Navigating around London can be quite confusing sometimes. As I wrote a few days ago, I spent a lovely Christmas with my parents at our family house up in Harlesden. Getting there isn’t a problem: I just have to get the jubilee line to Wembley, and a bus from there. I have to go all the way to Wembley, of course, because that is the only wheelchair accessible station at that end of the line.

However, glancing at the bus timetables on my way home last week, I noticed that the bus I had to take from Wembley, the 206, purportedly terminated at Kilburn station. If that was true, then it could have been very useful, as Kilburn is also a station on the Jubilee Line, but a few stops before Wembley. I know I went that way on a similar expedition back in October, but I now really want to get to know that area.

That, then, is what I decided to investigate today. My parents are currently up in Cheshire, so the house in Harlesden is empty; today was just about seeing whether I could get there any quicker and more easily. I got the bus to North Greenwich station, where I told the staff that I wanted to go to Kilburn. I was then escorted to the westbound platform and put on a train. No problem so far.

It took about half an hour to get to Kilburn, where a very helpful man was waiting for me with a ramp. (Using other similar stations in the future clearly won’t be a problem)  I got off the train and exited the station onto Kilburn high street. It was there, however, that things got silly.

I assumed that it would just be a case of looking for the right bus stop. I knew which bus I needed, but for the life of me couldn’t remember where the stop was: I don’t know that part is London very well, but I took it from the bus timetable I had seen that the stop would be just outside the station. I knew I’d been there once or twice before, yet I couldn’t find it anywhere, and my search gradually getting wider and wider.

To cut a long story short, I eventually found myself lost somewhere in Brent. My grandparents old place isn’t that far from Kilburn, but I couldn’t find it. I spent two hours wandering around, and was beginning to get slightly worried, when I suddenly came upon Kilburn Park Station and realised that the station the tube went through and the one where the bus terminated were two entirely different places. Things had suddenly become rather irritating, and I told myself I should have checked before leaving home.

On the other hand it was there that I finally found the bus stop that I had been looking for for the last two hours. I caught the 206 to Wembley, regretting having wasted so much time. However, rather than coming straight home, I got off the bus briefly to check on the family house, simply to make sure it was safe and secure. Although I hadn’t found the shortcut I was looking for, getting around the city is  becoming easier and easier for me: days like today show me that, no matter how lost I get, I can always get myself home. Thus I don’t think the trip was a complete waste of time.

Rather than taking the Jubilee Line all the way back, to round the day off I decided to change at Bond Street for the Elizabeth Line. I thought it would be quicker and quieter. It might have to simpler to go back the way I had come, but today was all about exploring and getting to know London a bit more. Today may have been a bit of a waste of time which took far longer than I thought it would, and I should have double checked where I was going before I left.. But days like this help me really get to know London; and at least  I now know that there might be more than one station with the same name.