Small moment of bus-related joy

[nanila]

I've just started commuting from Birmingham to London on a weekly basis, and one of the things this is allowing me to do is explore bus routes I've never taken before. This week I stayed with a friend of mine who lives near Elephant & Castle. I looked up the best way to get to her place on the Transport for London Journey Planner and it suggested a route, involving multiple buses, starting near the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park.

However, I discovered on walking out of my workplace building that there is a tiny bus stop hidden on the other side of the Royal Albert Hall that serves exactly one bus, the 360. The 360 begins just outside my building and terminates at Elephant & Castle. I experienced a thrill that I hope flaneurs can understand, hopped on the bus and looked out the window for most of the 40 minute trip. It wended through South Kensington (very pleasant), Chelsea (also pleasant) and to the north bank of the Thames, where it traveled down to Vauxhall Bridge. Then it turned and went along the south bank of the river, affording more lovely views before finally heading down to Elephant past the Imperial War Museum. It was a delightful journey.* I was happy to return to work on this small and uncrowded route in the morning. The Tube would definitely have been faster, but not nearly as pleasant.

* Although I was a little miffed with myself for going wrong by getting off at the last stop instead of the penultimate one, which forced me to retrace about 100 metres to get the second bus to my friend's house.

Comments

[kake]

Oh, it is good that you got to travel the whole route though, even if it was by dint of getting off at the wrong stop.

Coincidentally, the 360 turned up on the London Bus Chain the other day.

[nanila]

I get to do it again this week! Only in reverse, though, as I won't be going directly from work to her place.

The London Bus Chain Flickr group is great. I'll be checking in periodically to see what's turned up.

I just realised, too, that I now regularly take the 2, which is the lowest number route I've ever used habitually - the lowest previously was the 9.

[pne]

Yay!

Also reminds me of travelling to Paris several years ago and looking up ways to get to my hotel on a little app on my Pocket PC, expecting to be told to take the underground.

But at one point, it suggested taking a bus to an underground terminus and then another bus—and so I, too, ended up seeing a fair bit of Paris through a bus window, rather than just looking at tunnel walls!

[nanila]

Excellent! I like taking the bus, but I remember it took me some time to work up the courage to do so when I first moved to London. Back then the buses didn't have those handy announcement boards that tell you what the next stop will be. You had to position yourself carefully to be able to read the bus stop signs and then scramble for the bell & exit when the bus cornered violently and threatened to overshoot it.