Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
By Boat
Once London's watery highway, the River Thames is these days more suited to a
sightseeing trip than an A-to-B journey. However, it is used by some Docklands com-
muters, and that commuter service is as fun a way as any to get to the maritime sights
of Greenwich (p. 120).
Thames Clippers
(www.thamesclippers.com) runs a year-
round fleet of catamarans between the London Eye Pier and North Greenwich Pier,
stopping at Embankment Pier, Bankside Pier, Tower Millennium Pier, Canary Wharf
Pier, and Greenwich Pier, among others. Services run every 20 to 30 minutes for most
of the day; journey time from Embankment to Greenwich is 35 minutes. An adult
single costs £5.50, £5 with an Oyster Card, £3.70 if you hold a valid Travelcard, and
£2.80 for children aged 5 to 15. A
River Roamer,
allowing unlimited travel after
10am through the day—or all-day at weekends—costs £12.60, £8.40 for Travelcard
holders, and £6.30 for children. A Family River Roamer costs £26.50. Buy online, on
board, or at any of the piers. There's also a separate
Tate-to-Tate
service that con-
nects Tate Modern, in Bankside, with Tate Britain, in Pimlico. Tickets cost £5, and
boats depart each end at least hourly, all day between 10am and 5pm.
For trips upriver to Hampton Court and Kew, see “River Cruises Along the
Thames,” p. 123.
By Bicycle
The
Barclays Cycle Hire scheme
(www.tfl.gov.uk/barclayscyclehire) was launched
with great fanfare in 2010. Anyone can rent a so-called “Boris Bike”—jocularly named
after incumbent mayor, Boris Johnson—from any of the hundreds of docking stations
dotted around the center from Whitechapel to Olympia, and Hoxton to the Oval.
Stations are scheduled to spread farther east during early 2012. There's no need to
return the bike to the same docking station you collected it from, making the scheme
ideal for short-range, spontaneous tourism. Charges are made up of a fixed access
fee—£1 per day or £5 per week—and a usage fee—it's free to rent a bike for 30
minutes, £1 for an hour, £6 for 2 hours. Buy access with a credit or debit card at the
docking station or join online. The bikes are suited to anyone aged 14 or over.
You should always ride London's roads with extreme care. For more on cycling in
London, see
www.tfl.gov.uk/cycling
.
4
LONDON
Area Codes
The coun-
try code for Great Britain is
44.
The area code for Lon-
don is
020
(omit the initial
“0” if calling from over-
seas). The full telephone
number is then usually
eight digits long. As a gen-
eral rule, businesses and
homes in central London
have numbers beginning
with a
7;
those farther out
begin with an
8.
Doctors
If you need a
non-emergency doctor,
your hotel can recommend
one, or you can contact
your embassy or consulate.
Failing that, try the G.P.
(General Practitioner) finder
at
www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk
.
North American members
of the
International Associ-
ation for Medical Assis-
tance to Travelers
(
IAMAT;
&
716/754-4883,
or
416/652-0137 in Canada;
www.iamat.org) can consult
that organization for lists of
local approved doctors.
Note:
U.S. and Canadian
visitors who become ill
while they're in London are
eligible only for free
emer-
gency
care. For other treat-
ment, including follow-up
care, you'll be asked to pay.
Emergencies
Dial
&
999
for police, fire, or
