Traveling - Summer 2003

July 20, 2003

On July 20, 2003 my seventeen year old granddaughter Emily and I embarked on a great adventure.  Five weeks spent in each other's company, day and night, through thick and thin, from literally one end of Britain to the other, with a short detour across the English Channel and North Sea to get a glimpse of Norway. Fortunately we also spent a great deal of time with our British family so that when we got the urge to kill each other there were too many people around to pull it off.

On July 24 we were joined by my dear friend Kathy, whom neither Emily nor I had ever met before.  Kathy lives in Irvine, California and we both belong to an on-line reading group.  So this is the story of how a sixty-eight-year -old woman and her seventeen- year-old granddaughter from Arkansas and a lovely lady from Southern California happily traveled through as much of the U.K. as we possibly could, seeing the sights, having a wonderful time, and sampling just about every form of transportation that is  available, most of the time dragging way too much luggage along with us. It was a magic trip and we had a wonderful time

Emily and I left Little Rock at 3:30 p.m. on July 20 aboard an American Airlines EMBRAER RJ140 JET.  I put that in here because I wanted to state that it has to be the most miserably uncomfortable aircraft flying today.  Fortunately it's only an hour long flight from Little Rock to Dallas/Fort Worth, where we connected to a spacious and comfortable American Airlines Boeing 777 for the nine hour flight to Gatwick.   International airline traveling has obviously been drastically effected by the events of the past couple of years as both going over and coming back the plane was less than half full.  This worked out in our favor because there were enough empty seats that we were able to stretch out and sleep for four or five hours.  As a result I was in much better spirits when we arrived than I usually am after flying all night. 

One of my suitcases failed to arrive. This is the third time this has happened to me. Finally I am getting smart enough to pack a change of clothes in my carry- on case, I firmly believe that one can weather any crisis as long as you have a tooth brush and clean underwear. After doing all the necessary paperwork to get the suitcase delivered, we linked up with the Bob and Jenny and walked outside into the cool, fresh, breezy air. I cannot tell you how wonderful it felt after leaving Arkansas where the temperature was over 100 degrees.

Before we left my travel agent suggested to me that since we planned to do a lot of traveling the most economical way to do it was to buy a British Rail Flexipass. I am so glad that I listened to her because it gave us an unbelievable amount of flexibility and most of the time we traveled in the comfort of First Class carriages.

The down side to traveling First Class on British Rail is that the carriages tend to be at either the front or back of the train and when trains pull into the station they always stop so that the center of the train is just about at mid point of the platform.  If the train is very long, or if you are dragging a lot of luggage along behind you this can be a little inconvenient.   Or at least it is to an old woman with bad knees.  Also, not all trains have first class carriages. The lines that service the smaller towns and villages are usually just one or two railway carriages long and none too well maintained either. In Scotland it was definitely hit and miss, even between the larger towns.  But this is more of an observation rather than a complaint.  Taking the trips as they came was a great deal of the whole adventure. 

While in London we learned how to get around on the Underground system and by the time we made our third visit there we had started to feel completely comfortable on it.  Well, as comfortable as you can be on a crowded railway carriage that is hurtling through the dark. We soon learned to stay to the right on the escalators so that the folks who were in a hurry could dash past.  There is an unseen, very bossy person who gives loud warnings to "Mind the Gap" when you are boarding the train and informs you "Step Back!" in the lifts when the door is closing or fixing to open.

Since our budgets were limited, so were our experiences with the London Taxis.  We only rode them to and from the railway station on our first visit because we were dragging that mountain of luggage that I spoke about earlier, and when Emily and I went out one evening to see Mama Mia. The double decker tour bus turned out to be great value and I saw more of London this time than I ever have in the past.  We felt like seventeen pounds was rather pricey, but we all felt like we had gotten our money’s worth as the tickets were good  for unlimited travel in a 24 hour period. Several inter-city buses, a tour boat down Loch Ness, and a large ferry to Norway completed our sampling of the various forms of transportation we utilized to complete our odyssey. 

Emily's also kept a journal on this trip and I have included her version of our adventures.  I enjoy her perspective and she has graciously given me permission to include her entries along with mine.

Emily’s Side of the Story

On the plane they have TVs on the back of EVERY seat. I am watching "How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days," I have now watched this movie 3 times in the last day. Matthew McConahey is the MAN. I absolutely love this movie. It is soo funny. Grams is asleep...I can smell food being cooked, or heated up in the least. I have taken Dramamine and I suspect that I will be out as soon as I eat my food. Man, I just ate...wowzers...I had chicken and pasta, salad, a roll, ginger ale, and coconut pie...it was awesome. I am like..still wowed.. Anyway.... The plane is awesome..I don’t know if any of you readers have ever been on an international flight...but..wow..Grams and I have 5 seats to ourselves, I am on one end and she on the other...3 in between. Grams is sacking out again.

Bathroom is huge...well, if you could call it that...but anyway..it has a camper bathroom smell though. I miss "old flame"...I don’t know if he has tried to call...I know that I called him a few times and left him messages, but you can’t use your cellphone on the plane. Plus, even if you could...there isn't any service. I miss him....a lot.

Ha-ha the dog on this movie, is awesome. A Chinese Crested. The whole movie is worth it when you see the dog- plus when he pees on the pool table. We are right around the Chicago area...I can watch our progression on a screen..never mind now we are right outside of Detroit. Our estimated arrival time in London is 9:50 AM... we are 37000 feet in the air..-52 degrees fahrenheit outside. Pretty cold...it is 1016 here..316 there. 5 hours ahead there..6 hours ahead from Arkansas.3333