Category: Travel

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Get an app

If you have some kind of smart device and a service agreement that allows you to get data in the UK, then an app may be a big help.

TfL (Transport for London) do their own. Here’s a link: https://tfl.gov.uk/maps_/tfl-go

We don’t use it. We do use CityMapper. Now, this is not a plug for this app, and we could happily tell you the very many things wrong with it, especially the advertising, but we like that it works in different cities in different countries. They have a site: https://citymapper.com/?lang=en

One thing we would say is that free wifi is not the easiest to find in London. Some stores do it the usuals like Starbucks can do too. It’s on some train lines, but few, and some hotels. Tube stations have wifi but not for everyone.

Also, being surrounded by so many buildings can make getting a mobile signal tricky, so this is not a guaranteed method. In our experience, the South Bank is particularly bad.

Other apps must be available. If you find something that works well, do let us know.

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Getting around London

Don’t be afraid of using public transport. If you have never done so before, know that it is as safe as can be, efficient, clean, easy(ish) to use and cheap.

Oh no, hang on, strike that last one. We’ll come back to that.

In the next couple of blogs we talk about apps and similar, and ticketing.

And we surely don’t need to say this, but there is no smoking on any public transport ever, and this includes vaping. Nor should you be drinking booze or eating food. But do carry water on hot days.

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Time and a word or two

The UK uses Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) as its time system. The whole country uses the same system.

We are one hour behind Paris and five hours ahead of New York.

It’s worth taking a trip to Greenwich by train, bus or DLR, to see the observatory and the meridian and the beautiful parks and buildings. Note that there are big hills to climb and it’s often very busy.

At the end of March the clocks go forward one hour and we use British Summer Time (BST). We are synchronised with Europe but not with the USA, which can go onto daylight saving some weeks earlier.

At the height of the summer it is daylight by 5am and more-or-less still light at 10pm, so you can come out of the theatre and it is still daytime.

Clocks go backwards at the end of October. Again, the USA is different. In the depts of winter it is still dark after 7am and dark again by 4pm.