So, I’m sure that everyone’s aware that London took quite a snow dump yesterday and today and in the process wreaked some
terrible havoc on our transport system. This impacted me in three ways:
– Trying to get home from Gatwick Airport
– Going to work today
– Returning home from work today

On the plus side, we got to see London in a whole new light and experienced some of the most beautiful vistas I’ve ever seen.

Blackfriars to Home: 7.4km

About 30 minutes out from Gatwick our pilot came on to the speaker system to give us the news that Gatwick had closed and that it was likely we would have to land in Bristol or some other random airport. This news was met with quite a few groans. Thankfully about 5 minutes later he came back to say that yay, Gatwick had opened again. This was, unfortunately, not the end of the story.

We were the first plane to touch down after Gatwick opened, which was the good news. The bad news was that our stand for parking did not have its snow cleared yet. We waited in the plane on the tarmac about half an hour whilst they cleaned it off but then, just as we thought it was nearly ready, it started to snow again! Nearly an hour after we landed we were finally got off the plane. I thought that this was the end of our troubles but no. Of course the trains were upset as well – not only were we faced with delayed trains but after about an hour of standing around waiting for trains we were told that all but one were cancelled! This one train was heading into London Blackfriars so of course everyone got on to it. I won’t bore you with more details about how this train also faced significant delays but eventually at 1am we rolled into London Blackfriars. By this time the tubes had stopped running of course and eventually we found out that all buses had been pulled from the streets for safety reasons so here I was miles from home and no way to get home. I figured I could start walking home and try and flag a taxi on the way. No such luck – as I’m now fond of saying – I couldn’t have bought a taxi if I’d had £1m ..

In the end I ended up walking 7.4km home in the snow and with my converse shoes my feet were so cold and wet it was ridiculous. I nearly thought they’d have to get chopped off! At 4.30am I finally crawled into my warm bed …

Home to work: 3.5km

Slipping and sliding to work was a bit awkward today but I nevertheless enjoyed the walk. There’s just something magical about snow that gets me all excited so even though most tubes were down and no buses were still running it didn’t ruin my good mood.

Work to Home via Hyde Park: 4.6km

Even though the route was a little bit longer, I managed to cheat a bit by catching one of the few tubes running to South Kensingon, I had to walk through Hyde Park. Highlights of the walk included all the snowmen and women (of course) and also seeing a couple enjoying some cross-country skiing. What a blast!