Yesterday Friday the 13th, we travelled from London to Portsmouth by train. We are both glad to get out of London, it is crowded and the exhaust fumes had me coughing/choking much of the time not to mention how expensive it is - a cup of coffee with a meal was £2.50 the equivalent of about $4.70 Canadian and the refill was the same, OUCH!
typical British rail station
Steps leading up and over the tracks to get you to the other side
Train track or roadway going overtop of our train tracks
Being Friday the 13th the day was destined to be fraught with lots of little annoyances. Our first came when we got to Waterloo station and could not find out which of the 20 odd platforms our train was leaving from. All the signage had blank Platform numbers when it came to our destination. Questioning many people who worked there did not help. Even the people at information couldn't tell me even when the train was due to leave in 15 minutes. We were directed to just keep an eye on the announcement boards and we would see it there. We just kept asking people we thought might know and finally hit on one rail worker who said, "just a minute I'll check", whipped out his cell phone, looked up his app and said it will be at platform 12, but it is running late, then he walked us to the platform entrance.
Next little hiccup was getting to the right station in Portsmouth. Again with a little talking to people, we found out that the train we were on was not going to get us as close to the seaport as we could be. So we changed trains and got where we needed to be. The conductor on the train went above and beyond, by giving us good instructions and when we mentioned we would be getting a taxi from the train, he told us of a company that had more reasonable rates. Then, when he found out we did not have a cell phone, he phoned for the taxi for us and even gave us the color, make, model and license number, so we would get the right one.
As we arrived at the station he got the train security guard who was riding on the train with us, to get us to the taxi, he even helped carry our bags down the stairs for us (no elevator at this platform). As luck would have it, he knew where we were from and in 3 weeks he is going to be visiting friend on Vancouver Island so was keen for any info.
I have to say we have met some very friendly and accommodating people so far in our journey. Taxi drivers (and we used many already) always friendly, courteous and interested and interesting; the pub patrons that we struck up conversations with; the hotel front desk worker who helped carry our luggage down stairs this morning when we left the hotel, because the elevator was out of service; the train conductor and security guard, to name just a few.
Our train journey was uneventful, but I am very annoyed at the British. I was hoping to see some lovely countryside and scenery along the way, but they have annoyingly put these trees and hedges all along the line so that you only get brief little snippets of a view. something to do with noise abatement. Well, really, I never.....
We checked our bags at the ferry and then went off to find something to eat and wander about town a bit. We had a great lunch at a place called "The Fleet".
We met Charles Dickens out side the Guild Hall along the way, apparently he was born here.
A capital at the top of a column on the Guild Hall - I love how they are all different and I never noticed till I blew up the picture that there is actually some king of screening in front of these - I am only guessing that it is to keep the small birds from nesting in those lovely little platforms
We were able to board the ferry at 8:30 although it did not embark until 11:15PM. This is our little room, complete with bathroom, for the night.
The view from our boat
Night, night, we'll talk to you again tomorrow
No comments:
Post a Comment