Travel To Kendal

We got up early to a beautiful sunny day, and did the pack and clean up thing. I hadn't slept that much: after-effects of the Cream Tea.

The boys watched some wierd stuff on CBBC: Zingzillas and Chuggington. We packed the car, and Kate replaced the concrete block we had moved to enlarge our parking spot. Drove to Barnstaple, where I found the Enterprise place. Kate was amazed! I love impressing her that way. Enterprise sent us to the railway station in a taxi, and we were actually so early that we could get on to the 9:43 to Exeter -- an hour before we'd planned. Found seats and luggage space, for a pleasant ride to Exeter St. David's.

At Exeter we got civilized and used a lift to move between platforms. We learned that you can't get reserved seats unless you arrange them the night before. So we sat in the sun on a bench and tried to guess where coach C, the unreserved coach would come in. Our train was 10:57 "Cross Country" train to Glasgow Central--although we were only riding it to Birmingham. It's one of the major changes to England since I last visited: British Rail has been replaced by a mosaic of private companies: Virgin, Southern, Cross Country, First, and a host of smaller ones. On this train we got good seats: two facing forward and two facing back, luggage nearby.

The design of the British coaches has half the seats facing backwards at all times--often they face in the opposite direction across the aisle. It seems silly, as if they can't be bothered to align the coaches with the direction of travel. Or maybe it's just an invitation to consider whether the glass is half full or half empty. In any case, you get quite used to riding backwards.

Birmingham New Street station is like Penn Central in New York: all underground. We came in on platform 9, and made our way via a lift and even deeper "subways" (tunnels) to platform 4b, where we found our train already loading. It was pretty full already. The best we could do was to stash the big bags in the hall outside the toilet, but we did find four seats together, albeit riding backwards. (Finding a place for your luggage on British trains is like parking in British towns: you can only do it by inconveniencing someone, and you're supposed to do so, and act as though it's normal.)

Nonetheless this was also a pleasant ride. Two little girls across the aisle from us kept us entertained, and we were in Lancaster by 16:08. Lots of students in school uniforms on the platform, reminding us that it was a Friday afternoon. Here in Lancaster we had to wait an hour for our 17:25 train, but it was a fun station to hang out in. Galen kept reading the board to see what was coming next, and we watched trains roar through or stop for a minute. The train to Kendal was quite crowded and we did not get seats, but we didn't mind since it was only 30 minutes. The interior of the Transpennine Express coaches was purple!

Stepped off the platform at Kendal and contemplated the town map. It looked totally different from my map, because north was down in the corner. Not exactly clear how they chose which way was up. Walked our bags down the street to the Riverside Hotel. Got a wonderful room, on the third floor, on one end, facing out over the river.

Went for a walk to find some dinner. Discovered Kendal's remarkably posh pedestrian shopping area. There are more outdoor stores here than anywhere else we've been! Only slightly behind are estate agents: obviously real estate is a big deal here. The prices are high. A log home on a river near Ambleside will run you £685,000. We ate some fish & chips,and some chinese food; neither was outstanding, but it was all we needed.

Home to the hotel room and watched World Cup for a few minutes on TV, and took showers.