You know you are getting old when:

[Fading Fast]

The only civilized form of public transportation for the middle class was and, where available, is train travel.

To fly decently today, you need to be able to pay first class prices and busses, while cheap, are horrible experiences.

Trains however are pretty decent experiences (and sometimes really good ones) with decently sized seats, nice staff (I'll take Amtrak's staff over airline staff any day) and an enjoyable way to see the country (with almost no security hassles).

Unfortunately, availability and fit to one's needs is limited. I'm a bit spoiled because the Northeast corridor (Washington to Boston) is the one part of the country that has really good Amtrak coverage and it's one that I have traveled regularly.

 

[Edward]

Train travel is fantastic. Going anywhere within Britain, I stick to the train. The chunnel is also a much more pleasant route into France. I do love flying longhaul, but I do pretty much all my longhaul flights for work, on business class. It's a different world.

 

[Fading Fast]

Train travel is fantastic. Going anywhere within Britain, I stick to the train. The chunnel is also a much more pleasant route into France. I do love flying longhaul, but I do pretty much all my longhaul flights for work, on business class. It's a different world.

I usually don't admit this (but I can't image anyone here has an iota of respect left for me anyway), but I think one of the big reasons I want to see London and Paris one day is so that I can take the train through the Chunnel. Sure, sure, that history sounds great - Churchill's bunker you say, Big Ben, that's the Louvre over there and the Eiffel Tower there - hmm, all fascinating...um, er, how do I buy tickets for the Chunnel train ?

 

[2jakes]

Last year I was invited to visit
Temecula, Calif.
With traveling expenses paid.
I chose the Sunset Limited.

I'm 6' 3".
Now I know how sardines feel.

Also, there's no locks on the sleeping compartments.

The only way I don't get carsick
is if I do the driving.
Anyone else, no matter how good
a driver they may be, I start to
get nausea & cannot hold the food
down at all.

I was "carsick" during the entire trip.
Train does not go directly to
Temecula.
Folks @ L.A. train depot was
challenging to say the least.


I hate flying & chose the train because I've seen, " From Russia With Love."
Perhaps if my traveling companion had been the Russian babe
like 007 had on the train,the ride would have been tolerable.
Although I will say that the train
staff was excellent. The food was
so-so.
Next year, I'm driving.
Since the trip is paid for--- I
might rent a car like 007.

 

[Fading Fast]

⇧ While I've traveled on Amtrak too many times to count from Washington D.C. to Portland Maine and most stops in-between in all combinations (and taken a separate Amtrak line up to Albany NY many times), I've never slept on the train as the longest of those trips is about 5 hours.

I wonder why they don't have locks on the sleeping compartments?

I get, like you, car sick unless I drive (or take Bonime, which make me tired but is much, much more effective for me than useless Dramamine).

Ah "From Russia With Love," yes, if Tatiana was my traveling companion, the trip would be more pleasant . That said, if Grant (Robert Shaw) showed up as he did in the movie, it would have taken him between two and two-and-a-half second to dispense with me (even Bond struggled with him).

Amtrak - food, so-so / staff, usually quite nice / train, clean to shabby (it's a crapshoot) and views outstanding. Plus, I have just enough of an imagination that I can half convince myself I'm in one of those old B&W movies that has a train travel scene (which an incredible number of them do) and that always gives my spirits a lift.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

The fight between Bond and Grant in the train compartment in "FRWL" is still the greatest hand-to-hand fight in the history of cinema. No martial arts posturing, just two tough men hammering it out in claustrophobic close quarters.

 

[Zombie_61]

...I wonder why they don't have locks on the sleeping compartments?...

My guess, and this is pure speculation, is that they don't want a passenger to become trapped in case of a severe accident.

 

[2jakes]

My guess, and this is pure speculation, is that they don't want a passenger to become trapped in case of a severe accident.

One of the biggest reason externally lockable doors are not available is the cost and hassle of lost and/or stolen keys.

 

[GHT]

how do I buy tickets for the Chunnel train ?

It's a sore point with Europeans that you can actually buy channel tunnel tickets in America cheaper than you can on this side of the pond. Check with your travel agent. You don't have to go to France when using the tunnel, there's a direct service to Belgium too, and there's a great milliner in Belgium. (Esther.)

 

[Zombie_61]

One of the biggest reason externally lockable doors are not available is the cost and hassle of lost and/or stolen keys.

Ah, that makes sense. Silly me, thinking there might be a practical reason.

 

[Trenchfriend]

When you still know, that in the 90's we german school-kids said to each other, when a nice girl passes: "Look at this pretty woman!"

And actually we would surely point with the finger and say: "Yummy!"

And the next evolutionary step will probably be the hint and a single Tim Allen-grunt.

 

[Fading Fast]

It's a sore point with Europeans that you can actually buy channel tunnel tickets in America cheaper than you can on this side of the pond. Check with your travel agent. You don't have to go to France when using the tunnel, there's a direct service to Belgium too, and there's a great milliner in Belgium. (Esther.)

