'On the Number 20' by Pedro

[Camy]

'Ah ha!' I thought, looking at the picture: a story about London. But it's not overtly London as the name of the city isn't mentioned, even though, and rather ironically, the Number 20 is going to Hampstead Heath. Mike would have liked that!

I was left in a reflective mood after Pedro's rather elegiac story. I think Mike would have been a great landlord, full of bonhomie, letting his regulars run a tab, and probably narrating audio books for Audible on the side.

The upshot: the older you get the more you should value the friends and relationships you have.

Thanks, Pedro.

 

 

[Altimexis]

While we’re on the subject, can someone explain the London bus system to me? I can carry a route map for the entire New York bus system in my pocket and easily navigate my way from any point A to any point B, anywhere in the five boroughs, without the need of a device of any kind. Granted, it’s nice to see when the next bus is coming on my watch or to get alerts on my phone, but unnecessary. I run into tourists on the bus all the time and they too navigate the system with ease.

Don’t get me wrong – I love the charm of London’s double-decker buses. However, for a tourist getting around by bus, the system is an impenetrable maze. I either have to map out my days’ journeys in advance in my hotel room, or use my smartphone to find my way. Now that international roaming is somewhat more affordable, I usually do both. Even then, just finding the right bus stop can be a challenge. There are often many bus stops, very close together. I realize that if you always take the same bus every day, it probably makes perfect sense, but if you need to go somewhere new, it’s bound to be awful for locals and tourists alike.

How did the London bus system get this way?

[Pedro]

Camy, thanks for your kind comments. But I have to reply with this extract of an email I sent to Alienson after he found the bus picture for me when I couldn't find anything myself:

“It tells non-UK readers that the story is set in the UK and therefore why the bus stops are on the left of the road. UK readers should be able to work out that the story is actually set in a provincial city elsewhere. It will be amusing to see if any gripe about the London bus!”

He expertly tweaked the number on the front. It’s actually the 24 goes to the Heath. And yes I did spot the inference!

Altimexis: London along with many cities in Europe has succumbed to the fallacy that new tech is always better. Gone are the lovely old paper maps (with big copies at stops with bus shelters) that were something you study and plot a day out  with no specific objective. Now it’s impenetrable (frustrating and time wasting) apps where you’re expected to know the answer before you ask. No room for serendipity. 
 

You said “Even then, just finding the right bus stop can be a challenge. There are often many bus stops, very close together.” 
Where there are lots of routes passing close together, they used to mark the tops of the bus stop posts with a letter and on the post would be a little local map with the posts marked and a key showing which routes stopped  at which letter. I think the system or a variant is still in use.

Buses aren’t the only offenders, the railways are as bad. 

[Altimexis]

An amusing anecdote about buses:

Many years ago, before smartphones were ubiquitous, my wife and I set out to explore the Dutch countryside. We’d been to Amsterdam many times and been to all of the usual tourist spots. We took the train to Utrecht and from there we travelled all over the Netherlands. We traveled down the coast and we visited many small towns in the north that had a wonderful charm. Of course those we visited by bus.

There was a point where we were a bit lost and my wife was studying her book of maps. I spotted a bus stop and exclaimed, “We’re in Bushalte.” I pronounced it ‘bu-shal-tee’. My wife laughed and corrected my pronunciation, and then explained that ‘bushalte’ was Dutch for bus stop.

 I responded with something to the effect of, “It’s obviously a bus stop, so why did they put that in huge letters? Why is the name of the place in small print and down where it’s hidden by the heads of people sitting in front of it? Who the heck came up with that brilliant idea?”

Now, whenever we’re lost, one of us will say, “We must be in Bushalte!”