Riding the Tube

                 The London Underground or the Tube as it is commonly known as, is hard not to fall in love with. From the moment I had the tube map in my hand and my Oyster, all I wanted to do was ride it. We planned our travels at times that beat the crowd and almost rode everywhere comfortably.

Travel on the tube is of a different kind. It's exciting, especially when you have to make sense of the different coloured lines to get to the underground station you need to get to in the shortest possible time. Most of the time we took the tube just for pure pleasure of the ride rather than getting to our destination faster.

Click here for an interactive experience with the London Underground. And what's more, the lines have such beautiful names - Bakerloo, Central, Circle, District, Hammersmith & City, Jubilee, Metropolitan, Northern, Picadilly, Victoria and Waterloo & City.

With the tube and buses we explored almost all of London. Oh and while you are riding to the tube do pay attention to the announcer heralding the next stop, it helps plus she is a very pleasant sounding lady.

Day 23: Au revoir Paris!

After almost 23 days into our trip, it was time to say goodbye to yet another amazing city. I love Paris. I really do.

The day started with a quick breakfast before we had to make our way to Gare du Nord to catch the Eurostar to London St Pancras International. We had to hurry as we were got a bit late trying to find the right terminal and then had to go through customs before we board the train.

We made it just in time. And soon we realised the air conditioning in our carriage was not working. Shouldn't be that big a deal in Europe you say? Well you are wrong, the route to London is under the sea and with 100+ people seated it tends to got pretty stuffy.

The entire trip it was just Tan and me. I was glad to finally meet family. My cousin Ryan came to receive us at  St Pancras International and he was a blessing. Or else we would have been lost a new city as usual. He introduced us to the Oyster card, it's a blue plastic card used for public transport - tubes and buses which you need to put credit on in order to travel. Wow! I loved it.

We then rode the tube, OMG this too is awesome, to his home which was at Clapham Common. We switched different lines on the tube to get there (more about the tube later) and the famous red bus to finally reach his home.There's a fabulous meal cooked. Chicken Xacuti, mashed potatoes and salad. Oh man am stuffed. Finally I ate a full meal.

Time-out! Will be back after my siesta...phew what a lunch.