It was Jennifer’s Birthday today and so we decided to take a day out in London and also include my wish to visit St Paul’s Cathedral, more of that later.
A pleasant train journey, I must say that South West Trains are very good, over the past year they have been on time and always new and almost clean trains. Well done. Any way I digress.
The first stop was Jennifer’s birthday present which was a visit to Rigby & Pellar Ltd, the famous London based ladies underwear shop right next door to Harrods. We arrived at a very nice looking establishment with a doorman resplendent in a smart uniform to let us in. There was already a small queue of ladies of mixed age waiting for the measuring service sitting in a line awaiting the ministrations of an attendant. Jennifer said do I want to sit down and wait? , but the thought of passers by looking at this guy sitting in a line of women waiting to be measured for a ‘C’ or ‘B’ or even a ‘world’ cup did not appeal and so I did a walk around Knightsbridge. One hour later and a little lighter bank balance we left for St Paul’s Cathedral.
Not many people know that when I was a young lad in my early teens I was a choirboy with a great voice and was asked to join a small select choir outing to St Paul’s where I and another thousand choristers sang for our supper for a couple of hours. It was an amazing experience for me and obviously for my parents, my father was obviously quite overcome by this occasion and only just having come from a cocktail party decided to tell my mum “isnsht it bloody lovely” the only trouble was that they were sitting in the whispering gallery and so it echoed all around.
St Paul’s Cathedral is undergoing a complete restoration with most of the inside complete and about half done on the outside and it looks magnificent. For some reason they say not to take pictures, not sure why, perhaps they want to sell their own books but anyway I sneaked a few shots. This is a beautiful building finished by Sir Christopher Wren in 1710 and it is huge. We visited the crypt and also the whispering gallery where we listened to the organ being tested or tuned and up here in the heights the sound was most impressive. It is well worth a visit. I have added a link of St Paul’s to the site. My only negative comment is that why in a house of God do we honour those past warriors of war and not the peaceful people?
We finished the day with a quick dinner at Wagamama’s Asian fusion restaurant on the South Bank and then went to the IMAX to use up some free tickets to see Superman Returns. The visual effects were good but the story line was poor, alright for kids though.
A nice day out.
All photos can be seen at http://noelgroves.phanfare.com/album/105698
This is a story about some travel in the USA and the difference in language and how it affects your life.
About three years ago I was in Dallas on business and leaving with a colleague, John to fly to Newark in the late morning with the plan that we drive to the Logistics division of our company in upstate Connecticut. As John had not originally planned to join me on this trip I had previously asked the office to make sure that they booked me a hire car with a Sat/Nav system which they confirmed had been arranged. When you are travelling alone in traffic it does make it easier if you have some assistance.
Anyway, we were pleased with this arrangement as our flight was due to arrive in Newark Airport, New York in the early afternoon so that at least the road signs would be clearly visible. The flight from Dallas was four hours late leaving due to bad weather somewhere and so we arrived in Newark around 6.30 in the evening. By the time we arrived at the car hire depot it was raining and getting dark. However, I reminded us both that we have a Sat/Nav system so there should not be any problem finding our route.
We signed all the car papers and I asked them to confirm the Sat/Nav and the young lady says they do have a system, it’s not built into the car as we expected, and it’s called the Neverlost System which is just what we wanted. She added that anyway where we were going was straight up the I-95 and you don’t need a system for that. However we insisted that we do need it as we may have difficulties and so she handed over this box with a Motorola cell phone in it. I said “what is this” as I have the same cell phone and don’t need another one but she countered this by saying “this is the Neverlost system and very easy to use”. Mind you she said “I have not used it myself, but I think you press this button and tell the people who answer where you want to go and they send you a route plan to the cell phone.” Not quite what I had expected though. I asked “who are these people we phone” and she replied that she was not sure but the system does work and anyway just follow signs for the I-95 and we would be fine.
We left the desk and headed for the car with a certain amount of trepidation as it was now pouring with rain.
My colleague did not want to drive and so he would operate the ‘Neverlost’ system and I would drive. We plugged the phone charger into the cigarette lighter socket, turned on the phone and pressed the button and after a couple of minutes waiting the chap at the other end of the phone asked for our route. We want to go to …… in Connecticut and due to John’s Midland accent the operator could not understand our destination and so I said I would speak to him. After a few minutes discussion with some confusion he said OK, he said wait a moment and the cell phone will receive the routing instruction and you then just start your journey and it will tell you where to go.
So trustingly we waited a couple of minutes and off we went, and of course within less than 300 yards of the Car park exit there was a major airport turning and nothing came from the phone??. So I stopped and John played with the buttons in the half light as cars streamed by. So we called the telephone operator again and said that nothing was happening, they said did we press a certain button to start the system and we said no as there were no instructions. They said they would resend the data we should wait a few minutes and try again. Which we did and nothing happened. This time we could not stopin the middle of the junction but kept going and by some luck and no judgement we actually took the correct road marked to the I-95. Again my colleague rang them and said what is happening as we are not getting any instructions. They said just listen to the phone and follow the instructions and then promptly they hung up. Great!
By this time I had seen further signs for the I-95, plus many other road signs going North, South, East and West and was not sure which direction to head until we came to a toll booth. The last thing we wanted was to be on a Toll road going in the wrong direction. We were both getting very upset by this so called system as it suddenly started and told us to turn left out of the Airport Car park and proceed in a Easterly direction when we would receive more instructions. At this point we were at least forty minutes drive away from the airport, so what should we do. It was not possible to reverse all the way back to the airport so as to meet the instructions on the cell phone and so we called again.
The guy said where are you, we said somewhere in USA trying to head for Connecticut. Where do you guys come from, I said would this help our route planning if we answered his question, he said no but then suddenly we got cut off and the screen on the phone went blank!!!
Both of us having a technical background, John far more than me we decided that when all else fails reboot. We rebooted the cell phone and waited for a signal and eventually we received one, we pressed the start button again and it said please turn left when leaving the Airport Car Park exit. Bloody hell!! It was pouring with rain and cars and huge trucks were tearing past and we were parked on the nearside line with indicators flashing wondering what to do.
So again we called, this time a nice lady answered who said you have a nice voice, where do you come from??? I said England but I was trying to get to …… in Connecticut. So where in New England are you from, I said Weybridge and after a moment she said she could not find Weybridge on the System as it only worked in the USA and sorry she could not help but have a nice day and hung up.
This is very silly I said, let’s hope the road we are on is the right road and so with great difficulty we pulled out into the fast moving traffic and headed for the toll barriers. By pure chance we were in the lane where there was an attendant rather than the ex Las Vegas slot machines where you chuck your coins in when driving past.
I pulled up at the Toll booth and said, Excuse me Sir I think we may be lost and we are trying to find the I-95 North to ….
He looked up and said Hey, where are you guys from?? We said England and he said and what are you doing here on such a miserable night. We said trying to go north on the I-95. Don’t worry he said you are on the right road and in about ninety minutes you should be there. At this point he suddenly noticed the Motorola cell phone on the dashboard and said “Is that a Navigation system?” at which point we laughed.
So at least we were on the I-95 and for the next half an hour John fiddled in the semi darkness with the cell phone and also found a small sheet of instructions on how to use the system which had got attached to the hire car documents. Not sure how this got there.
So after rebooting the cell phone for about the fourth or fifth time John called the number again and explained our problems. The guy on the end of the phone said he was sorry to hear about our problems and that the ‘Neverlost’ System was not perfect as it was first of all a very small screen, which is not possible to see in the dark and also the sound often did not work and they were working on that. Anyway where did John live as he has a strange accent. John politely explained where he was from and then said we are trying to get to the Holiday Inn in ….. and how could we make this machine tell us what to do. The guy said “where are you coming from” and we said Newark Airport, “that’s easy” he said just take the I-95 and get of at Junction…. “What about the ‘Neverlost’ System??” He said turn it off, take out the battery and then reboot and see what happens.
So we followed his instructions and turned on the cell phone again, pressed all the right buttons and the screen came to life with an arrow pointing up confirming we were on the I-95 North and get off at the next junction which was actually correct as by that time we had almost reached …..
