Strikes in England

On our way back to London we ran into a huge traffic jam and the bus only moved a few car lengths every few minutes.  We thought it was partly because we were behind schedule because earlier  some passengers  had got lost and caused us to be late.  We were told that some of the extra traffic was caused by a London Tube strike (subway strike)  but it was to officially be over at 5 o'clock so we would have no trouble getting back to our hotel.  Since we where down town and not moving anyway we decided to get off the bus and make some use of the time before heading back
We  (i) decided to go on the London Eye.  A huge Ferris wheel in downtown London.  It makes one revolution every 30 minutes and the view from the top is incredible.  Ann Marie than confessed to being suddenly afraid of heights but I talked her into going anyway. 

Ann Marie sat in the middle of the car afraid to get to close to the windows

Now it was time to head back to the hotel and when we entered the Tube we found the gates closed and the place empty.  The strike had been extended a norther 12 hours.  Because we had bought the Oyster Passes  we always used the tube and we had no idea how to get back to the hotel.  Taxis were full and would not stop and although the buses were running we didn't know which one we needed to get back to our hotel as they must of had 15 different routes all going from the same area.  Also we didn't know what the bus would cost. but we did know that they wanted exact change and would not take credit cards.

We roamed around down town for a while

 We watched the break dancers at Piccadilly Circus for a while all the time asking people what bus to take and where to get it.  After asking a  lot of people we finally found the answer and found a lot of people lined up waiting for the bus.  Some  for as long as a half hour.   When the bus finally came it was already full and just drove by.  When the next bus came we pushed  our way on and it was then we found that the Oyster passes we had bought where good on everything.l  We were on our way back to the hotel.