[Treasur]

Transport for London (tfl) has a pretty good website/app that lets you plan your journeys....includes buses, trains and tubes (underground trains) and gives you pretty accurate times too. And buses can be quite a nice way to seeing day to day London with signs that tell you what/where the next stop is!

No need to worry about train confusion, Watcher, between London and other places eg GWR. As a historic legacy of early Victorian train entrepreneurs lol, the big stations in London basically work like wheel spokes and serve different directions. So, for instance, trains to the West/southWest of London go from Paddington, trains to the East from Liverpool St etc. Once you get yourself to the right Big station, it’s pretty easy to find the right train for Bath or York etc.

[marvin4242]

I would to the advice above grab the CityMapper app for best options for getting around town and do not ignore the bus suggestions they are clean, safe and much more reliable than the US ones. The data is live from same TFL feed and accounts for walking and interconnect times.

[Watcher]

Hi Biscuit, Treasur, Marvin.

I downloaded the apps that you suggested and I had time to make train reservations for my hotel destination cities. Now it looks like rain so I will hold off on making any train reservations for day trips. I was on Quora and Dover Castle popped onto my feed. There is also a Roman Lighthouse.

We had a pair of 90° days this week and the past two days have been filled with dripping wet August humidity. The weather is so strange. So I'm not opposed to overcast with a spritz of rain. I'd prefer not to run in any humidity on Sunday.

I have a couple of options from the airport. I can either take the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station or the Piccadilly line to Green Station or the one prior to it near Wellington Arch. That would be a 5 minute walk to my hotel.

My rail pass says the trip on the Heathrow Express will be free. I still have to pack and I've been too busy this week so it still hasn't hit me yet.

I was looking at Rome, Paris and Dublin for future potential running locations if Tokyo makes me wait for years. Rome would be a cool spot.

So Dover Castle is listed as the best castle in England. Caerphilly is the best castle in Wales and obviously I'm going to Edinburgh Castle but Scotland really seems like it's far down the road.

Thanks for the help

[readytofixmyselffirst]

Hello,

Just wanted you to know that this Sunday will be my birthday so as you plow through the 26.2 mile course, I will be home eating cake.

Have a great day,

((((Ready))))

[Watcher]

Hi Ready,

There was a 1 hour delay at the airport. Someone must have gotten sick and we had to wait for a cleaning crew. Meanwhile the offending person departed with the cleaning crew. Maybe that person should have left immediately while we were waiting.

I had emergency door responsibility which has better leg room. I'm supposed to help out in case of an emergency but I think I'm down that shoot as soon as it deploys, lol.

I stopped for coffee at Heaththrow just to gather my thoughts. I found the underground and took the Piccadilly line to Green Station. The train was packed. I made the connection at Green to the Victoria line which was pretty empty. I was only on it for 1 stop.

I was off at Victoria Station and wandered around a bit because my GPS blue icon does not show my progress while walking. I think I just circled Victoria Station to my hotel eventually.

I already saw Little Ben however I wanted to dump my bags and didn't realize it until now that I passed it. It's cold here. This maybe too cold for the marathon and I only brought shorts. The sun was out over the airport so it does exist here.

A few weeks ago the hotel sent me an email update and they said it would be nice if the sun made an appearance while I was here, lol.

So I'm off to Buckingham Palace and Big Ben since they are just down the road and I will stumble upon Little Ben again while finding something to eat.

Enjoy your bday and cake on Sunday.

[Biscuit]

Welcome to England.... Welcome to London - one of the best cities on the planet!! So much to see and do.

It's actually fairly warm for the time of year - yesterday was glorious weather, the sun was out, which means lots of people are out.

Hope you enjoy it here.

[Watcher]

Hi Biscuit,

The most notable adjustment has been crossing the street. In NYC , and probably elsewhere in the U.S., we look left while stepping into the street because our right side is safe. Well I've still done that at every crossing without realizing the right here is now my dangerous side with bicyclists and cars.

They are already preparing the finish line at Buckingham Palace. I remember the Tiergarten was off limits and I never did get to see it so I walked both Green and St. James parks.

Buckingham Palace is massive and I like the different gates representing the Commonwealth and the various monuments in the park like the Wellington Arch. There's a cool looking duck throughout the parks. It looks like a Canadian Goose but just replace the black with orange patterns.

