Notes from England and Greece

London is a very expensive city. A cappuccino and chocolate croissant can set you back as much as $10 Cad. A pint in a pub for more than that. I sampled the famous British Sunday dinner in a pub (photo) and it cost me $47.18 Cad. A film and beer in Canterbury cost me $33.75. There are no getting around some of these costs if you want to indulge. But there are ways to mitigate. I often took homemade sandwiches on walking trips around London and bought a Coke/coffee at a takeout (“take away”), eating on a park bench. But one thing's a bonus in Jolly Old - museums. All major state sponsored museums like the National Gallery and Tate are absolutely free. I’ve never experienced this in any other country. Since Brit museums are some of the greatest, it’s more than a treat.

This weekend I was thinking of flying back to London from Athens for the massive combatting antisemitic demonstration (attracting more than 100,000). But not only were the flight times inconvenient. To make the best I’d have to overnight going and coming at a London airport. And the least expensive fare I could find was about $200 Cad. So much for cheap European airlines, of which we’ve heard so much about.

My sense of travel adventure must be waning. I’d booked four days on the Greek island of Paros (left), a four-hour ferry from Athens’ famous port Piraeus. But then I thought about it. Do I want to be on a ferry four hours coming and going? I looked at the island on Google Street View and the neighboring coastal island Antiparos, where I’d booked my hotel. While the buildings gleamed white in that traditional Greek way, the streetscapes didn’t impress. I’ve been to Greek islands and these resembled the previous ones. Moreover, I’d have to catch a bus or taxi for a 15-minute ride to the second ferry dock to get over to Antiparos, which looked like a hassle. So I cancelled. As luck would have it there was a storm Friday night and Blue Star Ferries cancelled its Saturday sailings. I got my full refund almost $150 Cad. As for the hotel, the price was less than that and there was no free cancellation. I pleaded with them but haven’t heard back. Moral of the story? Before booking check Google Street View.

I have now stayed in an array of airbnbs and Vrbo’s – vacation rentals of peoples’ homes. But with one exception (St. Petersburg, Fla.) even the nicest ones have something lacking. There’s no coffee maker, for example, or toaster (a grill instead). Or furniture is basic or utilitarian. Not a problem but couldn’t there be a few warm accents like artificial plants or more art on the walls? 

- Ron Stang, Windsor Ontario Canada, a frequent traveller

Getting around England - a slice

One of the great things about Britain is how easy it is to get around. From London buses and subways (the Underground) to intercity trains (National Rail) it’s a marvel the nation is so well interconnected. The new Elizabeth Line, inaugurated by the late queen last year just months before she died, is a 72-mile marvel that bisects London and which you can take from Heathrow Airport, expediting the much slower Piccadilly tube line. The Elizaberh Line’s stations are gleaming, all are accessible (along with about half the city’s tube stations which they call “no step”) and trains run just minutes apart. There are also platform door barriers for extra security. But transit prices can vary, from less than a couple pounds for travelling within one zone to several (or more than $10 CAD) for going two or three zones, which left me of two minds. If governments want people to get out of their cars – and the Mayor of London certainly does by extending, to a lot of people’s dismay and anger – the Ultra Low Emission Zone charges for older higher emission vehicles – then make transit more affordable. On the other hand, government will make money from gas taxes and parking or from transit – one or the other – there’s always a catch. That said, transit is highly efficient, with buses running every few minutes on the three lines (the 76, 141 and 73) I mostly took, as well as tube schedules. As for intercity services, definitely the way to go for a North American is to buy a BritRail pass. These come in various configurations – from several days to as many as, in my case, 15. This allowed 15 round trips any days I wanted within a two-month period. Since England is such a small country it’s easy to plan one day journeys – two or three hours each way and then several hours at your destination without staying overnight and incurring a hotel fee - and then catch the train back to London. Trains run frequently, usually every half hour or hour, even to some of the remotest places. The BritRail pass also allows first class travel, meaning free grub and beverages including booze, those these varied by train company (there are about a dozen severing different geographic areas and from different London stations) and time of day. Very inconsistent! Seat reservations are free though on many trains you don’t need them as seat availability is plentiful. The trains themselves are modern, sleek with plush seating, and would put any North American railway to shame. (Photo shows side by side Great Western Railway trains in Paddington Station where, yes, a statue of Paddington Bear is located along the platform.) Ironically, British people love nothing more than griping about their trains, which apparently run late and are prone to labor strikes, at least in recent months. I encountered little tardiness - and usually with great apologies over the intercom and avails for compensation if more than 15 minutes - and during the few labor “action” days during September and October (well publicized in advance) I simply made up my mind not to travel. The other great thing about BritRail passes are the prices, a fraction of what Brits pay. My “senior” pass came to under $1000 CAD for 15 round trips. Had I bought separate tickets in England I would likely have paid at least twice that amount. Don’t leave North America without one!

