Asylum, Con1 and London - Report Part Eight
Cut for the sake of my flist...
And just like that, it was Thursday and almost time to go home. I still had the whole morning, and since the weather gods were still on my side, I decided to go to Houses of Parliament to take some pictures. I wandered into Victoria Tower Gardens to get a good view of the Thames, walked around and then almost dropped my camera with surprise. I had no idea that London had one of the original casts of Rodin’s “Bourgeois de Calais”. I have been interested in Rodin since I had to do research about Camille Claudel for literature circle, and I’ve seen a wonderful exhibition a few years ago. So I may have squeed... and took pics like crazy. Artgasm part two. *lol* The thing about Rodin is that he designs his statues three-dimensionally. That may sound “duh”, but think about it - most statues are only interesting when you look at them frontally. Not Rodin. You can walk around the whole thing and find new details everywhere. In case you are interested, the pics are here. See what I mean?
So yeah, unexpectedly easy to spend the last hours... then back to my B&B, check out, get cab to Victoria and wait for coach to Stansted. Good thing I had new books... :-)
Sitting in the coach, biggest WTF moment ever. See, the ticket and the schedule clearly said “travel time 2 hrs 15 min, Departure 1:15 pm” So, estimated arrival time about 3:30 pm, right? Cool. At about 2 pm, a couple in front of me asks the driver “Are we there yet?” He says “Um no, did you take a look at your ticket?” Answer: “Yes, but we didn’t think it would take that long. It’s only about an hour to drive to Stansted.” Yes, if you go there directly with no traffic and no other pickup points, that might work... the driver looks confuzzled, I mean what do you say to that? That they always print out made-up travel times? So he asks very carefully why they are in such a hurry, and the man says cheerfully “Oh, our flight takes off at 3:15 pm.” The poor driver almost fell off his seat and lost color, I swear. “Er, you mean check in is at 3:15?” “No, check in is at 3. Flight is at 3:15.” “Um no, that would be boarding time. Check in is always at least one and a half hour earlier.” “Yeah? Oh. Don’t worry, it’s okay.”
By that time the first five seat rows were staring in disbelief. How? How can you think it’s okay to arrive that late? If you get arrival times and all, how can you just assume that they are wrong anyway? The mind boggles!
The weather gods decided to weep at the fact that I was leaving England:-) and I spent the last of my coin money on Galaxy chocolate. And I finished “Neverwhere” before I had to board. Flight back was nice and easy, and I got picked up by my dad. I actually had to remind myself to talk german again...
And then I was home again in the owl’s nest. And I aplaud you if you really read everything. *g* You made it, the report is now finished! Please feel free to tell me any details of concert/panels/anything that I missed!
And just like that, it was Thursday and almost time to go home. I still had the whole morning, and since the weather gods were still on my side, I decided to go to Houses of Parliament to take some pictures. I wandered into Victoria Tower Gardens to get a good view of the Thames, walked around and then almost dropped my camera with surprise. I had no idea that London had one of the original casts of Rodin’s “Bourgeois de Calais”. I have been interested in Rodin since I had to do research about Camille Claudel for literature circle, and I’ve seen a wonderful exhibition a few years ago. So I may have squeed... and took pics like crazy. Artgasm part two. *lol* The thing about Rodin is that he designs his statues three-dimensionally. That may sound “duh”, but think about it - most statues are only interesting when you look at them frontally. Not Rodin. You can walk around the whole thing and find new details everywhere. In case you are interested, the pics are here. See what I mean?
So yeah, unexpectedly easy to spend the last hours... then back to my B&B, check out, get cab to Victoria and wait for coach to Stansted. Good thing I had new books... :-)
Sitting in the coach, biggest WTF moment ever. See, the ticket and the schedule clearly said “travel time 2 hrs 15 min, Departure 1:15 pm” So, estimated arrival time about 3:30 pm, right? Cool. At about 2 pm, a couple in front of me asks the driver “Are we there yet?” He says “Um no, did you take a look at your ticket?” Answer: “Yes, but we didn’t think it would take that long. It’s only about an hour to drive to Stansted.” Yes, if you go there directly with no traffic and no other pickup points, that might work... the driver looks confuzzled, I mean what do you say to that? That they always print out made-up travel times? So he asks very carefully why they are in such a hurry, and the man says cheerfully “Oh, our flight takes off at 3:15 pm.” The poor driver almost fell off his seat and lost color, I swear. “Er, you mean check in is at 3:15?” “No, check in is at 3. Flight is at 3:15.” “Um no, that would be boarding time. Check in is always at least one and a half hour earlier.” “Yeah? Oh. Don’t worry, it’s okay.”
By that time the first five seat rows were staring in disbelief. How? How can you think it’s okay to arrive that late? If you get arrival times and all, how can you just assume that they are wrong anyway? The mind boggles!
The weather gods decided to weep at the fact that I was leaving England:-) and I spent the last of my coin money on Galaxy chocolate. And I finished “Neverwhere” before I had to board. Flight back was nice and easy, and I got picked up by my dad. I actually had to remind myself to talk german again...
And then I was home again in the owl’s nest. And I aplaud you if you really read everything. *g* You made it, the report is now finished! Please feel free to tell me any details of concert/panels/anything that I missed!