Mind The Gap!

One of the things I like doing best when traveling in another country is taking the local transportation.  It makes me feel a little more like one of the locals or maybe I just get a thrill in trying to figure it all out.
One of the other more practical reasons is cost.  It's cheaper if you can navigate the way most folks do.  It's also different than me deciding where I want to go and getting in my car and driving as most all of us do. 

In London we took the underground from the airport to near our apartment.  We then bought seven day travel cards which allowed us travel on the underground, trains, and busses for seven days.  Technology has really come along since we've traveled overseas.  In other words there's an app for that. 

We used the city mapper app.  It allowed us to put in 'get me somewhere' on the app.  It knew our location and would then give us all the options available, the time each would take to get you there and a map, whether bus, rail, underground or a combination. 

It took us several days to figure out the best and quickest ways to get around.  About midweek Kim figured out I could take a screenshot and save it and avoid having to have my phone online all the time. 

We literally went all over, sometimes on the bus, sometimes on the underground, sometimes a combination of both.  All for 31 pounds each.  Quite a bargain compared to a taxi everywhere and saved our legs to some degree.  We still put on lots of steps this week. 

People who travel that way everyday are different though.  They rarely make eye contact and are usually looking at their phone, the side of the subway car, or maybe reading something.  The London Evening Standard is free in huge stacks by all the major underground stations just walk by and grab one either that or everyone was stealing them so I did too.  I guess they get that way living among 9 million people crammed into a city the size of London.  It ain't Texas that's for sure but unique and enjoyable none the less.

As you approach each and every underground stop there's an announcement that tells you the name of the upcoming station, like Picadilly, St James Park, or Westminster, and then she says 'mind the gap' as you depart the train.  It's one of the things I'll always remember.