Arrived safe & sound in London. :)

So, the first of my 6 flights is done and over with! Not without a few stories, though. :) The woman seated next to me looked to be in her mid-50's, very prim and proper. We exchanged a few niceties but she was more interested in complaining about how airline service has deteriorated over the years, and doing her makeup, which she did, three times.

I think she would have been even more horrified than I to realize that a woman behind us was slowly inching her bare feet up the backs of our arm rests and into our personal space. I don't have any issues with feet except when they belong to strangers and encroach upon my personal space. Lucky for Ms. Prim & Proper, she was in the washroom when it happened, although she may have been wondering why I kept looking behind both sides of me (obviously trying to head off a foot ambush).

Flight went quickly, I might have slept a little although I don't know how much. Managed to find the right train station that took me to the subway that took me to the bus that took me to my hotel. However, I almost fell backwards down an escalator (made an incredulous save), got my luggage stuck in the subway doors as they were closing and required 3 gentlemen and 1 lady to help me get out of that mess (thank goodness), and missed my hotel by several stops. And to top it off, even though I was able to check in early, the gentleman who showed me my room beat a very hasty retreat when he realized that there were some loud extra-curricular activities going on in the room next door. Ha!

Oh, but the best thing? I forgot to mention that when Ms. P&P and I were getting acquainted, she asked me if I was on my "gap year."  Isn't a gap year students take to travel in between finishing school and starting work?? Awesome!!... I fooled HER. :) Naw, I fessed up to being a teacher. I just didn't let on that my gap year would have been 13 years ago.  I'll just cherish that accidental compliment for a while. :D

Meeting with the wonderful S tomorrow after I change hotels. Not sure yet what to do today or tomorrow. I was trying to arrange a tour to Stonehenge but it didn't happen. Honestly, I might just take this time to relax! :)

Cheers

E!

The last leg and the trip home

Hello from England!


Friday March 23rd

All-you-can-eat breakfast at our hotel, which was great because it came with entertainment too: a rugby team. They were older teenagers of formidable size & appetite, in various states of black-eyes and bruises.

Close to our hotel live the parents (Peter and Mary) of one of Ted's good friends (Ben), so we wanted to say hello. To our delight, not only did they insist on coming to pick us up, but they had us over for tea. They live in a cute brick home that backs onto a large field and countryside. They also keep a lovely garden and a couple of chickens, named Boss and Heather. They brought them out of the coop and showed us how tame they were. I got to pet them and even hold Heather! Loved it, haha. They very generously offered to drive us to the airport tomorrow and feed us some fish n' chips before we go!

After our visit with them, we headed to the train to meet up with another couple of Ted's friends, Russ & Rachel. Russ drove us to Old Trafford, so that I could see where Manchester United plays. This was quite the sacrifice for him as he is a rather devout Leeds fan. He and Ted were trading gibes the whole time we were in the car. :)

Russ and Rachel drove us into downtown Manchester and took us around the city. So gracious they were, in fact, that they arranged for us to see the Queen! It's true, the Queen was in Manchester and was drawing quite the crowd. By the time we figured out what was going on, there she was, driving past us with her royal wave on display. Tee hee! I saw the Queen!

Manchester has a lot of character and the buildings seem to be a mix of modern/contemporary, and traditional/historical. Really, who can ask for more than that? We walked about town, took in some street markets, buskers, performances, and of course stopped into a few coffee shops and pubs. A little later we met up with some more friends of Russ & Rachel's and headed to dinner.

The place they chose was East is East and it was an excellent Indian restaurant. Upstairs it was quite posh, more like a lounge or a bar. Downstairs was a full-sized restaurant. The menu was huge, I think there was a hundred items on it. We started with some large flat crisps and a variety of dips, naan, samosas... And then I ordered some tiger prawns in some kind of tomato cream sauce (mild of course). It was delicious and a welcome change from what we had been eating on this two-week excursion.

Russ and Rachel graciously took us back to our hotel and we settled in for the night. Tomorrow, a real English football (soccer) game!


Saturday March 24th

Breakfast at the hotel and then some extensive packing since we'd be checking our luggage that evening. Once we were done, Peter and Mary picked us up and surprised us by giving us a little tour of Horwich, Chorley, and more of the countryside. It was a beautiful day, and according to them, most unusual for this time of year.

We came back to the Reebok Stadium in Bolton to watch an English Premier League football match between the Bolton Wanderers and the Blackburn Rovers. It's quite the experience! Ted is a fan of ManU, but there were not ManU games scheduled this weekend. However, Ted enjoys a great game of football and a great game it was. It started with both teams paying homage to a player on the Bolton team who had had a heart attack a few days earlier. It was pretty exciting, although I asked Ted a zillion questions and we had to be careful what we said since we were sitting in the Bolton fan zone. Cheering, chanting, singing... It was a fun time.

After the game, we walked back to Peter and Mary's, and I visited the chickens straightaway. They were proud to present me with the 2 eggs they had laid. :) We had one more good visit over the fish & chips, and off we went to the airport. Our flight was a short one, only to London, where we would crash for the night before our long flight home in the morning.

We had booked this one night at easyHotel, which is kind of like inserting yourself into a bento box. It's very cheap, and I think it's a great option for people who only need a bed to crash in for a few hours. Ted wanted to stay in the airport all night, but I was not a fan of the idea. So, easyHotel it was. Tiny, tiny room. No windows. Tiny, tiny bathroom. No free TV. No extra towels. If you stay more than one night (and why would you?) they don't clean your room until you leave. I thought it was a great idea, for a few hours. Ted, not so much. Maybe our awesome hotels in France spoiled him. Orrrrrr maybe it was the two ants he saw on the floor. Anyways, we inspected it (especially the bed), and it was clean. Coupla ants didn't phase ME. Still, it was good to get outta there.


Sunday March 25th

Early rise this morning. Private car hire to Heathrow. Breakfast at the airport. Air Canada seemingly not on strike. Long flight. We flew over Stanley Park and Downtown Vancouver, and over SFU and I could see our place from the little airplane window. A grin stretched ear-to-ear for the whole way down. Home, sweet home!

Cheers,
E!

The Trying Train Travel Tour

Hello from Britain!


Thursday March 22nd

Today is our big travel day. We have to wake up at 7:30am (the earliest we've done so far on this trip!) and make our way to the train station. Our train leaves Biarritz just before 10:00am and we will arrive at our hotel in Northern England (Horwich, to be specific) at around 11:00pm. It will be a long day.

A few random observations as we get ready to leave France...
- I've seen several people wearing berets. Very cute!
- We almost ate at the "Steack" house near to our hotel but Ted said he couldn't do it on grounds of poor spelling.
- Automated stores: kind of like a huuuuge vending machine that looks like a store window on one side and an ATM on the other.
- Every French city we've been to has a carousel somewhere in it. Not a whole carnival, just the carousel.
- Each elevator has its own call button. There might be 4 elevators, but you call them individually.
- At restaurants, nobody comes by mid-meal to check on you. And they don't bring the bill unless you ask for it. I'm guessing the French might find our system at home kind of rude?
- Pelote Basque! Also known as Jai Alai. Why didn't I know about this sport? There are courts everywhere. Alain explained it to us. Emily's dad played professionally. Ted says it was featured in the opening credits of Miami Vice. Where have I been, under a rock?

Saw my first purse dog at the Biarritz train station. Wretched little thing yapped at every passerby, and according to Ted, bit her owner in a frenzy of madness. I have oohed and ahhed over lots of dogs on this trip, but not that one.

In Bordeaux, a bunch of police got on the train, looking for... we don't know what. But it did lead me to a bunch of bad jokes about the BoDoPoPo. The train ride from Biarritz to Paris was about 6 hours, and then we needed to change train stations from Paris Monparnasse to Paris Nord - not far across the city, but far enough. We had 2 hours to do it, or so we thought.

Our train was rather long and crowded, as everybody and their dog (quite literally) seemed to be going to Paris. When we got off the train (which had arrived in Paris 20 minutes late), we needed to walk the length of it back to the main part of the station, amidst all of the trembling smokers who immediately lit up after exiting the coach. Sheesh. While waiting at the taxi stand, I noticed a huge pile of cigarette butts on the ground too. Ok Paris, you seem to have combatted dog poop, now can you start dealing with people throwing their disgusting-habit-trash on the ground?

Our driver took us through the stop-and-go rush hour traffic as quickly as one could go, but when we arrived at the station it was only 30 minutes before our next train left. We still had to fill out our landing cards, go through France customs, go through English customs, and go through security. Oh wait... What's this? Our train is leaving 15 minutes EARLY?? What the...! What a nightmare. We were running through the station and didn't have time to stop and tell the attendant who said "we cannot guarantee that you will make the train" that it certainly isn't fair to sell a non-refundable ticket and then move the train time up without any reasonable notice. Not that more notice would have helped us anyways, we got from A to B as fast as we could have.

Anyways, we did make it on the train, with 2 minutes to spare. Unfortunately some girls had taken our seats and we had to wait for them to vacate before we could sit down. All was sorted out though. At some point Ted reminded me that because England and France are different time zones, the train ride was actually 2 hours instead of the 1 that our ticket seemed to indicate. So all in all, it will be a 14 hour travel day. And so far, no dinner...

When we arrived in London, we needed to walk a couple of blocks from the London St. Pancras station to the London Euston station. Once we got there, we needed to retrieve our tickets at a kiosk, but we only had a 10 digit code and they were asking for a 8 digit code (of course). Worse, the main office's computer was down, so they directed us to the general ticket area, which of course had a long line.

Anyways, we got our tickets with time to spare, I managed to grab some snacks from the Marks & Spencer at the station, and we headed down to the platform in anticipation of this 2 hour leg of our journey. We got on the train. People were in our seats. Of course. Then an announcement came on that said all of the reserved seating was messed up. So Ted and I spent our 2+ hour train ride standing in the alcove beside the toilet!! Ted did his best to calm me but I was choked. And tired. And hungry, but I didn't feel much like eating with people going to and from the restroom mere inches away. Sigh.

It was fine, though. We got to Manchester, took another train to Bolton and then another train to Horwich Parkway. By then it was 11pm. The hotel was directly outside the train station and was a welcome sight!

Tomorrow, we explore Manchester! Almost time to come home!
E!