One Day In London

Today I went to London for the day, for a job interview. The timetable was tight to say the least:

• 8:00am Depart Edinburgh Waverly station
• 12:42pm Arrive London Kings Cross
• Underground & bus to interview
• Interview
• Underground & bus to train
• 4:46pm Depart London Euston station
• 9:40pm Arrive Edinburgh Waverly station

My potential employer was kind enough to provide me with train tickets, tickets to purchase food on the train, and a London bus/train day pass.

The train trip down was fantastic. I was book on the quiet coach, which is no cellphones, no noisy gadgets, whisper only. The train does have WiFi however I found it didn't work too well for me. I had a window seat at a table which was great. The sun was coming up and the land had wonderful hues as a result. The land in Scotland and Northern England is very scenic. The train initially took a coastal route, through gentle rolling hills, crossing through cute towns, and cities I've heard of but never visited. Once well into England, the land is flat as a pancake as far as the eye can see. On the way I saw two nuclear power stations (a novelty for me), an aerobatics team practicing a few miles away, and lots of sheep. In New Zealand sheep have black bums, in England sheep have black faces. I'll leave you to ponder that thought! Anyway my train ride was restful and passed quickly.

I had been provided detailed instructions of exactly where to walk, train and bus, door to door at each end. The instructions were perfect and minimised my travel time in London. The end result was that all I saw of London was underground, escalators, and buses.

As for the interview, I won't say much except that it took all of the time allotted, and as we ran out of time I ran out the door!

My train trip down wasn’t quite as pleasant. It started out OK, for the first hour or so it was daylight and the view was interesting as we departed London. I was in a window seat with a guy sitting next to me and was feeling a little squashed. After about 2-3 hours, he got off and I could spread out a little and stand for a stretch. The remainder of the journey was looking good. Next thing, we stopped at Wigan station and it was announced there was a power problem up the line, and they had no idea when we would move. We sat there for an hour. Then we were all sent across the platform to wait perhaps another half hour for a different train. That train took us on to Carlisle, about an hour away, there again we were put off and had to wait another 15 minutes for another train to Edinburgh. I didn’t arrive at Edinburgh until 11:45pm. Not a nice way to end what was already a day.

For the record, the trip down to London was National Express (enjoyable!) and the trip back to Edinburgh was with Virgin (blah!).