Armed with our Travel Cards we set off at 9.40am from Paddington underground on the District Line to Wimbledon.
A short walk took us to board the tram for Croydon. It was a wonderful first trip for us on one of these. It wended it’s way through the colourful autumnal countryside, then out into the busy streets of Croydon amongst all the traffic. Amazingly the driver only had to use the horn once, to alert a chap who was walking along the tramline, of what was behind him!
The tram stops right outside East Croydon Rail Station on a level with the pavement with only an inch gap between the two as you step off. That’s precision for you! We went to catch the bus nearby for the rest of the journey.
As the London buses are quite frequent we didn’t have long to wait. The building on the right was just part of the ornate frontage to a posh department store called ‘Grants’. A few years ago it was going to be demolished, but they had the foresight to keep the unique frontage. This was achieved by supporting the front wall with scaffolding while they attached the new-build shops cleverly behind it. This was probably a very expensive operation, but the end product is very appealing. Sorry the image is a bit fuzzy, but the upstairs front window of the bus was rather dusty.
There are still a few nice old timber framed buildings surviving among all the new concrete shops and offices. After a short walk from the bus we arrived to visit Bottles parents who greeted us with a much needed coffee. Anyway the Travel Card saw us complete our journey in two hours with hardly any waiting in-between the changeovers, luvely jubbly!
We spent a lovely day with them catching up on all the family news . When we left Bottles Dad accompanied us to the bus stop to wave us off.
A little information for anyone visiting London and planning to use public transport, if you have a bus pass (over 60’s) then it can only be used on the busses. To use the Underground, Docklands Light Rail and Trams then either an ‘Oyster’ or ‘Travel’ card is required. Ours (Travel)cost £7.50 (each) for unlimited travel for one day after 09:30 on all forms of transport. The tfl. (Transport for London) office at Victoria Rail Station were very helpful.
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