My lower back was knocked out from the plane so I walked it out until it just had enough. I did see Westminster Abbey and the Palace of Westminster which is the Parliament. I knew it was the House of Parliament. I didn't know  Palace of Westminster was it's proper name.

Both buildings are just ornate and massive beyond description. I didn't know Big Ben was a part of the Parliament building. I saw that London Eye. It's really just a ferris wheel 🎡, lol, just saying. However if it lights up at night then it must look good.

I did see a lot of people running but I'm going to fight the urge to partake. It was mostly a gray day but the blue came out around 8pm. I have a nice photo of Little Ben with the Victoria Palace in the background all lit up. So I may have to explore at night to see what else lights up because the gray today really took away from the beauty of those buildings.

Hopefully my sleep will adjust to English time tomorrow night.

[Biscuit]

Glorious morning today in London Watcher!!

Sounds like you’ve taken in some of our lovely architecture already!

[Watcher]

Yes it was a nice day yesterday Biscuit. I visited the Tower of London in the morning and saw the changing of the guard. Obviously I also viewed Tower Bridge and both structures are wonderful sites to visit.

Afterwards I jumped on the southeastern train for Dover Priory. The castle was a 25 minute walk from the station. The walk up has left my calves sore as its a steep climb. Dover Castle is beautiful. The sun was out without a cloud in the sky however it was windy. It had to be around 30mph and even the castle walls did not help with hiding from it.

I saw the Roman Lighthouse from 1 A.D. and the castle has served medieval, WW1 and WW2 time periods. There is a church on the grounds from the 13th century I believe.

Afterwards I walked to the National Trust White Cliffs. I think it was about 30-45 minutes. The wind had subsided a bit however the walk and scenery were very nice along the chalk path.

I didn't intend to walk the 50 minutes to the lighthouse but I missed the stairs to climb down to the beach. At one point I came across a group of cows grazing right along the path with no barrier. Tea is served at the lighthouse.

It was hazy over the water so I could not see France even though my TMobile welcomed me to France at one point.

On the way back I found the stairs but decided not to venture as I was thinking the climb back up would be arduous. It's built into the cliffside and resembles a wheelchair ramp that zig zags its way to the beach. I would imagine it's tight quarters if it gets crowded.

There were a lot of people at both locations with some on school trips but no takers on those stairs. Both locations were worth the trip. I logged 20 miles yesterday so I'm going to try and do less today.

I am on the GWR currently for Cardiff. The castle is only a 10 minute walk from Caerphilly Station. Today is a beautiful day.

I still see a lot of people running and it's hard to break from my training pattern. I keep looking at the weather and I am not looking forward to running in the rain on Sunday.

[Watcher]

Caerphilly Castle was definitely worth the visit. It's a typical 13th century medieval castle with some wear which adds to it's appeal. It's well run and organized and sits in a park setting. The town itself is small and very nice with only a 10 minute walk from the train station.

I didn't know there was another language spoken until I was on board the Transport for Wales. There is also an affinity for dragons. The castle had an interactive dragon display and many shops along the route sell dragon items.

Fish and Chips, with a Guinness, in a courtyard overlooking the castle on a rather sunny day.

Cardiff is a larger town and the walk from the train station to their castle was about 20 minutes and it meanders through a nice downtown section of restaurants and shops which are also filled with dragons.

Cardiff Castle is pristine just like Dover Castle. This castle was privately owned so it's a bit different. The casement walls are intact and one can walk the entire perimeter. They also have a beautiful Keep which is surrounded by a moat.

A Roman Wall was discovered in the 1920's and it is rather impressive. So the castle was built upon a Roman Fort.

The private residence was probably from the 17th century and that's where it deviates from a typical medieval castle.

Paddington Station was a mess last night when I arrived back. Both the District and Circle lines were out so I walked back to Victoria.

Today I am staying in London because I have to meet with the run organizers. I also have to check out from my personal hotel reservation and check into the run group reservation. So I will just leave my bags with the hotel as I have to change rooms since my personal reservation was higher end apparently.

The environmental protestors are descending upon London this weekend so we will see if that becomes an issue.