Nicole schreibt...

Here's a new one for you: London by train. I had been tempted to try the Eurostar for a long while, but never more so after Lufthansa so spectacularly messed up my last trip in January with the six hour delay in Cologne. And while the train fares from Cologne (Thalys + Eurostar combo) are pretty outrageous, I found out that they do a good "99 Euro from every Dutch station"-deal for the return ticket. It would help if the Dutch and Belgians could time their regional trains to match the Eurostar departure and not have one get stuck in Brussels for almost 90 Minutes, but even if the door-to-door travel time is still slightly longer than the plane, there's something to be said for the ease of train travel: No endless walks through airport buildings, no being treated like a criminal at security screenings, no endless waiting around at gates and dealing with obnoxious other passengers. And once aboard the Eurostar it was smooth sailing all the way to St.Pancras without the hassle of baggage claim, more miles of walking at Heathrow and the endless trundle into town on the tube. Even the dreaded Chunnel crossing wasn't so bad, watching television on my laptop while just trying not to think of where I was right now until we were back in daylight. So yea, consider me sold on the Eurostar from now on.
From St.Pancras it was a short hop to Paddington to meet my friend Tricia who had graciously agreed to put up with me for two nights. After an afternoon at the pub to catch up (and get introduced to Pimm's), we went to see "Anne Boleyn" at Shakespeare's Globe in the evening together (my theatre reviews are as always separate). And while those benches are definitely tough to sit on for two hours, seeing a play there was really an interesting experience. Saturday was spent doing not very much at all after the typical British summer weather thwarted every hope of spending it at the ponds in Hampstead (well, what did I expect?). Even just spending some time on a blanket in Hyde Park was a rather chilly experience whenever the sun disappeared behind thick clouds. Following dinner at a nice Lebanese place, we went into the West End together to see "Les Miserables" at the Queens Theatre - my first return to this show after a 15 year hiatus and mostly thanks to a certain Mr Alfie Boe.

After this nice laid-back start to my trip, it was time to head out of London on Sunday morning and on to Oxford, a town I've been wanting to visit for quite some time. Now it came with the added benefit of meeting my friend Ashley there who came to pick me up at the station. I dropped my luggage at the Buttery Hotel, which was nicely in the middle of tourist central on Broad Street, then we set out for a long walk around the colleges and other sights.
Sadly Oxford doesn't let you actually enter the various colleges and stroll around campuses unlike Cambridge or Yale but in view of the tourist masses in Oxford that does make alot of sense and at least you can get the odd peek into one of the pretty courtyards, such as this one belonging to St.Edmund's (I think). The only college open for visitors - Christ Church - was besieged by a huge crowd of people wanting to get in (although I have a hunch that most of them were only interested in the dining hall that doubled as the dining hall at Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies...). Most other interesting buildings like the Sheldonian Theatre, built by Christopher Wren in 17th century, are also reserved for the university and whatever special ceremonies they do throughout the year.
Sadly not much is left of Oxford Castle which Charles I. used during the civil war after Cromwell's parliament drove him out of London or other buildings of that heady period, so unless you can find a way to actually visit the interesting college buildings, Oxford somehow leaves you feeling a bit left out.

On Monday morning I continued my journey up north to Liverpool - the Northwest being the one corner of England I hadn't yet seen at all. If one thing really pisses me off at Travelodge it's the fact that they don't store your baggage. I can deal with paying extra for breakfast or early check-in, with bringing my own shower gel and even paying for wifi, but why they can't just let people who arrive before 3pm or depart after 12am dump their suitcases somewhere is beyond me. Arriving at 1pm, I had no choice but to leave my luggage at the station (luckily much cheaper than in London), then set out for a first walk around town, visiting Albert Dock and the waterfront with its impressive old buildings like the impressive cathedral-like Port of Liverpool building and the double clock-towers of the Royal Liver building next door.
The harbour area had been giving a huge overhaul when Liverpool became European capital of culture a few years ago and now the waterfront looks like a rather strange jumble of modern architecture, classical buildings and a few old relicts of the time when Liverpool was the greatest port in Britain. I also visited the Maritime Museum (free!) which documents the history of the port and has a nice area dedicated to the three tragic luxury liners built in the city - Titanic, Lusitania and the mostly forgotten Empress of India (where just as many lives were lost).

Thanks to the weather forecast for Tuesday being lousy I swapped my planned day trips and headed to Chester in the morning, about 40 minutes train ride south of Liverpool. It's one of those little places that make you go "squee!" for sheer cuteness with rows of ancient half-timbered houses everywhere and one of the prettiest shopping streets I've ever walked along.
Chester started life as a Roman fortress called Deva, one of the most remote outposts of the Roman Empire (poor Italian guys, being stuck in this dreadful soggy grey place so far north), then developed into a pretty medieval town with a famous cathedral and a nearly complete town wall you can walk along now encircling the city. I started the walk at Northgate and followed it south past the Roodee racecourse (apparently the place that was once a huge Roman harbour before the Dee silted up and Chester was shut off from direct access to the sea) and the castle to the Roman amphitheatre and rather small Grosvenor Museum.
Overall I didn't spend more than three hours in the city but Chester is definitely worth a detour for a nice day out.

Luckily the sun came out on Wednesday and I could go to Blackpool as planned, though my first impression was one of sheer horror: I had arrived with the high tide and saw the sea lapping onto concrete stairs - it seemed like the entire waterfront between North and South Pier had been concreted over with not a grain of sand to see. When the tide turned and the water receded, a rather broad stretch of beach appeared, but it being hard wet ocean ground, it wasn't really a nice kind of sandy beach - nor where there any deck chairs to be had, beach bars selling snacks or drinks, basically anything you expect from a nice day at the beach. God knows why people would choose Blackpool for a vacation then (except for the tacky amusement parks, bingo halls and pier entertainment). In my opinion it couldn't hold a candle to gorgeous Torquay in Devon or even Brighton. After finally finding a spot where I was protected from the strong wind, I spent a few hours reading in the sunshine, then had a rather awful lunch of fish & chips (well, the fish was good, but the chips were horrible - could we please send some Belgians across the channel to teach the Brits how to make great chips?) and returned to Liverpool. While it was interesting to see this area of Britain, see some of the remnants of the great industrial past of the Northwest and get my own impression of Blackpool, it certainly wasn't as dream-come-true-great as my previous ramble around the Southwest to see Stonehenge and Glastonbury. And in the end I was quite glad to return to the Big Smoke to spend another four days seeing shows and meeting friends.
There's little to be said for these days except the usual theatre visits, shopping and eating, but once again I was totally sold on the facility of Eurostar travelling with a quick tube ride to St.Pancras and within a little more than one hour after leaving the hotel being aboard the Brussels-bound train.