Walkers' Adventures in Great Britain

By Marilyn Walker

Marilyn and John Walker are members of that highly desirable demographic: retired, healthy, active and ready to leave home for adventures. In the spring of 2015, we visited England, Wales and Scotland for six weeks, traveling by train and motor coach and bus and bicycle. We were assisted by strangers when we were lost or puzzled. We saw historical sights we've read about in novels. We admired history museums and art galleries, modern and ancient architecture and scenic ruins. We had wonderful weather and drenching rain. We took lots of pictures but no selfies. This narrative is entirely personal, with no politics or viewpoint or uplifting message. It's just for fun.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Marilyn Walker
• Release date: Jul 14, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311073709

Book preview

Walkers' Adventures in Great Britain

May 8 – June 19, 2015

Chapter 1: SFO to Heathrow

Yikes. A BART Service Advisory, posted 5 minutes ago! I exclaimed. "Major delays from Bay Fair Station, disabled equipment on the track! We routinely ride BART to the SFO International Terminal, taking 55 minutes. Because our obliging neighbors are out of town, we had already arranged a taxi from home to the Bay Fair BART station, pickup in a half hour. Now John called the taxi back.

We need to change our destination to San Francisco Airport, he requested. The price is $79 plus $5 for the bridge toll. Okay, he agreed. It is far too late to make any other arrangements. The cab is a handsome black town-car, not an ordinary beat-up taxi. The driver brought us swiftly to the terminal, stopping outside the Virgin Atlantic entry door. In fact, we were there so fast, the ticket counter would not open for another ten minutes.

The new luggage is a big success. The four swivel wheels fully support the bag and the carry-on luggage and roll very well on the smooth floors at home and in the airport. The old luggage had become quite shabby. Last week, I put those two bags outside at the sidewalk, with a big sign FREE and they were taken away immediately, to my satisfaction.

Soon the counters opened for business. The high price for the Virgin Atlantic Upper Class brings us a very short wait, then a friendly and courteous check-in.

We met our goal for luggage weight, under 20 kilos each by the airline's scale. While the airline's weight allowance is much higher, we will have a 20-kilo limit imposed by the luggage transfer service for the three bicycle tours in the future, plus we'll be lugging the bags ourselves quite often. Older buildings do not have lifts. It was very much in our interests to pack as lightly as possible. Because 20 kilos is 44 pounds, we're satisfied that we'll have everything we want. Or if not, well, they have shops in the U.K.

Immediately we went to the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse. The lounge is a very attractive, large room, with a bar, stylish furniture, attentive waitstaff. While many business class lounges have a buffet, here we order beverages and food from a menu. Neither of us is hungry, and it is too early for alcohol, so we order green tea. John orders the cheese plate and praises the tasty cheese and chutney.

The lounge is outside security, which concerned me a bit. The club manager reassured me that he will check the security gate ahead of time and announce reminders when it is time to go. You have priority access at security, he pointed out, so there really is nothing to worry about. He showed us around, pointed out the shower and restrooms, explained the service.

We read today's San Francisco Chronicle and yesterday's Daily Telegraph from London. Checking email with the lounge's wi-fi reveals that an e-book I had on hold is now available, A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler. I had it on hold both as a physical book and as an e-book, and the e-book came available first. I downloaded the book to my Kindle Paperwhite reader, my favorite e-reading device, and then canceled the hold on the physical book.

I also have the e-book version of Spider Woman's Daughter, by Anne Hillerman, daughter of Tony Hillerman. She has continued Tony's Navajo Mystery series featuring the characters Jim Chee, Bernadette Manuelito and Joe Leaphorn. We've both read all of Tony's books and I thought it was over when the author passed away. Anne writes a sentimental but readable story and continues the series very well.

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline and The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith are less to my taste but I'm not ready to return them yet.

I put everything else in my library hold queue on freeze which means that I will keep the same position in the queue until I unfreeze. Thus it won't be my turn until I can go to the library to collect them. Except I missed one, darn it, about Alan Turing solving the Enigma machine. We saw the movie lately, but I found it unsatisfactory and wanted to read the book. Unfortunately, I waited a day too long to establish the freeze and discovered my copy was already in transit to the library. Darn. I canceled it, can't bring a physical book away for six weeks. I've put it back on hold and freeze for later.

