On Friday I left Belgium. Michele and Alain drove me to the Charleroi Train Station where I took the local to Brussels. I was able to secure a ticket on the high speed Eurostar train to take me from Brussels to London with my Eurail Global Pass. Reaching speeds in excess of 202 miles per hour, it gets to London from Brussels in an hour. It also goes underneath the channel for about 10-15 minutes - you hardly notice.
After arriving in London that evening, I was searching for any possible ticket available to Stonehenge and was able to secure a tour from Bath. The only problem with this was that the local trains were on strike for the day. After quite a lot of searching I was able to find a bus that would get me to Bath in time to get the tour. But I wasn’t exactly sure what time the tour to Stonehenge would get me back in Bath to catch another bus back to London. I reviewed all the possibilities, just in case. I arrived early in Bath and sat in a town square listening to two different street musicians. One of them played the trumpet and another played the violin. I chatted with the woman who was sitting next to me on the sidewalk curb. Her name was Penny and she told me that she was from Marlborough. She was very upset that I was only there for the hour and would miss seeing more of Bath. “Oh, you must come back as soon as you can,” she said. She told me that she comes there often on weekends to shop and walk around. “I love Bath!” she said quite loudly as she raised her arms and looked up at the very large tree in front of us. Putting her hand to her mouth, she giggled and looked around. I laughed with her. She offered me a biscuit (a cookie for my American friends) from her bag. We ate together and listened to music. Whenever I’m in Marlborough I’m to look her up. She said, “just ask anyone about for batty old Penny and they’ll know exactly who you’re talking about” and she giggled again. Honestly, she was a pure delight! And just because of that - I want to visit Marlborough!
For those of you who don’t know, Stonehenge is just one of many henges and standing stones throughout England and Scotland; created about 5,000 years ago. But, it is probably the most famous due to its compact and dramatic design. Evidently, building these things were “all the rage” for a while during a 1,000 year period, and then they simply weren’t built anymore. Stonehenge was built in stages over that time period with stones being added, taken away, and rearranged. Most archaeologists believe that they were created to track the stars, perhaps for a primitive type of worship, perhaps for community gatherings, etc…. But, we still don’t know the full story about them. Nor do archaeologists fully know how they got such large stones to where they currently rest. Interestingly, National Geographic dedicated this month’s publication to Stonehenge, as it is the 100th anniversary of the date when they first reported on it.
I got back to London quite late, but needed to be up early Sunday for a long day of travel to Dublin. The strike was expected to only last a day, but I wasn’t sure if the trains would be running or not. I was packed and out the door by 7am, took the Tube to the Euston Station, found out the trains were running, so got on the train for Crewe where I was to get on a second train to Holyhead. There, I could catch the 3+ hour ferry to Dublin, which only goes 4 times a day. When I arrived in Crewe, they announced that, due to a number of issues, the connection to Holyhead had been canceled. I asked the train conductor how I could get to Holyhead. He told me that I could get the 12:04 connection to Chester and then take another train from there to Holyhead. So, I got on the train to Chester. Chester station is very small, but there was a scheduled connection to Holyhead when I arrived that was scheduled to leave at 1:20. As I waited on the platform, more and more trains arrived leaving off their passengers also wishing to go to Holyhead. When the Holyhead train arrived, it was already full of passengers, but there was an announcement saying that additional cars would be added that we could get on. Within ten minutes two more cars were added to the Holyhead train. Thankfully, the door to one of the cars stopped exactly in front of me and I was nearly first on. In 2 minutes it was standing room only. For the next hour and a half, the train struggled as we passed through the countryside of Wales. At each stop, new people tried to get on while few got off. Most were told that there was no more room. At one stop, after being told by the train conductor that a passenger wouldn’t be able to get on, he tried to force himself on anyway and a skirmish broke out. Thankfully, it ended quickly and the train sluggishly left the station, taking a full ten - fifteen minutes to get up to speed. We arrived in Holyhead at 3:00. I had planned to be on the 2:10 ferry to Dublin, but looked like I’d have to hope to be able to get on the last ferry out at 3:45. It was a blessing that everyone who’d arrived in Holyhead was able to get on this ferry, but it, too, was quite full. And I was unfortunate enough to only find a seat at a table near the children’s play area. Normally, I wouldn’t mind. But for almost 4 hours, it grew wearisome to hear 50 children screaming at the top of their lungs. You know those piercing toddler screams? I think we were all cranky. Nonetheless, we arrived in Dublin and I was situated in my last AirBnB by 8:30pm. Flopping myself on the bed, I was so happy that I had made the decision to splurge a little on my last accommodation. The stays in Dublin are expensive and when I’d arrived back in June had limited myself to a hostel. It had not been a great experience. Paying nearly 5 times more per night, but still cheaper than a hotel room, I am blessed to be staying here.
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