There's no such thing as a quick trip to Covent Garden...

At the weekend I had the bright idea to just 'pop down' to Covent Garden to pick up a blouse I've had my eye on for a while. Not the best idea. For one I always end up coming back having spent a lot more than I planned to, mostly on things I don't need. Also, as far as slow moving crowds go this place must be beaten only by Oxford Street.

There are crowds outside the tube stop, further down there are people randomly stopping to take pictures and around the square there are huge crowds surrounding the street performers. I don't know how the people who work there cope; I get stressed enough just cutting through there. I don't think I could face having to do it at least twice a day.



The crowds around there are so big it's not just a case of cutting through them, if you try that you could well end up just trapped in the middle of one and they're so spread out that it's difficult to get around them too. The ever popular 'excuse me, please' just gets disgruntled looks and shrugs in response.

Maybe they should have one side of the piazza filled with street performers and the other side empty for people to cut through? I know that'd suit me better and that way we'd have the best of both worlds.

To be fair I am a fast walker, whenever I go out anywhere I don't bumble, I'm practically on a full blown mission to get there and get back A.S.A.P. Even if I'm on holiday I can't quite get into the 'I'll take my time' mentality that a lot of people seem to have.

I do understand that Covent Garden is a lovely place with a great atmosphere, I fully get why people want to stop and take that in, I just wish they weren't doing so in front of me.


Picture: nixsight.net

A quarter of a million more tourists in 2009

London was visited by 550,000 more tourists in 2009 than the year before, bringing the total number of tourists in '09 up to over 26 million. But 2009 also saw a drop of 3 percent in the number of overseas tourists while the number of British people visiting the capital rose by 11 percent to 11.3 million.

The release of these figures follows a campaign, fronted by Visit London, called 'Only in London', to encourage tourists to discover more areas of London, some of which are barely known to Londoners let alone visitors such as the Tooting Bec Lido. The state the pound has been left in after the recession has meant that London has also become a popular destination with Europeans who want to make the most of the low exchange rate and bag a bargain from the designer stores.

Over £2 million has been poured into the 'Only in London' campaign in a hope of further encouraging tourism and generating an extra £60 million, on top of the £8 billion that was generated from tourism in 2008. Last year Britons alone spent £2.4 billion in London, 7 percent more than foreign tourists. Spending for 2009 hit an all time high in London, with tourists spending, in total, £10.5 billion.

Source:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23682672-26-million-visit-london-in-year-as-domestic-tourism-soars.do

Intro

This blog will be my forum to rant about whatever has annoyed me, be it a friend, slow moving tourists, delayed tubes, whatever.