Amongst school children, if one is “sent to Coventry” he is given the silent treatment. That hasn’t been true for me, however. I haven’t had time to write with all the people I’ve been around. The bus rolled into Leamington Spa at about 5:30. That was too late for it to be open, but I walked about the town trying to find the National Express travel agency anyway after not getting an answer at Jame’s house. I did find a Dutch coin in the telephone change return, though. Sticking it in my pocket, I tried heading for the tourist information…
Sitting in the bus, leaving Victoria Coach Station in London, hopefully for the last time. London, I bid you goodbye until July. With close to three hours to kill, I pulled out my tube map of the city and looked to see what the closest touristy type attraction was nearby. That happened to be Buckingham Palace, so I headed off down the road, reaching the front gate at about noon. This was a stroke of luck (if I believed in it) because that is exactly when the changing of the guard takes place. The order and precision of the soldiers…
If I look up at my window on this train, I see white chalk cliffs. Well, now I’m in a tunnel. I spent about an hour in tunnels today beneath Dover castle, touring the Napoleonic caverns constructed for Britain’s 19th century defense and later used as headquarters for the Dunkirk evacuation operation and then housing army, navy, and RAF personnel for the rest of WWII. It was also home to an underground hospital, out of reach of the German guns that pounded the Dover coast from France. I got to see France today too from up atop an iron age…
I think today is the Queen’s birthday, which would make it the 21. It’s probably the 21st anyway. This is a very bumpy train, which is surprising since the ground we’re traversing is very, very flat and inhabited by lambs and rapeseed flowers. I’m not supposed to be on this train, which is probably fitting. I got on the one to Hastings from Tonbridge instead of to Ashford, which would have been next. There didn’t appear to be anyone around to ask, so I just stepped on, half expecting to be thrown out on my ear when the loud speaker…
My ticket was no help this time because even if the date were on there, I didn’t find it legible. I wasn’t even sure it was still Monday. In the space of five minutes prior to boarding this bus (yes, I’m on another bus writing another entry) I happened to perform three good deeds–well, there actions upon others, hopefully to their advantage. First, I gave my taxi driver a 40p tip, which I suppose was nice of me because he smiled. I’ve been in a taxi cab maybe twice before in my life and didn’t do the paying either time.…