Week 4 

London:

·         We walked through Holland Park, Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, and around the Tower of London.

·         We took a cruise on the River Thames to Greenwich and back.  Next time we’ll get off and wander Greenwich.  The narrator stressed he wasn’t a professional but kind of a staffer who added this to his job description as part of a gentle appeal for tips (which seemed only moderately successful as het stood with his tophat in hand as we exited.)  He gave us history on some buildings, prices on some flats, and nicknames of some of the skyscrapers (e.g., Walkie Talkie, Cheese Grater.)  The egg that once stood out is now a lot less noticeable after the height limit was upped about 20 years ago.  It was capped at the height of a cathedral, similar to the 100’ limit in DC to keep the capitol and monument stand out.  The narrator lamented the loss of dockwork, being replaced by high-end flats without a lot of life in them.  I didn’t know Wharf stood for warehouse at riverfront. 

·         We met 3 groups of work friends.  Sam and Joanna from Vertex for lunch in Paddington.  The number of employees in Europe is increasing and they are adding a 3^rd floor to the Paddington office and opening a new office in Rome, a sign Vertex is doing fine without me.  We forgot to get a picture of them but they were smiling.

·         Terry, Ben, and Roy in at a cool place in Wantage, near Oxford.  Terry might have the longest tenure for all IT staff in Vertex.  There was a rail strike that day but the rail company we had tickets on kept 3 out of their dozens of routes intact and ours was one of them but the overground delays made us miss one, which made us too late for Margo to meet us.

·         Then we met Graeme and Brian near the Sitecore office (I screwed up the dates and missed Mark.)  Graeme grew up in Scotland and plans to return someday.  Brian grew up in Romania and gave us good travel tips and background.

·         The hotel had only 5 rooms, a bar downstairs that served us a simple breakfast in the morning, with Juliette being the best waitress of our trip so far (she also has a business for architectural photography.)

·         London food was more hit than miss.

·         The city is huge.  It was culture shock going from Balloch (population 10,000?) to Glasgow and then again when we got to London.  Just a whole different vibe – even more international and a different level of intensity.  We tried to avoid the streets crowded with tourists.

Belgium:

·         Thursday was walking to the tube station, a short walk to the coach station (which is not the bus station), then a long bus ride to Brussels, a train to Ghent, and walk to our place.  The train direct to Brussels was under 3 hours but without advance purchase that was $275 vs $35.  Each.  So, we decided to save the $480 difference for wine, etc.

·         At the British end of the Chunnel our bus got selected for extra inspection, meaning everyone got off, gathered their luggage from below, showed their passports a second time, and place them on the ground in a row in shifts for a Cocker Spaniel to sniff.  Her trainer said she’s (the dog) is still learning but she picked a few for deeper inspection but it seemed everyone got through fine.  The officers also checked the bus thoroughly, even the engine and underneath.  No explanation as to why they chose us, but it added about 90 minutes to the trip.  We were lucky the weather was good.  One woman (who is travelling to Marseilles, I think) had 4 medium and 3 extra-large roller suitcases but survived with help from strangers.  I admit I was kind of disappointed we didn’t find out we were travelling with a drug trafficker.  We spent a lot of the time talking with Omar, who now lives in southern France and said we should call him when we pass through.

·         I had thought buses drive in the Chunnel, just like the Lincoln Tunnel but I was way wrong.  They drive into a version of a cattle car with what looks like 6 inches clearance to the left and right then park for the 30l-minute ride.  We got off the bus and talked with Omar some more in the compartment.

·         Ghent is population 250,000, including a lot of students who stay up late drinking.  Most things are listed in Dutch (first), French, and English (last.) 

·         We made a day trip to Brugges, which has a ridiculous amount of charm.  I had figured after the movie In Brugges it would be overrun and spoiled and I was right only the first, luckily.  Credit to Timmy for convincing me.  A ridiculous amount of charm in the architecture.

·         In Ghent we took a simple canal tour (in 3 languages) and then a night walking tour (led by a grad student from Toronto, who led an earlier one in Spanish.) 

·         Saturday, we met Ali from Sitecore in Brussels, who took us to a Pakistani restaurant.  He moved there from Kuala Lumpur only a year ago but was a very welcoming host.

·         And we walked around a lot.  To not-very-humbly brag, we set our own record on Saturday by hitting 18 miles.

·         The cities were almost clogged with cyclists and a few Vespa-type scooters sharing space with cars and pedestrians at various times.  The bigger train station in Ghent might have had almost 1,000 bikes parked there.

Misc. notes:

·         It’s stunning more people don’t get killed by buses in London.

·         I’m wired for numbers not words – I think if I lived in Ghent for a decade, I’d still be working on my third Dutch verb.