And I will look into the milliner right after I have indulged in pommes frites and chocolate, reasons number 1 and 1A for my going to Belgium.

 

[Fading Fast]

The fight between Bond and Grant in the train compartment in "FRWL" is still the greatest hand-to-hand fight in the history of cinema. No martial arts posturing, just two tough men hammering it out in claustrophobic close quarters.

Agreed and I'd go further and maybe even into Bond heresy, but "From Russia With Love" is my number 2 or 3 favorite Bond film.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

Agreed and I'd go further and maybe even into Bond heresy, but "From Russia With Love" is my number 2 or 3 favorite Bond film.

It's my #1, followed by Goldfinger and Dr. No. After Goldfinger the gadgets took over and I've never cared for any of the post-Connery Bonds.

 

[MisterCairo]

Canadian of a certain age reference: I remember when we went metric, and the fights over converting gas stations to litres. One owner went to jail after the Mounties kept locking up his pumps - and he kept breaking off the locks!

 

[Fading Fast]

It's my #1, followed by Goldfinger and Dr. No. After Goldfinger the gadgets took over and I've never cared for any of the post-Connery Bonds.

We are very close, my rating is Dr. No, From Russia and, then, Goldfinger with Craig's Casino Royale 4th.

All the other Bonds, and I've enjoyed many of them (and thought some absolutely horrible) are far removed from these four in quality of story / plot construction / focus on story not gadgets, explosions, silly villains, etc.

 

[GHT]

Canadian of a certain age reference: I remember when we went metric, and the fights over converting gas stations to litres. One owner went to jail after the Mounties kept locking up his pumps - and he kept breaking off the locks!

You had the metric police too, did you? We were given the concession of retaining road signs in miles, and beer, sold in pubs, by the pint. Garages make a killing out of metric, previously there would be variances of a couple of pennies a gallon from garage to garage. Four and half litres into a UK gallon and those couple of pennies suddenly became more than five pounds per fill up. We have remained imperial at home. I have a fahrenheit dial on the central heating control, kitchen and bathroom scales in pounds and ounces only, the old MG has a ten gallon tank.
When the garage door dropped because one of the supporting bracket bolts had sheered, I called out a repair service company. They told me that the whole door, brackets and hinges, would have to be replaced because they were imperial and incompatible with metric replacements. What a croc of B/S. I took the stub of the sheered bolt to a place that stocked such things, told them the cock & bull story about replacing everything with metric. The guy took the broken bolt, spun a metric nut straight down it and then gave me a handful of replacement nuts and bolts for free. It took about ten minutes to repair the garage door.

 

[Harp]

The fight between Bond and Grant in the train compartment in "FRWL" is still the greatest hand-to-hand fight in the history of cinema. No martial arts posturing, just two tough men hammering it out in claustrophobic close quarters.

There is a scene in one of the Bonds where Connery takes out a sentry fast, but w/o a kill, which was too nicely scripted.
Billy Jack featured Korean Hapkido to good effect, and An Officer and A Gentleman also showed Korean techniques, Hapkido or Tae Kwon Do.
A 60s private eye television show Peter Gunn usually had fight scenes involving the lead character and several opponents with Japanese style moves, Shorin, Shotokan, or Kyokushinkai. The Green Hornet with Bruce Lee showcased his own style, Jeet Kune Do, the way of the intercepting fist.

 

[MisterCairo]

You had the metric police too, did you?

For a while. Some gas stations as well as some grocery stores, butchers, etc., resisted and were often fined.

There has been a respite over the last twenty years or so, and we are, measurement wise, bilingual in ways we wish we were in English and French language abilities.

Shops must measure in grams and kilos, but can show prices in both Imperial and metric (must show the metric). Packaging varies, but must have the metric info if nothing else.

In Ontario, we can buy milk in bags (4L total in three bags within a bag- don't ask - the old way was 3 quarts), also in 500mL, 1, 2 and 4 litre jugs/cartons, and of course butter in 454g blocks (i.e. exactly one pound). Everyone knows 250g is just about half a pound, 125g a quarter pound (roughly), etc.

Ask anyone their weight or height and you'll get feet/inches and pounds. Gas is currently 94.3 cents per litre, it's -2 celsius outside, and my house has 2,400 square feet of living space. My yard is 49' x 229', and it's about 6kms from my village to nearby Stratford, Ontario. All road signs (speed, distance) are in klicks/kph.

Wine is mainly 750mL bottles, spirits sometimes in metric sizes, more often than not though they are in odd sizes of mL, as they are in fact the Imperial or American measurements simply converted (i.e. a "forty pounder" - 40 fl oz bottle Imperial is 1.13L, things like rum, vodka and such).

A funny place indeed...

 

[MisterCairo]

Beer is still in pints and half pints, thank goodness!