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Travel Tip: Always use the lifts at the train stations in London. It is called the Underground for a reason. It is literally underground. In 2007 my younger sister and I flew to London as our starting and ending point of our seven-week UK & Western Europe trip. Upon arriving, we left the airport and caught the tube from the airport to Russell Square in central London. Getting off the tube we noticed everyone immediately lining up for the lift. Being first-time travellers and fresh to the UK, rather than waiting with the huge crowd, we naively thought it would be quicker to take the stairs. With our heavy suitcases, we began the ascent. We did not pass many people on our way up at all which we thought was odd. Expecting it just to be a couple of flight of stairs to the top we were shocked when we realised that the huge queue for the lifts was actually for a very good reason. We stopped several times as we struggled out of breath with our bags. I was so grateful when a family came up behind us. The father grabbed my suitcase and took off at speeds I could not keep up with. Whilst his wife and son together struggled to carry my sister's suitcase for her. Our hearts were racing, legs were fatiguing and stinging with lactic acid and our hands stressed from gripping onto the railing which we were using to pull ourselves up each step. It was such a shock to our bodies, we felt so out of shape. And this was only day one. Fear then set in that the man may take off with my suitcase, however, I was so pleased to see it sitting at the top of the stairs when I finally reached the top. I collapsed on the ground with exhaustion, only to be told by a laughing station master I could not sit there. So regretfully and slowly pulled myself up again. We could hardly breathe let along believe what we had just done. At least we had truly learned our lesson from the experience and were more patient with waiting in line from then on. That night when we could walk again, we decided to catch the tube vowing to wait and take the lift, we noticed a large sign saying 'Please use the lift. This staircase has 175 stairs equivalent to 15 floors. Do not use except in the case of an emergency'. Who knows how we missed this sign in the first place?!