Here come da bus
I've logged more bus time than most people do in a lifetime. Most of it was in the first 16 years of my life, given about 90 minutes or so a day that I spent on a school bus, but a significant portion came as an adult when I lived in neighborhoods not directly served by the subway. In other words, I find little to love about buses.
Except when I can climb on the upper deck.
Contrary to popular understanding, London still has its great double-decker buses. It has phased out most of the classic ones that allow you to step on and off the back, like the one pictured below:
Some of these still run on the Central London routes often used by tourists, including one that ran right by our temporary apartment.
The latter-day double deckers are less labor intensive in that you only need one ticket vendor (the driver) and come equipped with readers for the Oyster hard card. So I can't step off the back. Big whoop! The best part about riding the double decker is riding the upper deck. (Mrs. Werbenmanjensen rides one to and from work every day, in part because she gets door-to-door service on the bus. I'm so jealous.)
The following photos were taken from the top deck front yesterday after a successful quest for a hat and sunglasses in Wood Green. (I went for the shopping mall, but found what I needed at the Marks and Spencer.)
It's the kind of thing that makes you want to wave and say, "Hello, tiny people!"
Anyway, the whole trip required four buses, but mostly because of my own stupidity. I'll know better next time.
Except when I can climb on the upper deck.
Contrary to popular understanding, London still has its great double-decker buses. It has phased out most of the classic ones that allow you to step on and off the back, like the one pictured below:
Some of these still run on the Central London routes often used by tourists, including one that ran right by our temporary apartment.
The latter-day double deckers are less labor intensive in that you only need one ticket vendor (the driver) and come equipped with readers for the Oyster hard card. So I can't step off the back. Big whoop! The best part about riding the double decker is riding the upper deck. (Mrs. Werbenmanjensen rides one to and from work every day, in part because she gets door-to-door service on the bus. I'm so jealous.)
The following photos were taken from the top deck front yesterday after a successful quest for a hat and sunglasses in Wood Green. (I went for the shopping mall, but found what I needed at the Marks and Spencer.)
It's the kind of thing that makes you want to wave and say, "Hello, tiny people!"
Anyway, the whole trip required four buses, but mostly because of my own stupidity. I'll know better next time.
posted by Smitty Werbenmanjensen at 6:43 AM
5 Comments:
Let me set some parameters on the comments here: Oldest Kid, we all know I got to use a car to go to school when I turned 16 and you didn't. It was horribly unfair. I acknowledge that.
There. It's been said.
Sooner or later I'll have to state explicity that I once fell in a creek in England when I was four, just so some smart aleck doesn't point it out.
I wasn't going to say a word about favoritism! You brought it up. And the bridge thing is funny!
Hey! How did I escape that one? The funniest part of the bridge thing, though, was that you fell into only about 2 inches of water, but you thrashed around in it yelling, "I can't swim, I can't swim!"
Curmudgeon is obviously living up to his name. And, MK, I expected that you would have a comment about favoritism as well. It seems to me we both spent two more years on the bus than Smitty.
I liked the bus. I got all my homework finished before I got home. It never occurred to me that I wouldn't ride the bus. The falling off the bridge thing is still really funny. I had my kids rolling on the floor when I told them the story!
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