By Larry and Joan Dolinski
Westward Ho the Ferries:We traveled from Calais, France to Dover, England on a very unusual vessel, a hovercraft. The hovercraft sits high & dry on a large concrete ramp. It has 4 giant propellers, elevated well above the superstructure, and a Zodiac-like rubber hull, which fills with air at departure time. The vessel then rises a few inches off the concrete ramp on an air cushion, gently turns from its loading position and glides toward the sea (English Channel). The passage across the channel takes about 40 minutes, and is referred to as a "flight." Watching a hovercraft leave port while one is standing on shore gives the impression of a Hollywood style "Martian" space craft.
On the way to London we bicycled into the charming medieval city of Canterbury and visited its famous cathedral, immortalized by Chaucer, in The Canterbury Tales.
Our arrival in London was made all the more special for us, by the fact that our good friend, Marty Horn from Chicago, was there on business and was able to extend his stay by a day in order to meet us in London. Marty and his wife Anne are dear friends whom we met more than 10 years ago on a bicycle trip in Vermont. We have enjoyed a bicycle adventure with them practically every year since, and have made our one and only visit to Chicago, as their guests.
While in London we did a number of interesting touristy things, and even managed to attend a couple of theater performances. One of them featured all of Shakespeare's works in 95 minutes by The Reduced Shakespeare Company, a slapstick, but nevertheless entertaining group. We also got to see Fosse, a positively dazzling dance and song performance which we highly recommend for anyone in search of a wonderful musical theater experience.
We made a very interesting visit to the Imperial War Museum, specifically to see the Summer 1940 Spitfire Exhibit. Among the items of curiosity there were films of Spitfires in action, filmed during the air battles over England during that fateful summer, and German documentary films showing the Battle of Britain from the German perspective. Also on exhibit were a Spitfire, a Hawker Hurricane, a German Fokker, and a WW I Sopwith Camel. There were also fuselage sections of a Japanese Zero Fighter, a Lancaster Bomber, and a Halifax Bomber. In addition there was a fascinating exhibit on the breaking of the Enigma Code and an actual Ultra Machine which was used to send and receive the Enigma Code.
As we strolled down Lambeth Road from the Imperial War Museum toward the tube station at Bakerloo, a plaque on a residential building caught our eye stating that William Bligh, Commander of the Bounty, had lived there.
Then there was The Royal Mail Truck Escapade: Larry had received a note from the Customs Office that a parcel, sent from home, had arrived and that he needed to go to a local post office in order to claim it. He proceeded to the nearest post office (back of a grocery store) and was told that he must go to the regional mail sorting facility "just a short walk up the next street." So 50 minutes later via a speed walk he arrived there and was told that he had been misdirected. The postal workers at the sorting facility made a few phone calls and discovered that the parcel was being held in some kind of customs facility in another section of London and extremely difficult for a native Londoner to find, let alone a stranger to the city. Taking pity on a "Yank in distress", they allocated a bright red Royal Mail Truck and a driver was allocated exclusively to Larry and he was driven to the elusive location and then back to the site where the bicycle group was staying. The round trip on the truck took about an hour and a half.
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