LONDON — It’s fitting that there is so much “royal’’ about London because it’s a royal pain in the “arse’’ to get around this city. Navigating yourself around London is such a mess it makes Manhattan seem like a rural town with a half-dozen roads in a grid.
Today is Day Three of my first-ever Olympic journey and I tried a third different way to get from my hotel to the media center near the Olympic Park.
On my first day, Wednesday, I opted for the Underground, which was claustrophobic and hotter than Dubai in July. The good news for those Londoners who take the “tube’’ is that, after the two hottest days of the year here (Tuesday and Wednesday) the temps have cooled a bit today.
I figure if it stays cooler from now until the end of February the subways here will cool down to about 96 degrees from the 106 they’ve felt like so far this week.
On my second day, I tried one stop on the subway to something called a “Javelin’’ train, which is a high-speed bullet train that leaves the center of London periodically and takes all of six minutes getting you to the Olympic Park on the east side of the city.
That’s akin to taking the 4 Train from Grand Central to Yankee Stadium non-stop in six minutes. Pretty cool.
The problem from there, though, is then media must cue up in a security line to have bags checked and then get onto a non-air-conditioned double-decker bus that takes another 15 or so minutes to weave around the various venues around the park before dropping you off at the media center.
Today, I tried a media bus that departs from Russell Square in the city and can take these “Olympic lanes’’ on the roads en route to the village. The problem is those lanes are so sporadically painted on the route that they do little good. The most traffic we were in on the bus was on a road without the special painted lanes, making me wonder, “What’s the point.’’
Bottom line after my three transportation experiments is this: It takes a strong hour for a trip that shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes regardless of which mode you try and each has its headaches.
Hopefully, the athletes are having an easier time of it.
