The Joy of Non-Car Travel
Childhood is a time of intense experiences. As a child, I travelled by foot, bike and bus. Buses were the most magical forms of transport. Especially travelling at night, with dim yellow lighting, often getting as close to the cab as possible, where the single radiator would radiate some modest heat into the front of the bottom deck.
We travelled around by bus routes. As far as I know we never looked at a map. The total number of destinations were very limited: just the odd locations of Cardiff where relations had dispersed to, none of them very distant. Presumably at one point directions had been given to my mother, bus numbers and the final short journey by foot.
We never used, or knew timetables. We just walked to the bus stop and waited. We never seemed to wait that long. At that time the world going by was enough to keep me occupied until the bus did turn up. As I got a bit older I would travel more on my own, principally by bike. I never went anywhere outside of Cardiff. All of the city is, or at least at that time was, reachable by bike. I suppose that in reality there were plenty of remote parts of Cardiff I never made it to, and in fact will probably never make it to.
We travelled around by bus routes. As far as I know we never looked at a map. The total number of destinations were very limited: just the odd locations of Cardiff where relations had dispersed to, none of them very distant. Presumably at one point directions had been given to my mother, bus numbers and the final short journey by foot.
We never used, or knew timetables. We just walked to the bus stop and waited. We never seemed to wait that long. At that time the world going by was enough to keep me occupied until the bus did turn up. As I got a bit older I would travel more on my own, principally by bike. I never went anywhere outside of Cardiff. All of the city is, or at least at that time was, reachable by bike. I suppose that in reality there were plenty of remote parts of Cardiff I never made it to, and in fact will probably never make it to.