It used to be the case a long time ago, that the best and easiest and cheapest transportation to get around from certain points in London was by using the Thames River. (I always thought the British pronounced it “tims”, but I think it is closer to “tams”, Love).
The Thames is a tidal river. By that I mean it truly ebbs and floods like the sea. I did not know that. Going to our destination we were on a high tide, coming back we were in a low tide.
There are river islands all over the place, and for some of them, the only way you can get to them is by boat. And people live there like that.
Harold and Linda took us on a cruise down the Thames. I do not know how to describe it adequately. One thing that both Harold and I talked about was that when you travel by water, it is somehow more soothing and at a much slower pace.
For example, when we got to theTeddington Locks, there was either a broken lock, or there were not enough personnel available to make sure that both sets of locks worked, hence we were tied up there for more than an hour trying to make our way further west.
Harold pointed out, “You know, had we been in a car or the tube or a bus and had been tied up in traffic for this long, people would have been screaming mad. But here, we just sort of take it in stride.”
He was right. I opined that maybe it was because when we take those other kinds of transportation, we are already running late for some appointment that we think we just have to get to, and we depend upon the time approximation or schedule to be spot on, and when taking the river there is no such expectation. We are just more willing to go with the flow.
I guess I had been told, but I thought we were just taking a cruise down the river and back. It turned out not to be so, but I thoroughly enjoyed the boat ride.
In England, things tend to occur at a more genteel pace it seems to me. Not every deadline is an urgent life or death situation.