This weekend I went to London, and for a change, the weather was lovely! I think it's the first time I've ever found better weather in London than in Paris. We had blue skies and temperatures in the 70s the whole weekend.
My cab driver from the newly renovated and gorgeous St. Pancras station, where the Eurostar now arrives, was a pink-faced, friendly guy. I had known that British cabbies, the envy of the world, had to study The Knowledge for years before being allowed a London taxi license. He told me that he had had 18 to 20 tests on his knowledge of streets and destinations within a six-kilometer radius of central London. That took a couple of years, but it doesn't mean you are allowed your license yet. Once you pass that part of the test, you have to spend at least another year learning all the routes to the various airports from twenty or so different areas around London. London has at least four airports (Gatwick, Heathrow, City and Stansted) so it's a formidable task.
I don't know how we got on this subject, but as we passed Trafalgar Square-- where there is an enormous ship in a bottle on a pedestal-- he told me that he had once witnessed a U.S. presidential motorcade crash.
"It was fifteen or twenty years ago," he said. "As the first car went by, it had to slam on the brakes for something, and the second car ran into it. Then the third car rammed into both of them and shoved them out of the way for the rest of the cars to pass. There wasn't even a moment's hesitation."
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