The title is the advice that Toni’s grandmother gave to Toni’s mother on her wedding night.
For those of you who only hear from us when we are on vacation, yes, we are on vacation once again, this time in England. After the horrible flight we had to Austria last September, this time we decided to travel at a slower, more leisurely pace, taking the train from Albuquerque to New York and then the Queen Mary 2 to England.
We boarded the train in Albuquerque on Wednesday, May 29th, switched trains in Chicago on Thursday and arrived at Penn Station in New York on Friday. It was far superior to being stuffed into a plane in Cattle Class (which they euphemistically call tourist class). We opted for the small sized cabin, which was comfortable to sleep in, but didn’t have enough room to stretch out in during the day. For the next train trip, we will explore the cost of the larger cabin, as it has much more space and includes an in-room shower and toilet. And yes, the in-room toilet leaves any hope of modesty behind.
One of the advantages of having a cabin is that all meals were included. One of the disadvantage was that all meals were included. The food in the dining car was not good, but to compensate for that, the prices were quite high. If it hadn’t been free, we would have packed food instead.
One thing we did like about the dining car was that it was small and they had to seat us with other people. We met a number of people that I wouldn’t have normally interacted with. We met the minister of a large African American church in Newark, New Jersey and his wife. I tend to avoid religious people whenever possible, much less people who are professionally religious, but he was quite interesting, particularly in his politics, as his position in the Black community meant that he interacted on a statewide level.
Of course, we also met a number of people who were not interesting, including one fellow who made a good case for retroactive abortion. There is just something about a fat, rich white guy muttering about “the Jews” that brings out my uncharitable side.
The trip, or rather the crossing, on the Queen Mary was just as good as all of its advertising. We ate and we ate and we ate and then we had dessert. I have no idea how much weight we gained, but the ship listed to the side we were on.
The Queen Mary also had us share a table with other passengers. The evening meal was at the same table with the same people, which allowed us a chance to meet people and to find out about their stories and lives. We really enjoyed that aspect, since left to our own devices we probably would not have met as many people and enjoyed ourselves as much.
While we traveled steerage class, our state room was far larger than the hotel we stayed in Brooklyn and actually costs less on a daily basis. There were also lectures, musical performances, planetarium shows, classes, theatricals, bars, movies, more bars, darts tournaments, etc. etc. There were also expensive shops, a casino and any number of ways to entice you to spend money.
I am sorry that we didn’t contact everyone when we were on the ship, but the internet was one of their ways to entice you into spending. It cost $ 0.95 a minute. One of the people we met noted that it cost him $10 just to look at his email and retrieve a single message.
The one thing that I didn’t like was the fact that the ship was run on a class basis. The upper class, i.e. those people who had the expensive staterooms, had their own separate restaurants, bars and entertainments. They really didn’t mingle with us peasants, and I felt a certain sense of distain.
The other bother was the formal evenings, which meant black tie for the men and evening dresses for the women. This is all well and good for those people who enjoyed playing dress up, but the thing that rankled was that the rest of us were restricted to a single restaurant and a single bar after 6 pm on those nights. We were prohibited from mixing with the formal guests in order to not to cause them any “discomfort.” Thoughts of Dickens danced in my head.
We got into London yesterday afternoon and have spent most of the day tramping around the Nunhead Cemetery, as Toni continues to work on her photographic series. The cemetery was started in 1840 and is still being used today, but mostly by very alive dog walkers. We met and chatted up a number of them, while Toni dealt with her doggie withdrawal by loving up their dogs. Jack Russells abound. Most of the cemetery has reverted to lush woods with a wide diversity of birds, trees and Victorian graves, marked by granite pillars and urns. Tomorrow morning we are going to see a few sights and then take the train to Leighton Buzzard where we will rent our narrow boat and sail the canals of England.
We are staying in Westminster, which is on one hand quite posh with apartments costing up to 1,300 pounds a week. We see Bentleys and Rolls Royces parked up and down the streets. At the same time, this is a very international area with people from all over, few of whom seem to be that rich. I wonder how poor people can live in London?
