UEFA 040 - Dover to Carlisle

UEFA 040 - Dover to Carlisle
Sorry guys still no photo yet until we reached Amsterdam.

In Victoria, we went straight to the Euroline counter and booked 4 tickets to Amsterdam. We had a long wait. So we went wandering from one end of Victoria to another, taking pictures and buying souvenirs and tit bits for the long journey ahead. We also had lunch before departure.


In this trip I managed to borrow a video camera from my Manager. I took quite many shots. In fact, there were very few photographs, as most events were recorded in the video.


The Euroline bus took us through the London city before it reached Dover. The bus had to wait for a while, before, it made it onto the deck of the ferry that will take us to Amsterdam. The bus was full. About 40 people were on board and we were of different races and nationalities. We did not know each other, as Euroline, was not a travel coach, but more like any express bus service from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, in Malaysia.


We realized the advantage of taking Euroline bus than the train, is that, we did not have to carry our luggage up the ferry. The luggage remained in the luggage compartment of the bus, while it drove up the ramp to the deck of the ferry with all the passengers on board.


From the car park of the ferry we walked up to the lounge and finally to the passenger seating bay on the upper decks.


Once again, it was a very huge ferry like the Superstar Virgo that used to take Singaporeans from the Cruise Centre at Harbour Front to Penang or Phuket via the Malacca Straits.


My 2 daughters went by themselves exploring the facilities of the luxury cruise, while my wife and I was fast asleep from tiredness of the previous long journey, via plane, train and bus.


So you see the astounding experiences our daughters had for the first time in their life.


We started off from home with a taxi from Tampines to Changi Airport.


Then, we flew in a jumbo jet from Changi Airport in Singapore to Heathrow Airport in London.


Immediately, after landing we took the tube or MRT from Heathrow down to Victoria. After that, we took a comfortable coach from Victoria to Dover. Then now, on a luxury cruise from Dover in England to Carlisle in France, across the English Channel.


All these happened in quick sequence, one after another with only short wait in between.


We arrived at Carlisle at about 8pm. Before the ferry docked at the bay, we followed the crowd down to the lower deck to board the Euroline bus once again.


The ferry crossing of the English Channel from Dover to Carlisle was about 4 hours. We were expected to have our dinner on the ferry at our own cost, but we had it earlier in Victoria Bus Terminal.


It was quite a long wait, before the bus finally made it to the road level in Carlisle. All these while, our heavy luggage were safely in the luggage compartments of the Euroline bus.




Drafted on 18-04-2007 at 2200pm
Edited on 12-07-2008 at 0956 hrs

UEFA 038 - Cliff Richards & The Shadows

UEFA 038 - Cliff Richards & The Shadows

Unexpected European Fabulous Adventure

The train brought us from Ramsgate to the

Victoria Train Station. We checked at the Bed & Breakfast counters and chose to stay at Kingshill Hotel in Paddington.

I remembered it was 40 Pound Stirling a night. The counter girl showed the map, and the way there by the subway train, which the English called ‘tube’.

It was an easy ride, although the map looked a little complicated, with so many colourful lines.

The hotel was a nice stay. We took a short nap and woke up around 11am. We ploughed the streets of Paddington and found an Indian restaurant selling briyani rice. It was 8 Pound Stirling per plate. It was an expensive ‘royal lunch'. We tried a plate, and found that it was a royal serving enough for 2 of us.

I had been studying the London map for places of our interest to be visited. In the list were Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Regent Mosque and the Tower Bridge.

I recommended my wife a bus ride, as we can see more of London on the surface. We bought a ticket that qualified us to take as many rides as we want within a day, which, I think was 30 Pound Stirling.

Taking the conventional red double-decker bus ride reminded me of the movie 'Summer Holiday' starring Cliff Richards & The Shadows.

Following the map and physical road names sign, I mistakenly brought my wife to walk across London Bridge, instead of the historically ancient Tower Bridge.

I must confide with you that I had always thought that the London Bridge that fell down in the children nursery rhyme was the same bridge as Tower Bridge. It was only in 1994 I discovered that London Bridge is a different bridge from Tower Bridge, because, while crossing the London Bridge, we could see the Tower Bridge nearby.

From London Bridge we walked to The Tower of London. We did not go inside the tower, but was walking outside and admiring its view. One of guards of the Tower of London, an Englishman, greeted us with;

“Selamat Datang”.

We were shocked and perhaps our faces showed it, that he went to explain that he had been working in Malaysia in the British Army for many years in the 60s. He demonstrated more Malay by asking,

“Apa khabar? Sudah makan? "

I had a photo taken with him.

Due to time constraint we sufficed by viewing the Buckingham Palace, Royal Albert Hall, St Paul Cathedral, Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square from the bus. I regretted that I could not find the way to Regent Mosque. Westminter Abbey was out of my mind, so we missed it.

Breakfast at Kingshill Hotel was an interesting adventure. The bread was marvelously crispy. I liked the butter and strawberry jam.

After breakfast we took the tube to Heathrow Airport. We took the green line tube to South Kensington and then changed to the blue line tube to Heathrow. It was easy, but, changing station with luggage was a tough challenge. It was a long walk, up and down several staircases, before we could get to the right platform towards Heathrow Airport.





We fly via KLM from London to Amsterdam. On reaching the shore of Holland, I managed to peep through the window, to see the rough and fierce legendary waves of The English Channel eroding the sandy beaches of Belgium and Holland.

At Schipol Airport in Amsterdam, we had a long wait for the night flight back home to Singapore.

THE END

555 words Drafted on 07.04.2007 Edited on 04.05.2007 at 2153hrs At Woodlands Avenue 5