London Travel and oyster cards

I still love living in London! I agree some areas are totally crowded but Covent Garden is always pretty whatever the time of year and Carnaby Street Christmas lights are usually much more interesting than Oxford Street or Regent Street. After five years of returning to the U.K., I still feel like I am on holiday and love exploring on foot.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Really?  I would think they rides are the same price, but the Oyster cards themselves cost a few quid.  Is there something else I am missing?

BTW, you are also welcome to borrow our Royal Palaces annual pass as well.  It will save you big bucks on the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace and, I think, Kensington Palace as well.    Plan ahead and you could do the ceremony of the keys that has always been on my list.  If you are driving, you can also borrow my Costco card as well!

The rides are the same price I think but you have to buy an Oyster card and for short visits it is not worth paying the one off cost of the card.

The rides are the same price I think but you have to buy an Oyster card and for short visits it is not worth paying the one off cost of the card.

That makes sense.  I thought there was some deal where you could give back your Oyster card and get a refund for the amount you've spent on it but I've never actually tried it. 

Sometimes I use my Oyster card to commute every single day, then it's handy that you can register and see what you were charged for every journey.  It's smart enough to figure out if something went wrong, like you forgot to tap out and you can fix it and get a refund. 

I'm coming to visit you.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

The Sender of the Grits is always welcome in the Jimbocz household!  You can have the Costco card as well.

The Sender of the Grits is always welcome in the Jimbocz household!  You can have the Costco card as well.

Thanks. I do have my own Costco card though.

Speaking of grits, I still need to send you your non grit gift from North Carolina. I'll get a box from work tomorrow. Maybe I'll actually get it sent out by the end of this week.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Speaking of grits, I still need to send you your non grit gift from North Carolina. I'll get a box from work tomorrow. Maybe I'll actually get it sent out by the end of this week.

Ahhhh!  Tami!  I forgot to say!  My parcel arrived (about the day you expected it to), but  I was offline at the time (my computer issues were still an issue).  I haven't had Texas Toast and gravy yet, but I have taken some naproxen, so thank you!  I'm gonna make chicken fingers and Texas Toast one night, and my husband is just going to have to accept it. 

Really?  I would think they rides are the same price, but the Oyster cards themselves cost a few quid.  Is there something else I am missing?

BTW, you are also welcome to borrow our Royal Palaces annual pass as well.  It will save you big bucks on the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace and, I think, Kensington Palace as well.    Plan ahead and you could do the ceremony of the keys that has always been on my list.  If you are driving, you can also borrow my Costco card as well!

Bless you. No, it'll be either by coach or, if I can convince the Daughter, by rail.

We'll be there probably two full days and two half-days. There are specific targets that the Daughter has, and I'm tagging along. But that can't take up ALL the time (famous last words), and I've never been to Kensington Palace. 

So far it's one afternoon with a lunch at Chipotle and then shopping in the garment district (or the equivalent thereof), one afternoon with lunch at WhichWich and then shopping on the antiquarian bookstore street. Somewhere in there we have to visit another museum that has stuff in it that the Daughter needs to see. I wouldn't mind a return trip to the British Museum - we've been there three times, but you really can't get to everything even in three days. If the garment district goes more quickly (and it might, if there's nothing of interest) I would imagine we'll hop a bus over to the V&A and the Natural History museum.  We'll be bringing sandwiches back with us for the evening meal, and breakfast is taken care of where we are staying.

The Daughter has arranged for us to stay in Hamstead Heath,  so we take the 168 bus from Euston Station to get there, and then can take the same one back in and it'll drop us pretty much in one of the target areas.   

Our first visit to London - we left Calif at 0-dark-thirty on Christmas morning and got in to London on Christmas Day. Took the tube in to a hotel in Paddington, crashed for the rest of the day, ventured out on Boxing Day for our first taste of London.  We had a blast. The museums were a little crowded though.

So, if we come down on a Sunday it looks like we'd get there mid-afternoon. Am I correct in assuming the shops, etc., shut there at around 6pm on Sundays, or am I mis-remembering?  [Edit - Scratch that. We're arriving on a Monday early afternoon and leaving back late morning the following Thursday. So, two full days, and a half-day.]

Which Chipotle are you thinking of?  The one at London wall doesn't have any tables, just a shelf along the wall.   I've never seen another Chipotle but I think they exist. 

I'd seriously consider one of the other burrito chains in London, like Cilango or Tortilla, which I find are higher quality.  There's more of them as well. 

Chapoodle is the taste of home, Jimbocz.   

I believe the one the Daughter has plans for us to visit  is somewhere near the British Museum and off of Tottenham Court Road. And we will be bringing our own lemons (or limes, if we can get them) because she says that when she was in London last and went there they didn't have any citrus to squeeze on the food, as at home.  Very much looking forward to it. 

  Yeah, all of December! 

Seriously, come to London in the spring or summer.  In December the weather is absolutely miserable, every shopping oriented street or mall is so packed that you can't even move, every restaurant is crowded with drunk jerks at office Christmas parties, the light displays absolutely suck and the Christmas markets and festivals are overpriced rip offs.   Also, don't forget that during Christmas and Boxing day, there is NO public transport and the taxis charge double.  And everything is closed on those two days except for the craven consumerism of Christmas sales.  Christmas in London is dire.

Summertime is a thousand times better as everyone who lives here is on holiday somewhere else and the weather is glorious.

No can do. Too hot. 

No can do. Too hot. 

Did I mention it gets dark at 4:30 in December?

Did I mention it gets dark at 4:30 in December?

It does here, too. 

Our tickets are booked for early Dec - I convinced the Daughter to try the train again. (Fingers are crossed.) Housing is arranged. She has the list of people she needs to see and places to go. I am very much looking forward to my carne asada burrito and a chance to get out of Glasgow for a while. 

It seems to be dark at 4pm here now...
I keep forgetting how far north we are. Hudson Bay and Moscow north....

https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-releases/2014/august/fare-capping-for-bus-passengers

It's cheaper if you only take the bus and don't use the tube/DLR/Overground. The daily bus cap is £4.40 whatever zones you're in. It's £7 daily cap in zone 1-2 for the tube. Doesn't matter if it's Oyster or contactless.  Also, if you take 2 buses within a half hour of each other it's one fare.