As we both got off at Waterloo I was wondering if I should still say something to her, but I decided not to ruin her day. Probably better to leave her unaware that I understood everything she had said. The moral of this (true) story is to be careful when speaking your non-English language in London, even when it is a language only spoken by 5 million people. London is too global a city for that…

I arrive at Waterloo station. This of course named after the battle in Belgium where Wellington won over Napoleon. The Eurostar train from Paris used to arrive here. I always thought it quite funny that the French who came here by train had to be reminded of this by the name of the station.

Further along my way to work I get a view of Big Ben and the London Eye.

I’m then greeted by Nelson Mandela outside the Royal Festival Hall.

Later in the day the skaters come here.

Looking across the river I see Charing Cross station and the old Shell building, now the Savoy hotel.

The booksellers Market at Southbank. Come summer and there will be many more books here.

The National Theatre, built in a style called “British Brutalism”. I wouldn’t want everything built like this, but I do like the building. I’m guessing that its not Prince Charles’ cup of tea.

A last view over the river with St. Pauls cathedral in the background.
I turn right and there’s work…

Used to rain?

First it mentions how the English who are so used to rain woke up to a snowstorm. I have covered that in another blog entry. London has almost 2% more rainy days than Copenhagen. So yes, there was a lot of snow compared to how much usually falls, but I haven’t heard it referred to as a snowstorm over here. But then, the journalist does mention that her source is “The Sun“, a newspaper given to exaggerations and even fabricated stories.

Double-decker buses?

Oh, and all the double-decker buses are at a standstill according to the article. In that case it is not as bad as I thought then, all the non-double-decker buses are still driving then I assume. Yes, there are non-double-decker buses in London.

This morning I had to go from our village into Wokingham, a short distance of less than 3 miles/5 km and I was again reminded of how bad traffic is at the wrong time of day. The wrong time of day is unfortunately quite along time. Almost all of those 3 miles were spent starting and stopping and crawling along at a snails pace. I am usually able to work from home so that traffic doesn’t affect me, but it is not always possible to avoid. If I’m going into London by car, I usually have to double the amount of time that my Sat Nav/GPS tells me it will take. Taking the train isn’t always possible. If I arrive at the train station car park later than 9:30 it will be full, so even if I want to take the train it won’t be possible. Sometimes it seems like they’ve just given up on even attempting to improve the transport infrastructure in the UK.

I survive by living outside the M25 (a motorway encircling all of London, some call it the UK’s biggest car park), often working from home and not having too many meetings in London.

In series 10, episode 5 of Top Gear, they made a race across London by bicycle, boat, public transportation and of course a car. According to my Sat Nav, the distance they travelled is 16.5 miles/26.5 km. Again according to the Sat Nav, it should take 53 minutes by car and 1 hour 18 minutes by bike. I suggest you see the episode yourself, it is 22 minutes long and I won’t spoil the fun by telling you who was first.

Rainy days per year:

• London           119
• Copenhagen    112

So there you have it, one more week of rain in London compared to Copenhagen for the whole year. Putting the numbers into a chart it becomes clear that in London the winter is wetter and the summer is drier compared to Copenhagen.

The website said that one should aim for getting to the viewing areas by 22:00. By 23:30 we were at Lambeth Bridge and decided not to try to get closer. Some distance before Lambeth Bridge we were passing all the cars that were trying to get closer, so if you want to see the fireworks in London new years eve the moral definitely is to get there by 22:00 and don’t even try to get into London by car.