Our first train of the day was the 1011 to Waterloo (2C24 0912 from Reading), formed of 458009 and 458013. When I got on at Twickenham, I found two empty seats, one facing backwards and one facing forwards, my friends just stood in the vestibule as I don't think they have the balls to ask to sit next to someone, but I do!! I'm not a great backwards traveller so I opted for the forward facing seat; however, a lady sat opposite said that someone was sitting there so I sat backwards instead. This said woman still hadn't arrived by the time we got to Richmond. At Richmond, a VERY heavily pregnant woman got on and attempted to sit in the still empty seat, but the other companion said 'oh sorry you can't sit there, someone is sat there'. I thought this was absolutely outrageous. It just shows that in a leading global city such as London, people don't give a hoot about anybody; it really is such a shame that society falls to this kind of level. I imagine most commuter trains in and out of central London are similar. Coincidentally, a gentleman sat opposite and myself stood up and offered our seats; the gentleman opposite said it was fine for me to stay and that he'd stand. I checked if this was okay and he confirmed it was, which was very nice of him (thank you to you sir, if you ever see this!). Fair play I do take my point back about people in London, but it was still unbelievable that this other woman was so obnoxious and seemed almost oblivious to the fact that this poor woman was pregnant and would have to stand for the fifteen minute journey into Waterloo. The other woman, who I presumed had gone to the toilet, finally returned back to her seat upon departure from Richmond. She should be lucky that the seat was kept free; I imagine in other parts of London people would sit there anyway!
At Clapham Junction, a lot of people got off, so we then managed to find a group of seats together for the last leg straight into Waterloo. We then arrived on time and made our way to the tube, where we were planning on taking the Jubilee Line to Baker Street, to meet yet another friend who was coming from Uxbridge on the Metropolitan Line. A Jubilee train was standing into the platform at Waterloo heading towards Stanmore, but unfortunately a failed train in front at Westminster meant it had to terminate, so we had to alight and catch the Bakerloo Line instead; it's good that there are two routes between Waterloo and Baker Street. Interchange between the Jubilee and the Bakerloo Line at Waterloo, however, is not the easiest of changes; it involves going on a travelator, but at least it is step-free. We arrived at Baker Street more or less on target for 11am and met our friend. We then made our way back on the Bakerloo Line to Oxford Circus, where we changed onto a westbound Central Line service to Shepherd's Bush, where we were going to Westfield in White City. We got off and spent a few hours in Westfield, which is an incredible place! I do like the fact that there are free phone charging boxes, where you can charge mobiles for half an hour. This is a good idea indeed and I used this!
We then decided that after a spot of lunch sat outside the fountain area and after a quick shop, we'd go to Harrods. Knightsbridge is the nearest tube station, but it is not the easiest of journeys. From Shepherd's Bush, the quickest (but not necessarily the easiest) way is to take the Overground to West Brompton, take a District Line train to Earls Court and take a Piccadilly Line train to Knightsbridge. We got to Shepherd's Bush mainline station for about 1340 and had planned on taking the 1353 to West Brompton (2Y61 1305 Stratford to Clapham Junction); however, there was an obstruction on the OHLE which was causing delays (and a tree on the line which caused a small fire later in the day at around 5pm which caused even more delays), so the 1353 didn't even turn up. At Shepherd's Bush, 378224 was stood on platform 2 forming what I believe was 2L10 1316 Clapham Junction to Stratford. We had seen it stood on the platform walking past the station, before entering the station and onto the platform. Unfortunately, it was still sat there at 1410, FORTY TWO minutes after it was supposed to leave at 1328. 377204 had arrived at 1352 with 2M39 1307 South Croydon to Milton Keynes, but had been re-routed to use platform 1 instead. Our plan, once 377204 had departed, was to catch the 1407 instead (2Y63 1400 Willesden to Clapham Junction), but that didn't turn up either. All of a sudden, 378224 left the station, but only to the end of the platform, where it then reversed back out in the direction of Kensington Olympia. Eventually, 377205 turned up with 2O43 1313 Milton Keynes to South Croydon. We were sat at Shepherd's Bush for nearly forty-five minutes, just to do a six minute journey. We had contemplated going back on the tube, but that would mean going all the way over to Holborn and back down on ourselves, which really is out of the way (in hindsight we should have done this, but it was nice to go on the West London Line too, as it was the first time for most of us and we'd been on the tube several times before so it was nice to do something different). We also didn't expect a ride on a 377 either! We then saw 378224 sat outside Shepherds Bush station stabled. We exited at West Brompton and made our way to Knightsbridge, where we had a look around in Harrod's. I noticed a genuine crocodile skin leather jacket, which cost a staggering £65,000! It amazes me that people would pay this money for it!
