Now I Know a Little Bit of London
25 Sep 2008
I've known isolated neighborhoods of London from past visits, but this time I finally connected them. Now I know an area of central London bounded by Marble Arch, King's Cross Station, St. Paul's cathedral, Westminster Abbey and Victoria Station. Of course I don't know the area in detail, but well enough to find my way around and know which direction I'm going. My sense of orientation has been delayed by the Underground map. It's a great map and the Underground is the best way to travel any distance in the city, unhampered by congested surface traffic. But because it's a schematic map, the real relationships between various neighborhoods are distorted. Only by walking and traveling by bus, can you understand the geographic reality.
Yesterday, I had a ticket for entering the Queen's Gallery at 4:30. I found myself in Trafalgar Square with 20 minutes to get there. I soon realized that I couldn't make it by bus because of heavy traffic and because the bus routes don't go there directly. Instead, I remembered a pedestrian staircase that led directly down from the end of Regent Street to The Mall. I made it to the gallery on foot, only ten minutes late, and still in time to enter and view the exhibit.
I've known isolated neighborhoods of London from past visits, but this time I finally connected them. Now I know an area of central London bounded by Marble Arch, King's Cross Station, St. Paul's cathedral, Westminster Abbey and Victoria Station. Of course I don't know the area in detail, but well enough to find my way around and know which direction I'm going. My sense of orientation has been delayed by the Underground map. It's a great map and the Underground is the best way to travel any distance in the city, unhampered by congested surface traffic. But because it's a schematic map, the real relationships between various neighborhoods are distorted. Only by walking and traveling by bus, can you understand the geographic reality.
Yesterday, I had a ticket for entering the Queen's Gallery at 4:30. I found myself in Trafalgar Square with 20 minutes to get there. I soon realized that I couldn't make it by bus because of heavy traffic and because the bus routes don't go there directly. Instead, I remembered a pedestrian staircase that led directly down from the end of Regent Street to The Mall. I made it to the gallery on foot, only ten minutes late, and still in time to enter and view the exhibit.
posted by Anonymous at 5:39 AM
1 Comments:
Glad to hear you got there semi on time :) Hey i found a site that you might like, baraaza.com
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