Wednesday, June 18, 2003

 

Day 55. Continued. London Visit.


Hot day in central London 

The weather was hot and sunny and after visiting all the usual sights in Central London we were hot and tired. We arrived more by good luck than management at a leafy square with seating to spare and spent time cooling off and people watching. It was difficult taking photos in the shade with the bright sun shining through and this was the best shots we could manage. On the top picture Ian and Pat can be just seen second and third to the right of the central lamp post. I doctored the picture a little and increased the brightness.


Piccadilly, London. Pat and Eric 

A Bus Ride

Ian suggested we take a local city bus ride then get off the bus at a tube station that would connect us to where we left our parked car at Sudbury in outer London. We boarded the double-decker with the appropriate number and settled ourselves to-wards the front on the lower deck. A few stops down the bus route there were loud voices and a commotion seemed to erupt on the boarding platform. We could hear the conductor's voice demanding that someone get off. Then another voice suddenly shouting "I'll use it, I'll use it!". Again the conductor's demanding that someone get off and the other voice repeatedly saying " I'll use it, I'll use it". The conductor now saying "well use it then".

The bus was forced to stop at the roadside. All the while the bus was stationary at the bus stop children were screaming and adults shouting. The driver got out of his cab and went round to the rear. Someone phoned the police, Ian I think on his mobile and moments later 3 older, tubby soldiers turned up from a barracks from across the road. They didn't do much but go away again. The passengers became very restive asking "what was he going to use", we couldn't see anything from where we were. An old lady near us quietly and distinctly said "I think I will get off here" and got up saying politely "excuse me, excuse me" as she moved down the bus.

All the while the commotion and loud voices continued unabated. Odd passengers had been getting off the bus. Suddenly there was a mass rush for the exit, we sat tight. Suddenly the bus was empty and silence reigned. We then got off too. We decided against waiting for a following bus and went to the nearest tube station and caught a train to our preferred station. All that was left was the driver, conductor and one or two passengers and an empty bus. Regulations required the bus to stay where it had stopped until the police arrived to investigate the incident. Someone said the shouting passenger had left and wandered away up the road. What he threatened to use no one seemed to know. It could have been a knife, a gun or it might even have been a bomb, after all we were in London.

Thinking back later I remembered glimpsing a scene for an instant but it remained implanted in my mind. Moments earlier we passed some offices flying a flag and looking very official. In front was a soldier armed with an automatic gun at the ready and I thought this is London and it is escalating into becoming a dangerous place.

posted by OldEric 2:44 pm