"Dodging the London Traffic" Greater London by Bwana_Brown

Greater London Travel Guide: 24,649 reviews and 51,820 photos

Inbound Train at Northolt Station - Greater London

Make Life Easy - Take the Tube!

Deciding that discretion was the better part of valour, my plan for visiting relatives in the inner heart of London involved ditching our rental car on the outskirts of the city. With our trusty (loaned) London A-Z mapbook in hand, we drove from Farnham into the outskirts of the city. As planned, we pulled off the A40 highway and found ample parking at the Northolt train station (it cost 2 pounds or US$3.75 for about 4 hours parking). Then we went into the station for our train/subway tickets for the centre of the city (this cost about 11 pounds or US$21) for the two of us to go round-trip. We set off at about 10:30 AM for the 1-hour ride into the city on the Central line, switching once to reach the Chalk Farm station. The rail system was not too crowded at that time of day and the audio instructions played out on the train were very easy to follow, letting you know where you were and when you reached a station that would enable a transfer to another line. Once we reached our target station, we did not have too much difficulty following the steet map to actually walk to the flat that we were looking for. Following our very enjoyable visit with the proud parents and their young son, we headed back out of the city. Although the trains were much more crowded at 3 PM, we again made it back to our car in only an hour. We then had to make our way around the top end of London on the A406 North Circular highway on a Friday afternoon holiday weekend, since we were headed further east to Colchester. The traffic flowed smoothly at first but gradually slowed until it was stop and go for about a half-hour as everything narrowed down into a single lane at one point. By 6 PM we had crossed the M25 motorway and started to make good time on the A12, arriving at our destination in the dark at about 7 PM. Please see my Essex page for the next part of our trip (or Surrey for the start of our visit).

Pros and Cons

Pros:So Many Things to See and Do
Cons:You Need to Plan Carefully!
In a nutshell:A Place That Must be Seen Properly!

Last visit to Greater London: Feb 2004
Intro Updated Mar 7, 2004
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Comments (8)

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matcrazy1 Mar 4, 2006 at 5:15 PM

AZ Great Britain Road Atlas - thanks!
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JLBG Jan 9, 2006 at 9:22 PM

I once found my car in Lyon airport, buried under snow when coming back from the Sahara ! That made a change but fortunately that was only a few centimeters !
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Mariajoy May 17, 2005 at 12:45 PM

Verona was amazing Glenn, I met so many lovely people, and the weather was glorious!
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craic Dec 12, 2004 at 7:05 AM

What a great story!
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sim1 May 4, 2004 at 1:41 PM

Canada... snow... and trying to catch a flight! Wow, this reminds me of my last flight out of Toronto! Hahaha, I did catch the plane though,but only just! :-) I heard about that big storm, wow, lucky you! And clever you as well bringing that garden spade!
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herzog63 Apr 7, 2004 at 8:03 AM

I think you are in the top .00000001% of wisemen. How many of us would plan ahead and pack the garden spade?? We shall learn from men like you!!
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Bonobo2005 Mar 18, 2004 at 12:58 PM

that's what I call a brilliant tip, although here in Holland people would think I's mad to carry a garden spade in the trunk haha. Helpful tips about visiting Central London too!
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Canadienne Mar 12, 2004 at 4:28 AM

Oh wow - I can't believe how close you came to that storm! The news coverage of it was stunning. . .