I've probably blown the maximum fare on the Tube today. I was in a hurry to get to Paddington to catch the Heathrow Connect, a faster train service not affected by works this weekend. I don't think my Oyster card scanned properly when I left the Tube.
At Paddington, there are signs for the Heathrow Express, another service which costs twice as much as the Connect (and the Connect costs twice as much as the regular Tube). Of course, they want you to pay for that so I missed a train trying to figure out how to get a Connect ticket. As I had only a £20 note, I didn't want to use a vending machine in case it didn't spit out more than £10 of change (the ticket cost £7.60).
The queue at the ticket counter is not the fist I've been in here but it must be almost the slowest. I've seen the staff wander away from the counter for minutes on end for no apparent reason. Of course, since almost everyone here is British, no one says anything. They just stand there are take this shit!
I met Lou, Daniel and Kiera and we took a very interesting taxi ride to Kew Bridge. Had I been sitting in a forward-facing seat, I think I would have feared for my life. Some of the driver's moves were innovative, to say the least! We were caught up in traffic and it ended up costing £40 (ouch!). We met Sue on the street near the boathouse.
The boathouse is very charming, if a little rough.. At this point, the Thames is still tidal so that water almost disappears on this arm of the river, as the following photo shows:
I can't believe this! It must be 25 miles from Southend-on-Sea!
We took a walk across Kew Bridge to the Green, briefly watched the cricket and then checked out Kew Gardens.
The houses around here are evidently quite old, at least those that are original. They're all semi-detached, perhaps what we in Melbourne would describe as terrace-like, each with its own front and rear garden. They're rather charming and, if each were built separately (as most appear to be), shouldn't be too noisy like apartments in single buildings.
There are also lots of pubs in the area with large-screen TVs tuned to either Wimbledon or the cricket. On our side of the river, none serve dinner on a Saturday night. I guess that's the big drinking night.
We've seen two museums on the Kew Bridge Rd: a steam museum and a music museum. I'm sure Daniel will be interested in both.We still have to check out options for shopping. Sue found a small supermarket but it's not got a wide range. Lou commented that given the size of residential properties in the area, it's hard to see where a larger supermarket might be put.
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