Everyone has a kink . . .

Some people swoon over leather while others are seduced by lace . . . between the handcuffs and whips crowd and the foot fetishes we all have some dirty little secrets.

Mine is the London Travel Card

I feel so much better having come out of the closet.

I've never been exactly reticent about my love of London. Taxing though it is to Ms. Budget Travel to seek out bargains in one of the world's most expensive cities I love London with a passion that passeth all understanding. I'll take it a step farther I love the London underground. I love it crowded with workday Londoners in ubiquitous black bumping books into backpacks of American students who fall into Asian tourists as the train shudders to a stop. I mind the gap, walk on the right and avoid the staircase at Lancaster Gate.

I miss the poems on the underground but I'll settle for insurance adverts and my neighbor's tabloid headline. Amerham, Alperton, Cricklewood, Covent Garden, Bayswater, Queensway, Lancaster Gate, the names of stops are my mantra.

I've mastered the last minute scramble for coins and I can dump in one pound twenty for a single within zone without even looking closely at the money or the machine --- however, being a budget traveler I seldom do the single fare shuffle.

I go - not often enough, one never goes to London often enough --- to https://www.railsale.com/city.htm#London the pass purchasing page of the infinitely useful Railpass Express site at http://www.railsale.com . Within five working days they deliver a pass good for travel on the underground trains and double-decker buses that cover the entire greater London area. At slightly over ten dollars a day I can zip from zone one all the way to Kew or Hampton Court and back, then travel from a Bayswater bed and breakfast to a West End play. Compare this to the close to two-dollar fare for a one-way trip inside a single zone and you'll see why I'm excited.

The thrill continues . . . With a travel card you avoid the hordes of anxious commuters and lost souls smashing into the information counter --- no wait for the holder of a travel card. If you budget time as well as money you'll find yourself saving plenty without waiting to buy tickets.

I love being able to leave without pouring away pence whenever I have a change in plans --- if I zip over to Covent Garden for wine al fresco and find rain and mist, I'm off to the Tate without a second thought. http://metro.ratp.fr:10001/bin/select/en... will show you how to get from Richmond to Willesden Green or anywhere else you fancy.

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic