2006 Vacation in Europe, Part One
The Devil In The Details
The overall layout of the trip was as follows:
On Thursday, we drove down to Atlanta to Hartsfield, checked in, and met up with the Chipmans in the airport. After a slight delay, we boarded the British Airways 777 and took our seats in the business class section of the plane (which explains the cost). I've never flown anything but coach, so this was kind of new. The legroom is better, and there are little TVs in the backs of the seats in front of you, but other than that there wasn't much difference.
After an eight-hour flight (and losing five hours to the time difference), we touched down in London, England on Friday morning at Gatwick airport, thereby avoiding any concerns I might have had about the baggage-retrieval systems they've got at Heathrow. One of the first things I saw at the airport was a W.H. Smith's bookstore, which prompted some irritating Monty Python-quoting on my part (the bookshop sketch, yes).
We took the metro trains to Waterloo station, where the Eurostar trains arrive and depart for Paris, France and Brussels, Belgium. The Chipmans went ahead and took their train to Brussels for the first leg of our journey, while Sarah and I stayed in London to meet up with her friends Brandon and Gilly, themselves on vacation. Happy chance led them to find us, rather than us having to stumble blindly about seeking them.
Since they were far more familiar with London than we, they led us on a rather soggy whirlwind tour of some of the high points: Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, and Tower Bridge. It pissed down rain most of the time we were out, forcing us at one point to seek refuge in a pub. Good beer, bad food.
This is an important point to remember about London: Good beer, bad food. Maybe I'm being a little unjust, but the food was uniformly bland, and not terribly appealing. Keep in mind, of course, that I speak from limited experience. As with all else, your mileage may vary.
After a ride on a double-decker bus, and a trip through the London Underground (which fans of A Fish Called Wanda will correctly recall is NOT a political movement), we made our way back to Waterloo Station to catch our own Eurostar train.
Here is another important point to know if you're going to take one of these trains: you go through a security scan more-or-less identical to that of an airport, but you cannot check any baggage. I had tossed my pocketknife into my checked baggage prior to getting on the plane: no problem there. It was still in my bag when I went through the Eurostar terminal. Problem. After a long-winded lecture from the pissant security screener, and a more civil discussion with the supervisor, I was presented with two options: allow them to confiscate my knife, or have them call the police to come confiscate my ass. Option One was the more favorable of the two, so I went with it.
I'm still pissed about the knife. But the incident did provide a useful education.
The Eurostar train travels to Brussels by way of the Channel Tunnel. This is cool only in an abstract sense, as the only thing you really see of it from the train is...well...a tunnel. And my ears popped continually as we traveled through it, which is no fun at all. Making the journey at night gives you no opportunity to enjoy the countryside. Should you find yourself doing this, avail yourself of the 2.5-hour travel time and catch a nap.
Arriving in Brussels, we were met at the station by Bill, who had some useful and hard-earned information about getting to the hotel at which we would stay the night (a Hilton Residence Inn). Thanks to him, we avoided the Chipmans' earlier ordeal of being at the wrong station, not being able to find restrooms for the kids, and generally being lost. We had an excellent dinner at a little Italian restaurant near the hotel, washed it down with a few more beers, made our way to the hotel, and slept like logs.
To be continued...!
The overall layout of the trip was as follows:
- The participants: Myself and Sarah, and her friends, Bill and Lydia Chipman, and their children, Roan (9 years old), Bronwyn (4 years old), and Liam (2 years old).
- The destination: Landstuhl, Germany, and points beyond.
- Stayed at the Hotel Merkur, a most excellent four-star hotel, which I highly recommend.
On Thursday, we drove down to Atlanta to Hartsfield, checked in, and met up with the Chipmans in the airport. After a slight delay, we boarded the British Airways 777 and took our seats in the business class section of the plane (which explains the cost). I've never flown anything but coach, so this was kind of new. The legroom is better, and there are little TVs in the backs of the seats in front of you, but other than that there wasn't much difference.
After an eight-hour flight (and losing five hours to the time difference), we touched down in London, England on Friday morning at Gatwick airport, thereby avoiding any concerns I might have had about the baggage-retrieval systems they've got at Heathrow. One of the first things I saw at the airport was a W.H. Smith's bookstore, which prompted some irritating Monty Python-quoting on my part (the bookshop sketch, yes).
We took the metro trains to Waterloo station, where the Eurostar trains arrive and depart for Paris, France and Brussels, Belgium. The Chipmans went ahead and took their train to Brussels for the first leg of our journey, while Sarah and I stayed in London to meet up with her friends Brandon and Gilly, themselves on vacation. Happy chance led them to find us, rather than us having to stumble blindly about seeking them.
Since they were far more familiar with London than we, they led us on a rather soggy whirlwind tour of some of the high points: Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, and Tower Bridge. It pissed down rain most of the time we were out, forcing us at one point to seek refuge in a pub. Good beer, bad food.This is an important point to remember about London: Good beer, bad food. Maybe I'm being a little unjust, but the food was uniformly bland, and not terribly appealing. Keep in mind, of course, that I speak from limited experience. As with all else, your mileage may vary.
After a ride on a double-decker bus, and a trip through the London Underground (which fans of A Fish Called Wanda will correctly recall is NOT a political movement), we made our way back to Waterloo Station to catch our own Eurostar train.
Here is another important point to know if you're going to take one of these trains: you go through a security scan more-or-less identical to that of an airport, but you cannot check any baggage. I had tossed my pocketknife into my checked baggage prior to getting on the plane: no problem there. It was still in my bag when I went through the Eurostar terminal. Problem. After a long-winded lecture from the pissant security screener, and a more civil discussion with the supervisor, I was presented with two options: allow them to confiscate my knife, or have them call the police to come confiscate my ass. Option One was the more favorable of the two, so I went with it.
I'm still pissed about the knife. But the incident did provide a useful education.
The Eurostar train travels to Brussels by way of the Channel Tunnel. This is cool only in an abstract sense, as the only thing you really see of it from the train is...well...a tunnel. And my ears popped continually as we traveled through it, which is no fun at all. Making the journey at night gives you no opportunity to enjoy the countryside. Should you find yourself doing this, avail yourself of the 2.5-hour travel time and catch a nap.
Arriving in Brussels, we were met at the station by Bill, who had some useful and hard-earned information about getting to the hotel at which we would stay the night (a Hilton Residence Inn). Thanks to him, we avoided the Chipmans' earlier ordeal of being at the wrong station, not being able to find restrooms for the kids, and generally being lost. We had an excellent dinner at a little Italian restaurant near the hotel, washed it down with a few more beers, made our way to the hotel, and slept like logs.
To be continued...!
posted by Matt at
11:15 PM
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