Our final plan for our trip was to go on the Emirates Air Line. The nearest station for this is North Greenwich, which is eight stops east of Green Park, once making the short hop on the Piccadilly Line from Knightsbridge. I had no idea that platform edge doors were installed at all stations west of Waterloo too. I hadn't covered that stretch of the Jubilee Line either. We exited the station at North Greenwich and made our way to the Air Line. We got our 'boarding passes' and hopped on one. I must admit, it's very high, but an incredible view! Because there was six of us, and the males of the group all sat on one side, we were actually tipping sidewards slightly, but not too much. One part of the 'flight' (I do love how marketing literature borrows language from the airline industry, such as boarding pass and flight!) that I wasn't keen on was where it sagged in the middle, as with the weight of our pod it didn't look as if we were going to descend over the third pylon! I then found out that this was natural, as one car in the opposite direction with just one passenger on board also sagged in the middle too. We were in pod 36, for those who are interested.
We alighted at Royal Victoria (where I noticed a fake beach on Royal Victoria dock!) and had an ice cream before making our way to the DLR station, where we decided to head to the Olympic Park. A train to Tower Gateway shortly arrived (I believe with units 146+153+110, but don't quote me on that!) and we made a change at Poplar to head northwards towards Pudding Mill Lane. At Poplar, I put my Oyster card on the machine, and, to my absolute shock, I found out I was -£7.10 in debt?!?! I didn't see how this was possible, as I thought Oyster cards reach a price cap. I then topped up to be on the safe side and found out that I had £15 on there after once I'd tapped out at Pudding Mill Lane, which I then felt was too much and I know you can't take money off an Oyster card once you've finished using it. Oh well, at least I have plenty on there for my next trip, and hopefully I'll learn how to not go into debt!!
A Stratford service arrived at Poplar and we got on the rear unit (155). I must admit, the stretch between Poplar and All Saints is absolutely atrocious when you're travelling backwards where it bends right round; it made me feel very sick indeed! It was interesting to go past the DLR depot on the way though! We then alighted at Pudding Mill Lane and made our way to the Olympic Park to see what was going on. It still is a huge building site, similar to what it was when I was there two months ago, but it was very interesting! We then decided to head to the other Westfield centre in Stratford, a mere hop back on the DLR. At Puddng Mill Lane, I observed Greater Anglia units 360106+360113+360119 working 1N47 1605 Clacton-on-Sea to London Liverpool Street, as well as a 12-car 321 formation!
Stratford is a huge station, but we exited and went into the Westfield centre, where I managed to find another free phone box (as they do in White City) to charge my phone and we went for a meal in Giraffe. All of a sudden, I realised it was coming up to 8pm, and our coach was at 9pm from Victoria! I looked on my app and realised that it took thirty minutes to get from Stratford to Victoria via Green Park, but that doesn't take into account having to leave the centre (we were on the fourth floor!), walk through the station, walk to the platform (Stratford is a massive station!), wait for a train and go, complete the half hour journey AND walk to Victoria coach station, so I honestly thought we'd miss our coach. It was 8.15pm at Stratford and we'd only just boarded a westbound Central Line service, and we still had NINE stations to call at. At Liverpool Street, I basically told the group not to bother rushing because we were NEVER going to make our coach. I wasn't sure how much the admin fee was to change the time of coaches, but I was praying that it was relatively low. However, luck was in the air and a Victoria Line service pulled up straight away and we exited at Victoria, said bye to our friend from Sutton who headed home (didn't see what service or unit he had as we were in a mad rush!) and legged it to the coach station, and somehow made it with about ten minutes to spare. How we made it was absolutely beyond me, but there we go! I was sweating like a horse for the next fifteen minutes after my 'jog' through Victoria, but cooled down when the aircon turned on on the coach. We had National Express route 509 on the way back, and we left via the alternative route again along Chelsea Embankment. We then left London and headed back to Cardiff with a slight diversion at Bristol (going past my uni at UWE Frenchay!) due to roadworks at Junction 19 of the M4. We soon rejoined our normal route and arrived back in Cardiff on time, and eventually pulled into my house at about 00.45.
All in all, it was a great two days out, very hectic indeed, and I do have some photos, but I'm not too sure on how to upload them or put them in the right order, but I will see how to do it later on! Looking forward to my next trip, when I have two pennies to rub together!
Thanks for reading!
