I will visit Royal Albert Hall Concert and booked one night for 100 Queen Gardens Hotel. Next morning I will move to the Montegue Gardens Hotel and than I want to visit the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. You know, I don‘t like to travel by Central, Elizabeth…Line. Google show me Bus 55 and moving to train Thameslink (Rainham to Maze Hill).
Question
Thameslink - do I need to buy tickets or is it possible to tap with creditcard?
You can tap for journeys on Thameslink in central London like the tubes and buses.
You could also take a bus down to an appropriate pier on the Thames and then take a scenic boat ride out to Greenwich.
Is the correct name of your hotel The Montague on the Gardens Hotel? If so, and you prefer not to use the Tube, there is a bus option that also avoids the steep up hill climb to the Observatory. Tfl says take the 68 bus from Southampton Row to the Elephant and Castle/London Rd stop. Change to the 53 bus to Greenwich Park, then walk to the Observatory
@cjean Yes, it is.
Thanks very much for your help, again. This forum is so nice and helpful!!
If you don't like deep underground trains I would suggest taking Thameslink from City Thameslink to London Bridge and then train to Maze Hill station, which is the closest to the Observatory.
If you don't like tunnels in general you should understand that most of London was built before the Victorians put in the mass transit trains and main line railways.
They couldn't go at road level and mostly didn't go above ground in the centre so all the tube lines, not just the very deep lines, were put in tunnels below. Even the sub-surface lines of Metropolitan, Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and the Drain are in tunnels, mostly cut and cover on those lines. Thameslink and other train lines use tunnels too.
If you want to completely avoid tunnels you'll need buses and taxis in the centre of town.
Even the DLR - Docklands Light Railway - starts in a tunnel at Bank before it goes above ground.
If there is a different reason to avoid the Central Line and the Elizabeth Line, please say so we can get you the best advice.
What markcw said.
The boat ride from central London to Greenwich was one of the highlights of our last trip to London.
There are two stations called Rainham- Rainham (London) which is in Essex on the way to Southend and Rainham (Kent).
The Essex station is the wrong one, and the Kent one is far beyond Greenwich and is not served by bus 55'which is Walthamstow to Oxford Circus, so those instructions are ambiguous.
