This is the 30th (and
final) of a series of posts recalling my trip to Europe,
using e-mails sent at the time. Unlike
later trips, I didn’t e-mail people everyday.
Trip reports are largely as I wrote them at the time with two
exceptions: I was usually pretty rushed due to Internet fees in Europe, so I’ve cleaned up my e-mails to make them more
coherent, which wasn’t a priority at the time.
Also, in some blog posts I’ll add additional thoughts with the hindsight
of nine years later or to add further clarification. I’ll use “NOW” in such cases.
This final
report covers my Eurostar ride from Brussels to London, my flight to Vancouver,
and my ferry ride to Victoria.
Got
up early at Brussels and went to the Midi station to catch the Eurostar. I actually arrived just in time for an
earlier train but unfortunately could not change my reservation. The train ride itself ran smoothly; unlike my
arrival in France,
I did not go into brief system shock upon exiting the Chunnel.
[NOW:
Many people think of the Chunnel as being strictly London
to France but there’s also a
London to Brussels
route.]
Accidently
left my London map on the train so had to buy a
new one; London
charges more than other places for tourist maps: L1.85 (most tourist bureaus
just give you one or charge a tiny amount).
Got price quotes for the bus and for Gatwick Express train but not
regular train so walked from Waterloo Station to London Bridge Station (near
where I had stayed) to find out the amount.
Turns out that all prices are fairly similar and my remaining pounds
would not cover both lunch and a ticket.
[NOW:
The Eurostar train now arrives in London
at St. Pancras rather than Waterloo Station.]
Since
I hadn't really eaten yet I opted for a L40 withdraw and, after completing the
circuit described in the rest of this paragraph, grabbed a lunch at a restaurant
which I had bought two dinners from last month (they charge less for take-out
than eat in so I did that). I checked
about leaving my bag at the station. No
baggage storage there but there was one at the place I had just been to.
Sigh. I finally decided against it because it was
not where I wanted to go. Walked to the Tower of London
where I was considering visiting, passing the HMS Belfast and crossing the Tower Bridge.
Cost was L12 (about $25 Can) so I decided against it again. I'm not *that* curious to see the Crown
Jewels.
Crossing
the London Bridge
and had the aforementioned lunch, then grabbed the metro to Westminster (Big Ben). I had forgotten how pricey the metro is here
(L1.60 or about $3.50) but it at least let me get rid of some coins from
earlier on in the trip that had gotten stained when a ketchup package broke.
[NOW:
Nearly accidently left behind my map again by the Tower of London.
A couple was looking at it when I double backed. At first they didn’t back the
connection between the map they found and the one I was looking for, but I
finally got it back.]
Took
more pics of Big Ben (you can never get enough pics of Big Ben) then headed to Buckingham Palace.
People kept asking me during the trip to take their picture for them so
when one did so near Big Ben I asked her to return the favour. Hopefully she got the clock in the picture.
[NOW:
The photo turned out fine. Around this time I also got a great photo of a goose
looking prim and proper.]
I
walked to Piccadilly Circus, which is listed
as a tourist attraction but really isn't that interesting, just another
shopping street, albeit a slightly wealthier one. On the way to Victoria Station as security
van was stopped, and a message kept repeating over and over from it:
"Help, help! [Unintelligible] Please call the police!" I would have liked to help but didn't know
where a pay phone was or what the police's number was.
At
Victoria Station caught the Gatwick Express to the airport. At the airport they actually weigh carry on
baggage so the "put your heavy stuff in your carry-on" trick didn't
work. However, even after moving some
hardcovers to my storage baggage, the weight was still low enough to avoid a
fee. Given how much pain I was in from
carrying the stuff, I was happily surprising.
[I
also got a photo of a strange sign with different combinations of gate numbers,
but with all the arrows pointed in the same direction.]
My
boarding pass coupon fell out of the boarding pass itself at a book store, but
managed to recover it.
Nearly
ate at a pizza place but McDonald's had a special deal involving their Smarties
dessert (McFlurry) so my sweet tooth activated.
[NOW:
I may have eaten at the pizza place before the boarding pass incident; I seem
to recall that happening just before boarding the plane.]
The plane
ride was okay for a nine hours non-stop flight.
I had requested a window seat not near the wing and there were fewer
clouds than usual so hopefully I got some decent shots. Only picture problems were sun shining right
into window, and most of Vancouver
upon landing being on the other side of the plane. I chatted a bit with an old lady near me.
[NOW:
If memory serves we politely disagreed on a number of things, nbut it helped to
pass the time.]
I didn't
bother with the in flight movies, though I'll probably see them eventually back
here, maybe via the library. I noticed
that the movies blocked the "current location screens" at about the
same points as on the way there, so I suspect that the intervening locations
aren't even programmed in.
Deliberately
drank a lot of caffeine (Coke, coffee, tea) on the plane because I knew it
would be evening upon arriving and didn't want to be sleepy prematurely.
At Customs
the declaration occurred even before recovering our storage baggage. It would
seem to make it difficult if they need to search your baggage but that was not
my problem.
Arranged
to meet friend downtown Vancouver,
a tricky process:
First
find a bank machine, then wait a while at information to find out where you can
get change for bus (already had money for phone), follow somewhat faulty
directions, repack bag when contents spill on ground, get change, find bus
stop, transfer at mid-stop (a bit confusing itself: they now have a stop at
Airport Station which is not actually located at the airport; it took me a
moment or so to figure that one out), take B-Line to Granville Station.
[NOW:
Vancouver has
since changed their transit system and closed Airport Station. To get to
downtown Vancouver
from the airport now, you now take a Canada Line Skytrain from the airport
straight to there. By the way, the Vancouver
airport is in Richmond, now Vancouver.]
The friend
lives at West Vancouver but Lion's Gate Bridge
was closed so we took the scenic route.
The friend was going to Tsawwassen next morning so got a lift to
ferry. Unfortunately no 8 am ferry or
else would have arrived home an hour sooner, but finally made it.
[NOW:
I’ve since lost track of the friend unfortunately.]
I forgot
to mention before: in Amsterdam
they have what are called smart shops, as in if you're smart, you won't shop
there. They specialize in the kind of drugs
that take half an hour, and then really kick in. As with coffee shops didn't feel the need for
this particular experience.
So
ends the trip e-mails. I'm amending a
previous comment:
I am
willing to talk about the trip, particularly the facts. They may be some emotional aspects that I
won't want to get into, but we can take those on a case by case basis. Otherwise, it is okay to ask questions about
the trip.
[NOW:
Of course after all these years I can now talk pretty freely about the trip
without getting upset.]
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