The well laid plans of mice and men…🤣 I have a routine for my project and posts based on two outings a week. The first is on Monday or Tuesday and the second on Thursday or Friday. The ‘or’s allow for problems with the transport system and extreme weather issues. So, my last update covered my outing on Monday and this one should have been appearing on Saturday or Sunday to cover what I did on Thursday or Friday. It should be simple shouldn’t it? 🤨
Lets talk Tuesday and why my day of rest was disturbed. I was planning to cut my hair on Tuesday. I’d got things set up when around 9:45 I got a call. Daaad!.. Dad!.. It was my Wife – Epi always calls me Dad when she needs a favour🙄 It turned out that she had left her medication at home – please could I bring it down to her office. So that was that – off to Knightsbridge 😐 I’m not one to allow a crisis to become, well – a crisis… More an opportunity. I decided to grasp the nettle and take out a couple of in-town termini on my way home after I’d delivered the pills.
Knightsbridge – Piccadilly Line. What to do from there? I decided to go to Earls Court to pick up a District Line Train eastbound – the target was Tower Hill. This is a terminus for trains from Wimbledon. As luck would have it, the first train to pull in at Earls Court was for Tower Hill. It looks a long run from Earls Court with so many stops, but the stations are quite close together so it only takes a little over 20 minutes. Here’s my train in the middle platform at Tower Hill…
Up above it was very sunny and very hazy…
I did my best to dodge the selfie-driven tourists along with the generally confused that inhabit such open spaces and made my way around to St Katherine’s Dock and a quick look at the cluttered view of Tower Bridge…
Then I was off to visit the Docklands Light Railway, or DLR. This terminates at Tower Gateway, which is close to Fenchurch Street Station. There are 2 entrances – the main one is on Minories but there is another on Mansell Street. I photographed a bus on the 100 route at the Tower Hill stop on Mansell Street…
…before crossing over to find the entrance to Tower Gateway…
Let’s be honest – those stairs are a hefty climb for me in my current state of fitness and at my age. I’d strongly recommend that anyone of advancing years uses the Minories entrance where there are escalators and lifts👍 But – I’m supposed to be doing this project to get fitter, so the drag up the stairs was a good thing… I think 🤨
Here’s Tower Gateway Station platforms…
The DLR line is only a short single track stub off the Bank branch and the trains filter in between services to/ from there. All services from this station go to Beckton. Here’s Unit 118 with 122 and 137 arriving…
…a 6 car train and needed because the DLR is well used. The railway tracks on the left of the photo are the line from Fenchurch Street.
My task now was to head home – time was ticking. So I took this DLR service to Poplar. There are lots of photo opportunities there…
…and I will come back for some more shots another day. But now it was time for a DLR train up to Stratford and then a London Overground train from there to Camden Road before getting the Northern Line back home.
In case anyone wonders how riding around by train is helping my fitness.. That was 7 miles of walking! 😇
Images from Finchley 
You do get around, Martin. I admire your navigational skills! And Epi is fortunate that you were available to help her out, and then go on with your Freedom Pass Adventure!
There’s maps on every Underground station and train Debra, so find your way around isn’t too hard. In my case there’s a wealth of local knowledge anyway so it’s even easier. I did get a little out of position around London Bridge station a couple of weeks back because the major rebuild in the area with The Shard, etc has messed up the floor plan I had so I’m relearning that one🤣