- Ron Stang, Windsor Ontario Canada, a frequent traveller

Getting there is half the fun

There have long been jokes about Europe’s – or more correctly, Ireland’s – deep discount airline, Ryanair, a pioneer in cheap flying. Back in 2012 CEO Michael O’Leary in all seriousness wanted to sell standing-only tickets – until thwarted by a regulator. Some of O’Leary’s other great schemes were charging for restroom use and bunking passengers in the plane’s hull, both of which have never taken flight. So it’s with some mirth whenever I book a Ryanair ticket. This week was my second flight with the airline, and it was a bit of an eye-opener. I’d though I’d got a good deal when I initially booked and was charged $144.28 CAD from London Stansted to Athens Greece. That included one checked bag. Arriving at the airport I put my bag on the conveyor at check-in – typical for any other airline I’ve ever flown with – only to be told that my suitcase was ”too heavy.” Huh? It weighed just over 20 kg; I’d only paid for 20 kg. Sure enough on the website, ”max weight 20 kg.”  Read the small (or unexpected) print, Ron! So, I had to shell out $69.37 more. So much for a bargain flight to the Greek capital. As for the flight itself, it was typical Ryanair. A good aspect of the airline is you board either from front or back, making boarding much more fluid. But the downsides are a shopworn interior with seats that look like they’ve each carried 10,000 bums and their flippy-floppy arm rests. The seats also don’t recline; I’m fine with that. But no seat pockets and airline safety instructions are pasted to the top of the seat ahead (photo), giving the interior an overall tacky look.

But flying on Ryanair was only half the fun. I used to think Toronto’s Pearson was bad but London’s Stansted now outranks it as my least favourite airport. This box of a terminal – obviously assembled in no time – is about as bare bones as you can get. There is hardly any seating for waiting passengers, despite the fact this, being London, is one of the most crowded airports I’ve been in (London has six major airports). I finally found some wooden slatted seating – the same as at London train stations - near the food court, which could have accommodated about 100 people. Other than that – nothing. Well, not quite. Walking a long way towards the gate, there was eventually a bench beside the terminal window. But the bench resembled what you’d find in a bus shelter, perhaps worse (photo). Barely a foot wide and of metal with no back it wasn’t a comfortable design to begin with. But what took the cake is that it was convex in structure, making it very easy for someone to slide off of. A fellow passenger quipped it was designed to look like an airplane wing. Moving along I finally did find regular terminal seating – a nook of about 15 chairs. How they were allowed to be there is a mystery! And, at the passenger gate, at last, regular seating like at most airports, though the seats had seen better days, their fabric peeling off. Alert to terminal management – mass seat replacement needed!

-   Ron Stang, Windsor Ontario Canada, a frequent traveller

 

Travel in Britain? A breeze

 

When travelling to England the BritRail pass is the way to go. Don’t try buying it here. You can only buy it abroad, to the envy of the Brits. It will save you literally hundreds of dollars on relatively expensive train fares. I bought a pass in Canada for $933.40. Sound expensive? It’s for 15 round trips within a two-month period within England. You can also buy passes that include Wales and Scotland. But if I had bought separate train tickets here I would have been out a whole lot more money. The pass is also good for First Class travel (photo), a bonus in itself. Most trains have First Class sections. And you often don’t need to make reservations. Just arrive at the station and board a First-Class coach. If you’re worried the train might be crowded head to the ticket office and make a seat reservation – at no cost. Once aboard you’ll get the privilege of free food and beverages, including booze. Attendants, like in planes, wheel trolleys down the aisle. But First-Class service varies. The best I’ve had is on the London – York LNER line, where attendants took meal requests and served hot dinners on real plates. Booze was also served in glasses. But on the return trip no hot meals but beverages flowed frequently. Other services and railways didn’t have sandwiches, just snacks and drinks but usually booze. The Southeastern high-speed service had no first class at all.

Train travel generally here is a charm. Trains are frequent, even to long distance locations. If you miss a train there’s usually another in a half hour or hour. On board information is excellent. LED reads outs tell you the next stations, sometimes graphics will display how crowded each coach is and where the restrooms are. Upcoming stations are announced by an identical female voice sounding like actress Emma Thomspon. Beyond that, onboard “train managers” will welcome you aboard, inform how to connect to another train at a transfer point, and let you know why we might be hesitating or slightly behind schedule. Moreover, if you’re late usually beyond 15 minutes you can apply for a Delay Repay refund. Station signage is also good. Even at the most rural stations, and after hours when ticket offices have closed, electronic platform signs inform about next arrivals and departures.

The one downside of train travel – and city buses for that matter – is the passengers. On London buses people invariably talk on their phones. On trains, there’s yakking but also inconsiderate behaviour. Groups are often loud and have no conception of how their behaviour impacts others. Trains can have one “quiet car”; I wish there were more.

London buses are frequent and onboard signage informs of the next stop along with audio announcements. If a bus is delayed at a stop you’ll be told a reason such as a wait to “spread out” service or because of a driver change. