Weekend in England and Transit Days/Delays

I’m typing this on the train from Paris to Geneva and just noticed we were going 272 kilometers per hour. Would that we had such a train system at home ….

No pictures for this entry. 

Very fun weekend in Bristol, England. A reviewer met me at the train station for the “about 500 meter” walk which my phone later informed me was 975 meters but what’s a factor of two among friends. Not for the first time this trip, I was very pleased to have only a carry-on suitcase and a daypack. 

We took a “30 minutes, maybe an hour” walk that probably took nearly two hours but it was pleasant (until the end when I started getting hangry). Supposedly we walked around a lake but I think it was dry, though we did go through some farmers’ fields (beware sheep land mines), chat with two farmers who were deworming their sheep, and climb over a fence because apparently there was signage going the other way that it was not permissible to trespass but no such sign our way. And yes, there were blackberries, and close to a dozen caches (mostly wherigos for the cachers in the crowd). 

We then went to an event where we saw a few other friends, then to dinner (having eaten a very small breakfast and no lunch save a few blackberries, some Oreos from a generous friend, and a Luna bar, I was famished). We went to the pub across the parking lot from our lodging and chose the prix fixe 2-course meal. Fortunately, the server asked about food allergies and I mentioned ginger which turned out to be in both my appetizer (falafel, wasn’t expecting that) and my steak’s sauce (drippings, ditto). It took a lot to get it sorted out and I ended up having to get a trio of chocolate for dessert because there weren’t other interesting appetizers. Yes, I really did initially choose falafel over chocolate. 

Saturday was the Mega event. A minimum of 500 geocachers. It was held at a scout camp which worked out well with the lovely weather but would have been a disaster in the rain because there weren’t many covered spaces. I autographed a few books for friends, met the owner of PinPoint magazine which will have an article about my book in the fall issue, and a few people signed my copy (though so far, none have logged the travel bug). Then a nice dinner with a dozen of us, hosted by someone from Seattle. 

Sunday was not a pleasant travel day. I hiked(!) back to the train station and the train I’d intended to catch was about 5 minutes late. This meant that I missed the train to London and had to wait 30 minutes. Normally not a big deal, but the train was so crowded that I ended up standing at the very end of a train car for the entire 80-minutes late ride to London. Needless to say, I was more than a bit cranky by the time I arrived.

Then I walked to my lodging. Admittedly it was a bit before my 3pm check-in time. My room wasn’t quite ready yet but I was assured it would be within 5 minutes so I waited. Ten or so minutes later I returned and, at a glacial pace, was allowed to check in. 3rd floor. No lift (elevator). No available rooms lower. Grumble. So I hiked upstairs and found … the maid cleaning my room. Grumble, grumble, grumble. At least she was kind and competent, letting me in to the next door room where I could address my sweaty face with the in-room fan. And, alas, it was very warm in London so the lack of AC proved problematic, here’s hoping I sleep better my first night in Geneva (though now that I’m here and see a fan but no air conditioning I’m a bit disappointed). 

Back to London. By that point I’d decided that two consecutive train days was too many to repeat later in the trip. And while I’d be happy to return to Poland one day, I wasn’t especially excited about returning now given the “cost” of the train time. So I spent the afternoon exploring options — I needed both reasonable lodging and train service to the new location(s). Long story short, I’m extending my time in Austria, then going to Bled, Slovenia and Regensburg, Germany instead of Warsaw and Gdansk, Poland. And yes, I’ve cancelled my lodging, though I need to look more carefully at trains to see which, if any, I need to book in advance to secure seat reservations. 

My train experience hasn’t been great:

Rotterdam to Brussels to London worked fine (though I wasn’t able to book an earlier EuroStar, I didn’t have trouble making my connection). Local trains such as. Bath to Cardiff to Bath and Bath to Bristol have been fine. 

But the London to Bath was very late last week, the Bristol to London was a cluster, and today’s Eurostar from London to Paris was 90 minutes later which caused me to miss my train to Geneva (though I did get upgraded to first class on the train two hours later). I did meet a lovely family — mom, dad and nearly 13-year old daughter — from Yorkshire on the EuroStar which proved useful to all of us as we navigated the transfer from Paris Gare de Nord (north train station) to Gare de Lyon (a different Paris train station), found the customer service area, navigated the line (no signage but apparently if you’d missed your train due to a delay you were to go “over here” and then catch someone’s attention to help you). Needless to say, the process felt very French, with all of the negative connotations that implies. 

Needless to say, I’m pleased that I don’t have another set of two consecutive train days or (many) days where I need to take multiple trains. 

Alas, my arrival in Switzerland was a bit inauspicious since I happened not to notice a small step down and fall on my knee as I was leaving the train station. After collecting myself and standing up (but managing not to utter any four-letter words), a nice man lifted my suitcase for me and I went along my merry way. I’ll have an impressive bruise on my knee but otherwise no harm done to me or to my phone. 

Looking forward to exploring tomorrow, haven’t yet decided what to do, but that’s a project for after I shower and do some laundry.