A woman failed to mind her backpack as she sat down at the next table, knocking over my water glass, so we had to snatch my electronics and John's crossword puzzle out of harm's way. The waitstaff were there instantly, mopping up the spill. She apologized profusely. Luckily, no water got where it didn't belong.

Boarded the airplane, settled into the narrow but comfortable pods. Departure at 17:30. The first couple hours are bouncy, until the plane is past the Rocky Mountains. Once the moving map shows Montana, the air becomes less turbulent and doesn't threaten to spill beverages.

John brought along a good supply of crossword puzzles.

The airplane has a bar for the Upper Class passengers, not just serving drinks from a cart. In fact, there is no cart at all. The flight attendants open the pod's large table, set it with linen and tableware, and serve the dinner. I had pre-ordered the low-sodium meal, which I forgot about until the flight attendant asked my preference.

The low-sodium is chicken and rice, she informed me.

I would like the beef instead, I replied. Is that okay?

Certainly, she answered.

When we're ready to retire, the flight attendant touches a button and the seat back tilts forward, forward, forward until it's flat on its face and its backside becomes the mattress of a narrow flat bed. She spreads pad and comforter over it, organizing the seat belt on top. They offer a caftan to change into, but nobody takes advantage. The amenities bag has useful items: a toothbrush and paste, eye cover, socks, pen, lotion, etc.

John never before has been able to achieve sleep on an airplane. With the lay-flat he is just able to go under for short periods but has learned to at least recline in meditative languor. Because our night isn't exactly an earthly local night, the shades are down and the flight attendants pop by to close any that are inadvertently open. John opens to see the night. There are constellations but not enough of the sky can be seen to know which they are. Because of a combination of our northerly great circle, the season of long days, and our thirty thousand or so feet of altitude, the Boreal horizon is never dark. It glows with a gradient that fades into deep-blue then black. At the base of the glow is a mottled narrow zone resembling a layer of cloud, red with sunset. At some time John notices a thin glow rather like mist but with structure. The glow increases a little and it is the Aurora – distinctive by its uncloudlike vertical towers, shafting toward space. For half-an-hour the Aurora glows faintly. Then it is gone.

It's possible to doze for long periods, if not sleep deeply. Then more food.

The plane landed at 11:30 am, somewhat late as we had to circle Heathrow for twenty minutes or so, but nothing serious. Immigration features a priority lane, short wait, then nothing to declare for customs and we cross the UK border. We're rolling.

Chapter 2: Canterbury

We follow the signs for the Underground station. I purchased Oyster cards for visitors a few weeks ago, paying a few pounds extra to have them mailed home. Thus we did not have to wait in a ticket line for tube tickets, and we get the discount price per ride. The Oyster cards work like Clipper cards at home, tag in at the first station and tag out at the last station.

It's a 55 minute tube ride into London. The car fills up until mid-town, then begins to empty back out. When the seats our luggage blocked were needed, we shifted the bags into the entry area; on its side each is perfectly stable and safe. Happily, the Picadilly line goes directly from the airport to St Pancras station. Had we taken the Heathrow Express, it would have been 15 minutes travel but it doesn't go to the correct train station, so there would have been time lost in changing to the tube for a few more stops. Overall it made perfect sense to take the tube all the way and it's lots cheaper.

Once at St Pancras, we found a kiosk to print the train tickets to Canterbury that I purchased online six or eight weeks ago. About half the train tickets are of the sort that require the kiosk, where we key in the reference number for the purchase and insert the credit card that I used to buy them. They have magnetic stripes on the back, so home printed e-tickets don't work. It's not hard, once you read the kiosk menu to figure it out.

I had to register with six different train companies in England to obtain all the necessary tickets for the trip. There is a central website to select the source and destination for a journey, which then transfers to a different website to make the purchase. Once on the website, I can get a discount by using a railcard.

The British railway companies offer discount prices with various cards. The Senior Card costs £30 (each) and the Two Together card costs £30 for both of us. The 30 percent discount from the cards recoups the cost by the many train journeys on our itinerary. The Two Together card required submission of two photographs. Happily I still had the passport-type photos that we took for our Cambodian visa late last year, very suitable for the purpose. The website required a UK address to mail the card. Back before Christmas, I emailed a tour operator, Compass Holidays, from whom we are chartering a bicycle tour. She graciously agreed to let me send the railcard to her business address, and would forward the card, together with the tour materials, as a parcel to our home address, with the cost of postage added to my final invoice.

Turns out that the Royal Mail had some issues