The first thing we’ve learned visiting London is this: don’t listen to the weather forecast.
Some rain’s been predicted each of our first four days—from showers to 90
A rainy day in London Town?
percent chance. None has appeared. Indeed, Day Four was downright sunny.
The forecast for day five? Rain—80 percent chance. Ah, there’s nothing like consistency.
Our next lesson was about the busses.
We waited for the 15 bus on Day Two for at least 20 minutes. Nothing. Oh well, onto the 23, or some such number, we went. It purportedly traveled to the general neighborhood we sought. And, it stayed right on track. For a while. Until it reached a stop on Oxford Street, and a recorded female voice announced sweetly that “this bus has been diverted.”
Diverted? Why? To where?
Who knows. Just diverted.
We abandoned the bus, and descended into the Underground.
At day’s end, we found we’d wandered along the Thames as far as the Tower of London Bridge. Aha—the 15 bus, the bus map told us, traveled right past the Tower. It could return us almost to our door.
The 15 did travel past the Tower. Indeed, three of them passed us as we walked to the bus stop, and another arrived at the stop just after we did. We hopped on board.
It was rush hour. The bus had almost reached Piccadilly Circus when it came to a halt. We waited. And waited. And waited. When we resumed forward motion, there was no indication as to why we’d been stopped.
A wall of London busses.
But, we were lucky. Back on Oxford Street, the opposite-bound traffic was stopped for several blocks. And that was 90 percent busses. A literal wall of busses loomed on our right. Going nowhere.
It was only when we reached Marble Arch that we understood something about the mysterious 15 bus. It comes in several manifestations. This one went only as far as Marble Arch. Others went elsewhere. Why, one wonders, would busses with the same route number not go to the same places?
We disembarked and walked the last half-mile.
The trip across town would have taken perhaps 20-30 minutes on the Tube. It took us close to an hour and a half. But, at least we had some idea why we’d had that original, in-vain wait for the 15.
