London…. Stairs bloody stairs!

I don’t know who decided they were such a good idea. Judging by the age of some of them perhaps it was the Romans, I’m talking about stairs! They are everywhere you turn in London. The buses, for instance, the front lowers to lure the unsuspecting traveller on board, however once aboard the front of the bus returns to its normal height and you are faced with a climb to the top deck unless you can find a seat on the lower deck. One of our local underground rail stations, Queens Way, lulls the unsuspecting traveller into a false sense of security by offering lifts down to the underground platform, they spill the passengers out to a short corridor that rounds a corner to, you guessed it folks, a flight of stairs that take you deeper into the bowels of the underground rail system. At the other end more stairs to reach freedom!

Going Up! Stairs on a double decker bus.

Michal heading downstairs, after getting off the li.ft at our local undergroundstation, Queensway

Stairs up to the Medi Centre at Paddington Station.

Paddington Station, maybe, they all start to look the same!!!

Escalators at Bond Street Underground, where we changed for Westminster.

The building we are staying in has 9 steps up to the front door, once inside there are 4 flights of stairs to take us to our second floor apartment! The first flight is the worst, 19 steps, the next is the easiest with only 6 of the buggers! The next two flights each have 13, but who’s counting? Actually I do, every time I go up! It’s usually at the end of a day out exploring when my hips and lower back are already complaining about the biting cold and all I want to do is flop down in a chair with a nice hot cuppa, but not before the stair challenge!!  I found the laundry in our building, it’s in the basement, another steep flight of stairs to reach this outdoor glorified cupboard they call the laundry.

Michael at the bottom of the first of 4 sets of stairs that lead to our apartment.

The outside steps that lead to our building.

This is the first steps leading to the basement laundry......

and the stairs that take you to the outside laundry, brrrrr, it's cold out there. Puff, puff, puff. Up and down these plus the 4 flights that lead to our apartment a few times, ah that warms you up!!

The galleries and museums all seem to have impressive staircases, things of architectural beauty until you realise that it’s the only way you are going to get inside! We went to the New London Theatre to see War Horse. Our seats were in the dress circle. Thank God, there was an escalator to take us upstairs, to the first level! We still faced 4 or 5 flights of varying heights, none less than eight steps. Oh, I beg your pardon! The very last few steps that took us to our seats numbered only 5!  

Michael at the entrance of Winston Churchill's underground War Rooms. We'd just come downthe stairs on the left of the photo!

The staircase leading out of the War Rooms.

This blog has been sponsored by My Aching Hips, campaigning to change the name London to Stairdon.