At last, after about 80/90 miles, with countless phone calls and continual rebooting this machine it started to work about one mile from our Hotel.
We arrived after eleven PM both tired and hungry and so I said let’s have a drink, I think we have earned it. Sorry Sir, the bar closed at 1045 PM and the restaurant is also closed. Next door was a Wendy’s drive-thru which we did a walk through and sated our appetite and thirst.
Well, on the way back to New Jersey, as we were going to the Hyatt it of course planned a route to coincide with the closing of the ….Bridge after an accident and so we were stuck on Manhattan Island and waited in the queue for the Lincoln Tunnel for well over two hours.
Never again will I take the ‘Neverlost’ system.
I think I will use the train in future…………..
Our neighbours from Weybridge, Jerry and Mura Sayers have moved to Ethiopia for two years having joined the VSO. Their life is both very interesting and also challenging and I am sure they would not mind if you were interested to read their travel Blog It provides a tremendous insight into the the way the Ethiopians and also our friends live.
See the link http://www.jandminassosa.blogspot.com/
Dear readers of this Blog
I understand from my sister that the web link to Bodyworks was not correct as it linked to a 'Adult site'. This would appear to be a mistake on my part when entering the web address as I left out a letter 'S' in the address. For those of you who may looked at this site , my apologies
A very pleasant and also a very hot day was spent at the Farnborough Air Show.
The many exhibition stands provided considerable interest and the best part was the air display which commenced with the Airbus A340-600 which took off at an alarming rate and then almost stood on its tail. I guess it must have been very empty. This was followed by the Airbus A 380, the new 'Whopper Sized' aircraft, which also made a tremendous take off.
There were lots of Military Aircraft as well, but we enjoyed the show but with the heat around 36 degrees Centigrade it was rather warm.
I hope that you enjoy the pictures so click the link
http://noelgroves.phanfare.com/album/104208
We left Avallon after buying some picnic type food for lunch and headed North but with the intention of completely avoiding Paris. The journey in the North was mainly via miles and miles of roads bypassing many farms growing cereal crops.
As we went further North the temperature was dropping bit by bit and by the time we reached Calais at about 4.30 pm it was down to a cold 22 Degrees Centigrade.
A quick boat trip home using Seafrance, I think we prefer P & O as th ships seem to be in better shape. We arrived home at about 9pm an so to our own beds..
Well thats the last installment for this French holiday and we start working on out next travel plans for later this year.
Well after a quick breakfast we started out packing. It's quite a long job really and lasts about four hours to take the tent down, pack up the cooker, let down the air bed etc etc and finally pack the car. We could not hurry to much as we had to make certain the tent and porch we fully dry before packing and after a heavy due it takes a couple of hours to be fully dry.
Anyway we left Ebreuil around one pm and headed North with the intention of using the side roads and avoiding the motorways. We had not planned a stop just we would stop when were tired and ther was suitable accomodation available. We had packed up tent etc when the sun was getting hotter and at 4pm it was still 34 degrees Centigrade and as most French Hotels do not have Air Conditioning we thought we would hold out until we found a suitable place. Our previous stays in Hotels without aircon was not good.
Anyway after a very nice drive through wide areas of farming areas and then hills and very twisty roads, it almost my arms out we decided thet we would head for Avallon and try to stay the night there.
So we arrived at about 6 pm and found a very nice, but expensive Hotel with aircon, and we decided to stay the night here. As the Hotel was expensive no doubt the restaurant would be as well and so we found a nice little place in the middle of town whilst taking some photo's.
The place was fairly quiet and the the restaurants seemed mostly empty and considering it was Bastile Day this surprised us.
Our usual trip to Vichy and shopping and the weather getting hotter all the time.
There is a lot more tourist traffic on the roads today and also when we got back to the site we now had tents all around us. This confirms our our earlier view that we will leave this week in fact tomorrow we have agreed upon.
The Dutch group of boys next to us seem to be in trouble with the site owner, not sure what is happening but there tent and surrounding area is very messy. Also, during today two minivans and two cars turned up with a about 14 yound girls aged between 12 and 14 I guess. They tried going in the river for a swim and the noise was appalling.
Time to leave.
