The tube, the sub­way, the under­ground… Lon­don wouldn’t be Lon­don with­out it, no mat­ter how you call it.

I usu­ally have a love/ hate rela­tion­ship with sub­ways: while they are often the most effi­cient way to get around in large cities, they also receive their fair share of bad press. Dan­ger­ous, crowded, dirty, expen­sive, claus­tro­pho­bic… not all sub­ways are nice to ride. I love Rio de Janeiro’s sub­way, as well as Mex­ico city’s, Beijing’s and Buenos Aires’, but I hate Paris’ sub­way because it has most of the incon­ve­niences men­tioned above.

I had heard peo­ple com­plain­ing of London’s “Vic­to­rian” sub­way sys­tem and its price. Not sure whether we are just lucky or easy to please, but I found myself enjoy­ing the tube. Instead of pay­ing £4 per trip (!) we went for an unlim­ited zone 1 and 2 sub­way pass — at £25.80 it’s quite a good deal.

The tube is aptly named: the train really looks like a long col­or­ful tube, and the ceil­ing is quite low. Seats are com­fort­able though and over­all, quite clean. I absolutely love the fun use of U.K’s col­ors, blue, red and white — it makes sub­ways look less creepy in my opin­ion. The logo is also a clas­sic gem of British cul­ture, and I couldn’t get enough of funny sta­tions names, such as “Swiss Cot­tage” and “West Ham” (obsessed with food, anyone?).

You can fol­low our trip to the U.K here on Flickr: United King­dom.

Pic­cadilly Circus

West­min­ster

In Motion

Last Kiss?

Eng­lish Colors	Going Under­ground
In the Tube	Swiss Cot­tage
No Logo	Er… I’ll Take the Lift

Train Arriv­ing

Wait­ing

Related arti­cles:

1. The Lon­don Eye
2. Sights of Paris (Part I)
3. Sights of Paris (Part II)
4. The Olympic Green (奥林匹克公园)
5. Samba De Janeiro!