Mind the gap? I almost got sucked into it

I am a regular visit to London and this month flew over for just over a week stay. I’m starting to call it my “London fix.” If I haven’t been there in a certain amount of time (a month or four or five) I’ve got to get over there again. This time I took Air Transat from TO, arriving Gatwick. The last time I used Gatwick was in November 2002, in the aftermath of 9/11, when no one except me and a couple dozen other souls – if that – were on a then Northwest (now part of Delta) DC 10 flight from Detroit to London. I pride myself on figuring out logistics but, boy, did I screw up this time. Arriving Gatwick I reached for the train terminal into town. I found the cavernous hall and saw Thameslink (railway) departure on Platform 6. I arrived at said platform and the trains were going the opposite way, south to Brighton. Asked a couple of people and no one seemed to know since all tourists. I find a high-vis jacket RR employee and ask. “Oh, you should be on Platform 4” and it’s just coming in now.” Thx! Up the stairs I go and then down again to Platform 4. Or what I thought was. There was a train parked and since I’d been told it was “coming in” assumed that was it. I hesitated then made a go for it. As I did the train doors slammed shut. They caught my leg and threw me backwards on to the platform, while the train was moving. I had visions of being dragged and felt my rump slowly sinking into the “gap” between platform and train. Fuck! In situations like this a few split seconds can seem like eons and I wondered why the train wasn’t stopping and why the hell the doors not automatically opening. Aren’t they designed to do that? But thankfully it did stop. Almost immediately I felt someone with very strong hands grasp both my armpits and try to lift me up. I shouted, “I’m okay I’m okay!” But my left leg wasn’t. It was sore because the door hit my fibula (? outside bone). I wondered if I’d be able to walk for the subsequent week in London. Thankfully I was and really wasn’t sore only if I touched at rest. That’s my story of (not) minding the gap!

While in London last week I encountered several “51st state” jokes when I mentioned I was from Canada. A tour guide brought it up immediately touring an historic military installation (Uxbridge, Battle of Britain Bunker airborne HQ) – “you might have to defend yourself!” – and from a fellow tour mate. “Elbows up!” she joked. Even the Brits knew the phrase.

And a few London-off-the-beaten-track tips. I’d always wanted to tour the Houses of Parliament. And it proved very easy. Check app when Parliament in session, line up at the Cromwell Green Gate, and wait to be guided in. As a foreigner chances are you won’t attend PM’s

Questions (tickets reserved for constituents) but general Commons Questions or debates - as I did - or committees meetings. I also ended up getting an overall tour of the place by unknowingly crashing a private constituents’ tour. Talk about backhanded luck!...Also under the radar are Abney Park in Stoke Newington, a magnificent overgrown cemetery with tombs falling into one another, the Greenwich Foot Tunnel in far east London, a century old pedestrian tunnel under the Thames (free) and the Thames cable car (IFS Cloud) between North Greenwich and Canning Town, also east London - inexpensive. 

- Ron Stang, Windsor Ontario Canada, a frequent traveller