Monday, July 13, 2009

The SLOW Train to London


Finally, it was time to board our train for the 200 mile, two hour trip to London from York.

London is our last two night stop on the Grand Tour before flying home on British Air to Los Angeles on Wednesday.

The Grand Central Line was our carrier

We were anxious to get going because our friends from Seattle, Mark and Susie Johnson and their daughters, Sophie and Mallory would be there at the start of their European holiday.

About 40 minutes into the run we started to inexplicably slow down and then come to a stop in the middle of nowhere. It seems that our engine was malfunctioning. After a 30 minute delay, the engineer got the engine going again. YAHOO!

Our View

Twenty minutes later it happened again leaving us with this view out of our window for the next 2 1/2 hours. The engine was REALLY dead and the journey was officially classified as a "Failure" by the company officials at the end of the first hour of this second delay.

We would have to wait for another engine to show up to push us to the next station so that we could all disembark and wait for the next train to London King's Cross station.

Where were we?

The Grantham Station, that's where!

The engine was only TWENTY YARDS from the station and our car was about 100 yards from it. The problem was, that for safety reasons, we were not allowed off the train!

So we sat and sat and sat.

At last the new engine arrived!

Thirty seconds later we started to unload the train to start our wait for the next train to take us to our destination.

We finally arrived in London three hours late.

London's Caring Hotel

Our huge window opens up and leads to our balconey.

Jacko

According to our cab driver, Michael Jackson always stayed in the flats behind these trees just down the streets from us when he came to London.

Dinner

We met the Johnson's here for a little food and a lot of friendship.

It was Bombadier for me

The Johnsons

Mallory in pink and Sophie sporting the cool glasses.

Sophie took this shot at dinner.

Long day, I'm going to bed!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can't wait to see you soon George! Including you Laurie! Welcome Home!

-Chris Ringor

Unknown said...

I'm sorry George...you still have 3 more hours tp make up for Mexico City! But I'm glad that you two finally made it to London.

Dick Bellman said...

I look forward to your return to Camarillo and your renewed participation in the Rio Mesa breakfast club. At the same time I am going to miss your daily blog which allowed me to vicariously visit so many exciting places. Thanks for sharing your adventures with us.