WORLD TOUR BY SHIP, TRAIN, BUS, FERRY, FEET 2012: DAY 50 MONDAY MAY 14 BRITRAIL TO LONDON

Up at 5am, out the door at 6am and in the first class carriage at 6.30 with the London commuters. We had very comfortable seats facing each other with a table between and a wide ailse separating us from a similar arrangement on the other side. Free wifi allowed us to read emails, facebook etc. We had eaten a full breakfast but the trolley came around offering free drinks and food. We paid dearly for our Britrail pass but we were beginning to feel they were worth it. Until we got to Peterborough station, at 7.30; about halfway to London. A announcement was made as we approached this station that a person had been killed on the line closer to London and all trains were banned from the area. Our train would be returning to York and we would be able to stay on it if that was what we wanted. That might well have been the better option if we could catch a later train with no further cost after the crisis was over. We decided to persevere and waitedon the platform with all the other local commuters. It looked like Wynyard in peak hour except that it was freezing cold, raining, and only a small section of the platform was undercover. We eventually found seats in the small waiting room. The poor rail staff could offer no information until word came from higher up after about an hour that a local train would go through to London. It filled up to the brim with people madly negotiating diary changes on their mobiles. It was then announced that another train would come on the other platform so we did a M. Hulot and proceeded up and down the overhead bridge only to find that train filled to the doors. Back to the original platform to finally board a train with a first class compartment where we could sit opposite each other for the second half of the trip. We got to Kings Cross two hours late but still with plenty of the day left to orientate ourselves in London. The station was still packed with hundreds of people staring at the departures boards waiting for their time and destination to appear. There were several dozen young people giving out handy free maps which encouraged people to get used to walking around central London to assist public transport to cope with the Olympics. We quickly observed that the footpaths were already overcrowded and many of the streets were gridlocked for most of the day.
The first thing we saw when we emerged from Kings Cross was a topless double-decker Big Bus just waiting for greenhorns like us. We paid 70 pounds for 2 tickets that would last 48 hours for on and off travel. It actually took more that two hours to do one circuit of the short route, but that was OK because it was raining and we could sit undercover with the heater on in the front seats upstairs. They employed comedians with encyclopedic knowledge to do the commentary and one kept harping on about the ashes tests. Quite enjoyable. We found a bus stop with a bus going through Brockley so we thought that would be easier on our first trip than using the terribly complicated train system. It took an hour but stopped 50 metres from Rachel's B&B. We settled into our very commodious room and celebrated Lyn's birthday with a beautiful meal at the Brockley Jack, complete with Yorkshire pudding.