Lost in London

My conference began at 9 am. I left the house at 8:10 for what should have been two six-minute subway trips and two short walks. But I decided to walk rather than take the second subway. I’ll be sitting all day so a 15-minute walk would do me good. I think this was my first mistake as my mental map (from researching the night before) took me to the conference from the second station, not the first.

I thought my goal, County Hall on Belvedere Street, was two blocks from Westminster Bridge. I passed the Houses of Parliament and thought I was on track:

Belvedere Street, inconveniently, wasn’t where it should have been. I did see a nice statue of Abraham Lincoln. I asked two people in a Boots Chemist for County Hall and Belvedere Street and they told me to keep going away from Westminster. A doorman at a fancy office building went into the lobby, plugged in the postal code, and told me, authoritatively, to go left, then right, then left. This took me through Whitehall to Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square. I knew this was very wrong but everyone I asked could offer no help (a security officer, another doorman, a person selling tickets for bus tours, random people on the street).

I know a fully functional person would have a fully functional phone with google maps. I consider my phone useless (I can’t get online when I need to and, when I’ve used Google maps in the past, I can’t get oriented--I have no spacial skills whatsoever).
In my desperation, I called David, who was in Sweden working on a project for Ikea. It’s been pouring rain the whole time I’ve been walking/jogging and I’m nearly in tears. I hate being lost and I hate being late, yet here I am. He put in the postal code and told me to head back to Westminster Bridge and cross the river (I had suspected I was on the wrong side of the river but two people sent me in the opposite direction). I ran to the Thames and discovered there was a closer bridge than Westminster--the lovely pedestrian Jubilee Bridge, and we agreed that I could take that. I am running full tilt and keeping David on the phone as I take steps three at a time. I get across the bridge, run past the London Eye, find the courtyard on Belvedere where I was told the entrance would be and, voila, I’m at County Hall. Only 10 minutes late.

I attend eight workshops throughout the day then take the tube back to Kentish Town, where I sit through dinner and a board meeting with six people, then crawl back to my lovely, tiny, simple room with its comfy bed, SO glad to be horizontal and alone.

As I left the conference, I took a photo of the area where I’d started my day. The nice thing about being lost in London is it is at least picturesque.

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