All stations to...

I hope it is a while until I hear the phrase "This is XXX, where this train terminates" again!

I'm having trouble telling the story of the Tube Challenge at the moment. The whole day seems to have blurred into one long train ride, with indistinguishable stops along the way. With this in mind, forgive me if this posts ends up being as interesting to read as the telephone directory...

03:30... Can't say that I'd slept at all well when my alarm jerked me out of my slumber. Of the 4 or so hours available, I probably managed no more than 2. Not a great start. When I went to wake Liam, he looked at me like I had broken into his house and stole his TV! On the road soon after, we were glad to see that the threatened hard frost had not struck yet and we flew round the M25 towards our first tube stop in Amersham.

05:15... It seems that Amersham became the place where I lost all ability to process simple information. First, I couldn't find the station (I still maintain that there were no signs anyway!) and ended up driving all over Amersham until I happened upon 'Station Road'. Then the next challenge was the car park's ticket machine. It took credit cards which was a blessing but I couldn't determine how. Asking the experienced early morning commuter, "Do you know how this thing works?", he came to my rescue... "Well, you have to put money into it!" Indeed. Next challenge was getting a travelcard. Us Oyster Card holders have no need for such out-dated technology but the simple ticket machine still managed to out-fox me...

05:28... Our first train pulls out of the old fashioned looking Amersham station and just a few moments later we stop at Chalfont & Latimer, only to get out again, generating a puzzled look from our one fellow passenger. We then begin something that will become a regular feature of our day. Trying to find the footbridge / underpass and not seeing it for looking! The 'stationmaster' seeing two "be-hoodie-d" travellers lurking around his station just after 5:30 comes to our aid and we settle in for what was probably one of the longest 'delays' of our journey... waiting for the next train out to Chesham.

Frankly, by now, we've already lost track of the time... perhaps I should have written it down?! Doing all the branches of the Met line was already taking longer than I had thought it would. At Watford I wanted to drape my scarf all over the sign for the customary photo but thought better of it - if nothing else, it was flipping freezing. Having got as far as Harrow-on-the-Hill we then back-tracked towards Uxbridge as the sun rose. By now we were bordering on rush hour and by the time we caught a glimpse of Wembley Stadium's impressive arch, we were surrounded by glum-looking commuters.

Wembley is a special place for me and not only for its obvious footballing connections. Wembley Park station has been redeveloped and is a pretty welcoming place. However, it is also the place that I made my first toilet stop and so it will forever be worthy of my thanks. As we would discover later in the day, the closer you get to central London, the rarer these facilities become. On our second departure from Wembley, we side-step a packed and delayed fast train to trundle along the Jubilee line into the heart of London, surrounded by suits and ties. They accompany us until Canary Wharf, where the train heads towards West Ham and our third line of the morning - the painfully slow-moving District line towards Upminster. A long way out of the city and much greener than I expected, it took a long time to reach the end of the line before turning round and heading back again...

Next we head off to the top corner of the map and the Central line loop that takes in Epping and Woodford as well as the intriguingly named Theydon Bois and Fairlop as well as Grange Hill (which brings back childhood memories of its own...). Then after what seems like an age we're heading back through central London through, Bank, Holborn, Tottenham Court Road, Oxford Circus and on to Notting Hill Gate. By now we've been travelling for 6 or 7 hours so we stop for a quick bite of lunch, another toilet break and a breather...