Dearest Rachel –
It’s said that it’s the misadventures that make the memories when you’re traveling (yes, I rather realize I’m effectively quoting myself; that doesn’t make it any less true). If that’s so, Daniel and I may have finally given ourselves a memorable trip to London, even as it’s short and limited in any actual sightseeing. Granted, both its brevity and misadventure contribute to that lack of sightseeing, but still…
And perhaps calling it a ‘misadventure’ in the first place overstates the matter. Again, we weren’t going to have the time to wander about the city, taking in the sights. Not only would we barely have 24 hours from touchdown at Heathrow to when we would catch our transport from there to Southampton, we would be doing so on a jet-lagged lack of sleep the precluded taking anything in with any measure of depth. Meanwhile, while we never experienced it in our previous visits here, to my recollection, it rains in London. Even the doorman at the hotel, when we managed to find the place in the pouring rain said as much; “Well, now you’ve got the full London experience!” complete with a twinkle of the eye that would make Dick Van Dyke’s chimney sweep Bert proud. So I really can’t complain about suffering through the day.
But it’s one thing to say that once we’ve gotten settled comfortably into our room, and another to try to accept that “things will all work out” when one doesn’t know which way to go out of the station in order to find the hotel, never mind the room. Not to mention that I don’t have a map, and without wireless service, there’s no easy way to figure out where one needs to go. Yes, I’ve gotten spoiled by internet culture and Google Maps; what of it?
The you of twenty-plus years ago would have found my frustration funny, I think (to be fair, back then we were relying on Dad’s planning and Bill’s familiarity with the city, being a much more regular visitor to it than we were or are). And in fairness, were I not getting soaked while attempting to find Hercules Road on a sidewalk kiosk, I wouldn’t have been particularly bothered by the situation; getting lost is part of the whole adventure. But when you don’t know how to get where you want to go, and you’re wanting desperately to be out of the situation you’re in, the amusement is rather washed away in the rain.
It wasn’t even helped by a passing friendly commuter at the Waterloo station who looked up where we were trying to get to on her phone, and recommended that we get back on the Bakerloo line and take it to Lambeth. While we thanked her for her attempt at helping us, we ultimately vetoed the suggestion; firstly because we had just gotten off that same brown line to get to where we were (and the hotel did call itself the Park Plaza Waterloo, not the Park Plaza Lambeth), and secondly, because we couldn’t seem to find a ‘Lambeth’ on the map of the Bakerloo line. It wasn’t until we got back to the hotel a second time, after dropping our stuff off and looking to get ourselves some lunch at Daniel’s request, that I took a closer look at the map on my shirt. It turned out that ‘Lambeth North’ was in fact the very next stop on the line; had we stayed put on the train for that one extra stop, we might have been in a better place to spot our destination.
Or possibly not. Face it, Waterloo Station is a big, sprawling place compared to most of the ones we passed between Heathrow and say, Piccadilly. The place had something of a mall attached to it (well, mostly what amounted to a food court), spread out between multiple Underground lines, as well as a British Rail terminal. There was a lot to it – and a lot to go back to, which is why we did just that for lunch – while also being a lot to get lost in, as well. We probably did better to familiarize ourselves with the larger place, rather than riding the rails to one that, while perhaps closer to where we wanted to be, might not allow us to cover the amount of ground we could benefit from in our attempts to make our way through the surface streets.
So while we got pretty soaked this morning in all this, we got an interesting story out of it, as well as a familiarity with the route back to the Station, both for tomorrow and for lunch.
Interestingly, on our way back to the hotel from lunch, the rain had cleared up. So maybe we’ll make a few tracks about the city after all. Or maybe we’ll just take a nap, to recover from the long time we’ve been awake (whether willingly or not). In either case, honey, keep an eye on us, and wish us luck. We’re going to need it.
Letters to Rachel 