Well today it was so hot we decided just to have a quit day and contemplate our naval's or books. The site is beginng to fill up quite nicely for the owners but not to our taste. There are Dutch Caravans, tents arriving everyday. We like it quiet.
The weather for the nextfew days based on the internet reviews shows some more stormy weather arriving, no doubt after the last few days being very hot.
On considering the weather and also the amount of campers now arriving, we have decided that we will most likely leave here on Friday.
After a good breakfast of fresh croissants we drove to Menat to start our river tour. It's still early in the season and so the place was fairly quiet although a German family turned up. We donned our life vests and signed our life away so that if things went wrong it was our fault that we lost the canoe, paddles and everything else . We started with a frantic minibus drive for about twenty five minutes though the hills to Chateauneuf . If we survive this minibus ride then the rest is a piece of cake.
We arrived at Chateauneuf and put the canoes in the water with the only instruction being keep left for the next 100 metres or so. I said what about the 12.9 kilometres and he said keep to the middle. So we left and very soon after came to our first rapid which was not too bad and was a bit bumpy as the fibreglass canoe bumped over the large boulders.
Well we made the first rapid ok not knowing about the other twenty five or so, some we got stuck on and Noel had to get out and move the canoe whilst on others due to water pressure we started out ok but ended up going backwards at about fifteen miles per hour through a rock stream.
The journey took almost 3.5 hours to do the twelve kilometres and by the times we arrived back at Menat we were tired and very wet. At one time Noel was sitting in six inches of water which was slopping around inside the canoe.
As this was going to be a very wet trip I decided not to take my nice camera just in case it went overboard, this was a wise move but a shame as some of the views were really spectacular.
After a shower and change into dry clothes at the canoe centre we knocked back a few beers and had a pizza and chips lunch and headed home for some rest which we both sorely needed.
The temperature today was around 32 degrees centigrade and so we both got a little browner today but it doesn’t hurt yet.
No doubt the muscles will start aching tomorrow morning but the trip was great very enjoyable and one that we wil do again sometime but perhaps with a cheap camera to record the views.
Well, I am writing this at ten pm and its beginning to get dark and the bugs are beginning to find the screen of the computer and so it must be near bed time for us old folks.
I forgot to mention the amount of bats flying around at night, more than aeroplanes at Heathrow.
With the weather improving in leap’s and bounds, we went for a short drive in the hills surrounding Ebruil as well as visiting a store where Jennifer could by some shoes to walk in the water as we are planning a canoe trip ourselves. So we went to the boat location to check out all the details and book for tomorrow.
The area surrounding is really beautiful with rolling hills and woods and old villages etc, this is a very nice part of France and we shall return next year all things being equal.
We went passed a Château which is built like an English Castle called Château Chouvigny, it was a bit late for good photos and also difficult to stop in the small streets, perhaps another time.
A quiet Sunday watching the canoes go by on the river, reading books and the high light of the day was the cows coming down to the water to drink. Must be getting bored anyway both reading good books. Other than that not much to report
We walked in to town as we had read about the flea market taking place but we were not prepared for the scale of it.The main roads through the town had been closed off for the day and there were well over 150 stalls selling anything and everything you possibly not want. From food to postcards and car bits and pieces there was so much stuff you could not believe it.
There were quite a lot of local people and only a few tourists and it was very much a local affair.
With all the roads closed I am not sure how the traffic fared as the roads were covered in cars with very few, if any, gendarmes to control the event.
We had a relaxing afternoon and later in the evening David and Marjorie from Alan Rogers Ltd came to join us for a glass of wine as they are departing back to the UK tomorrow after three months here. It would appear that over the years they had also travelled a lot in America as well as Europe and so we had lots to to talk about. The Alan Rogers French Camp book currently has 600 reviewed sites and this will increase to around 900 for 2007 book. Actually the amount of sites that you see just driving around is incredible however there some pretty rought ones as well.
David told us about one site they went to review where it flooded several times each year up to about five feet and the showers were build at the wrong angle so that the water ran out under the door on to the ground instead of going down the plug hole- this site does not appear in the book. There were several other stories about sites they commented on and it was quite an interesting evening.
