A perfectly English day out

 

Making the most of a few days off work, I joined my parents on a countryside outing to the West Sussex coast. The weather is typical of our summer so far – grey skies and a bit drizzley. The perfect day for enjoying the British seaside.

We drove to Littlehampton as my parents had been a few months before and found a restaurant they liked on the seafront. After parking by the sea (where an incredulous Dr Bolsover paid £1.05 for the parking: “No one uses five pence pieces, why should a car park?”) we ambled to the East Beach Cafe for some grub. Previously a grotty seaside kiosk, it’s now a rather yummy cafe with great views of the sea. It was designed by Thomas Heatherwick – also responsible for the rolling bridge in Paddington Basin and Manchester’s stunning, if not a bit dodgy, B of the Bang. From the outside it looks like a big brown turd, however my artistic mother tells me it actually is driftwood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amtrak Adventures – Sittin’ on the dock of the bay

This is the travel journal of two British girls travelling across the great expanse of North America. Spending most of that time on very slow trains…

San Francisco

Left Vegas on the bus and transferred at Bakersfield to an Amtrak California train (better seats, much better food), and then transferred again at Emeryville for a bus into San Francisco. Arrived at our hostel in the Mission after a long day’s travelling, without really taking much in of the city. The next morning we ate the free breakfast at the hostel (cake and more cake) and then jumped on the BART to Embarcadero as we wanted to go to Alcatraz. It was fully booked for the day so we bought tickets for the next day and decided to take this day to see some sights around the city. It was some kind of free transport day in San Fran so we took advantage of this by, um, walking everywhere. We went to Fisherman’s Wharf, which I thought was a bit touristy and nothing-y, but we did have a yummy salmon steak sandwich. We then walked through North Beach and Chinatown, found City Lights bookstore and spent a lovely hour browsing. Martina and I went our separate ways in the afternoon and I found the Cartoon Art Museum which was small and quiet but interesting. The political cartoons from around the world about America were particularly good.

Amtrak Adventures – Sin City

This is the travel journal of two British girls travelling across the great expanse of North America. Spending most of that time on very slow trains…

Las Vegas

Woke up knackered but on time to get our bus to Las Vegas (Amtrak don’t have trains into Nevada, but instead put on a ‘Thruway’ bus service between LA and Vegas). I went to get some water and stuff from the store near our hostel and suddenly we were running late. This was made worse by the Metro just not turning up (bloody LA public transport!) and we boarded the train knowing we were going to miss our bus. If we missed the bus, we’d have to scrap going to Vegas as we’d not have time on our itinerary. Whilst panicking about the bus I was franticly going through alternative scenarios involving staying with long lost relatives and sleeping on the beach.

We had ten minutes to spare and legged it into Union station to find the bus stop. We followed sign after sign and asked staff members but just ran round in circles, all the time with our massive backpacks on. We knew the bus had left, but sweaty and dejected we asked a final person. She pointed the way through an open courtyard and we ran for it. By some miracle, the bus hadn’t arrived and we even had time to catch our breath before boarding. (We did have to sit by a urine-stinking toilet though). We watched desert-y California turn into desert-y Nevada, with a brief stop at the no-mans-land that is a place called Barstow. It was basically a McDonalds and a gift shop selling novelty guns and porcelain clowns.

Amtrak Adventures – California Dreamin’

This is the travel journal of two British girls travelling across the great expanse of North America. Spending most of that time on very slow trains…

Los Angeles

The delayed train had slightly hampered our plans for LA, as what had been a whole day of sightseeing was reduced to half a day. So we went to find our hostel in Hollywood which was near to the Thai quarter of town, on the corner of Hollywood and Western – the Gershwin Hostel. The receptionist was a tad peculiar but the building was really cool. Like many hostels we’ve stayed in on this trip, it felt a bit empty and a bit grotty, but the price was a steal at $16 a night. (Returning to the UK, I’ve found this hostel has a more colourful history – read about it here).

Amtrak Adventures – Alamo Antics

This is the travel journal of two British girls travelling across the great expanse of North America. Spending most of that time on very slow trains…

San Antonio, Texas

Excuse the multiple alliteration of the title, I just couldn’t help myself… So we left Fort Worth after a lovely few days making ourselves into cowgirls and jumped back on the Texas Eagle further south into Texas. The train ride was pretty uneventful – except to confirm just how vast the state of Texas is. What seemed to us as a short inter-state journey took as long as crossing several state lines when we’d been further north. We arrived in San Antonio at a reasonable hour but were just so sleepy we headed straight to our motel. We’d been staying in a run of dodgy places so weren’t too keen to clamp eyes on our next one, but this turned out to be a whole lot nicer; clean comfy beds, a clean bathroom and walking distance from the town centre, with (and this really made the room for us) a massive TV.

Amtrak Adventures – Getting to Chicago

This is the travel journal of two British girls travelling across the great expanse of North America. Spending most of that time on very slow trains…

So far I haven’t actually said too much about the Amtrak trains themselves and they did play a pretty big part in this trek… When Martina and I had been plotting our route through the vastness of America we had all sorts of different ideas and places we wanted to stop off. It soon became clear that Amtrak wasn’t perhaps the transport of choice for many Americans. Whilst the quality of trains looked promising, the quantity did not. And as we started the journey it became very clear that passenger trains are a poor runner up to freight trains. But don’t let this put you off – Amtrak is a leisurely and relaxing way to travel, if you have the time.

Everywhere takes a while to get to and the trains don’t exactly exert themselves.

Taste of the Baltic – part two

Sunday 

Determined not to succumb to the cheap beer as early as on the previous day we thought the best plan would be to try and see some of the sights early on. Also most of Riga’s museums don’t open on a Monday, so this was our one and only chance to see the sights. This pressure weighing firmly on our shoulders, we emerged from the hostel at about midday after a drowsy hour and a half to dress ourselves.