HP sites (visiting)

[cubfanbudwoman]

Goddlefrood:
> >(get a day pass anyway, you can use them on tubes, buses and 
> > trains). 
 
Carol responds:
> I recommend the day pass, too. Then, again, it seems to me that I
> bought weekly passes that were even better. I know that I rode both
> trains and buses from London to Oxford (both were called, for 
> reasons that escape me, the Oxford Tube.)

SSSusan:
I think from what I've read, and since we'll be needing to go in & 
out to zone 3 a few times, it might even make sense to use Oyster 
cards.  But definitely passes of some kind!


Carol:
> In any case, I still rcommend the tube rather than the bus system 
> for getting around (easier for Americans like me who are used to 
> cities laid out on grids--unlike Londoners who have the advantage 
> of knowing their way around), though a short stint on a red double-
> decker bus (top deck) is just part of the experience of being in 
> London (along with red phone booths and London bobbies, at least 
> when I was there).

SSSusan:
Hee.  What about us Americans who live in small enough cities that we 
have no public transport available?  I figure I'm at an equal loss, 
regardless of these options... although I have a fondness for the 
quickness of an underground and a bit of an aversion (from total lack 
of experience, I imagine) to buses -- other than the red double-
deckers.


Carol: 
> Oddly, on my last day in London, I had a good experience with a tazi
> driver. The shuttle that I thought would pick me up wouldn't come
> directly to the hostel where I'd been staying, so I had to haul my
> extensive luggage (which kept flopping over) to a hotel about half a
> mile away. By the time I got there, I had missed the shuttle. I was
> getting desperate, so I explained my situation to a taxi driver and
> asked him to take me to Heathrow. He told me that the trip would 
> take too long and I'd miss my plane, so he said he would take me to
> Victoria Station and I could take a train from there to the 
> airport. I was deeply grateful and tried to tip him when we got to 
> Victoria Station, but unlike American cab drivers, he refused the 
> tip.
> 
> Bless him, whoever he is. I hope he's well and happy.

SSSusan:
That's an awesome story. :)  

I confess that this whole issue of NOT tipping in certain places 
(pubs, for one, and I take taxis, too?) is very hard to trust for 
Americans, even when we read it in 4 or 5 different travel guides.  I 
think it's just so ingrained in us to tip, and I am so fearful of 
finding out the guides were wrong and I've just insulted someone by 
not tipping!

Siriusly Snapey Susan