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London! It's so bustling!
When we got off our train at King's Cross station, I felt some chills going down my spine. London is just such a historic, major place to be. And especially at a place like King's Cross station, you feel like you are at a crossroads, where people are coming and going and stuff is happening all over.
A last walk around York
We checked out of our B&B at 10am (their checkout time), but left our luggage there for an hour as our train wasn't until 12:02. We used the 10-11 time for a last walk around York, going through the Museum Gardens right near us, and by the river. Can any bird aficionados tell me what the blue-headed bird is?
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Taking the train
We retrieved our luggage and walked it and ourselves over to the nearby York train station, arriving with plenty of time to spare. Enough time for me to hunt up a sandwich for the ride. While I knew there'd probably be food available on board, I also knew it might be both more expensive and less convenient, so I happily found a tuna/cucumber sandwich, cookie, and drink for the ride, at a Pret A Manger.
We boarded the train and had a comfortable 2 hour 40 minute ride to London. It was supposed to be 2 hours 20 minutes, but there was a slight delay due to an overhead wire problem. I remembered from York's railroad museum, that the York-London train trip was once more like seven hours, and even now, by car it's a four-hour road trip. It's great to be able to get to London so quickly and effortlessly now, and Doug continues to marvel at how quiet and smooth the trains are here.
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Arriving, taking the Tube, tap-to-pay
After exiting the awesome King's Cross station, it was not hard to find the Tube, right by the station. It was a little harder to figure out which line to take, in what direction, but I think Doug had scoped it out earlier when he booked our hotel. We took the Picadilly line to Earl's Court (can you find it on the map?). The Tube was as I remembered it from years ago, filled with an impressively diverse set of folks of all kinds. I think only 3 or 4 in our full car wore masks, but it was the first time on the trip that I thought more seriously about putting one on (I didn't, but may on future rides).
In the photo below of the "Help Point," I thought it was cool that it can provide Visitor Info as well as emergency assistance.
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| Can you find the blue Picadilly line going from King's Cross at upper right down to Earl's Court at lower left? |
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One thing about the Tube, and about payments in general, is that contactless paying is BY FAR the norm here. We used our tap-to-pay Visa cards at the Tube turnstiles, rather than having to get tokens or use any special Tube card. Luckily, just before the trip we had renewed those Visa cards, and they were upgraded to ones that can do contactless payments. We've also used Apple or Google Pay on our phones, which can be used with regular cards. Occasionally we've run into a small shop that takes only cash, and we've had to skip them—we haven't bothered to get any physical English currency so far in the trip, and I don't think we'll need to. (Be sure your card doesn't charge for foreign currency conversion though; ours don't.)
Earl's Court
We are staying at a nice hotel very close to the Tube station. The area seems to be a very pleasant one. According to various online descriptions, there's no main attraction right here, so it's typically not a destination in and of itself, but it's a place where there are a lot of hotels and hostels. It also has a McDonald's, Burger King, and KFC all within a couple blocks of each other!
We had an early dinner and walked around the neighborhood, then retired to our hotel where Doug worked industriously on how we are going to get the COVID test required for re-entry to the US (you can do it at the airport but it's like $150 there...).
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| I'm tickled that our room door has a knocker on it |
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