Saturday, May 8, 2010

Brilliant!!!!

There’s nothing in the world like the pubs, the Borough and Portobello markets are chock full of the most amazing and wonderful food, clothing, and chatchkes, and the classic English sights like Parliament Square and Big Ben are iconic and justifiably famous. But you can have Westminster and Buckingham; this is the single greatest thing about London.

It’s the very best way to get around town. Cheap, easy, and safe, with a heavy emphasis on Easy. The color coded tracks are a topographical (vs geographical) map, so while the distances aren’t exact, they’re intuitive, and clear to brains that don’t know the ins and outs of the city. Compare this wonder of creative thinking to an earlier version of the Tube map to see how much easier the current one is to navigate.

Other than perhaps Paris, I bet there’s nowhere you’ll see an equal amount of tourists and natives using public transportation, and I’d like to thank all the locals who tolerated me bumping into them from behind last week while I read my guidebook. Thanks for sharing your transit system and your beer. Lovely.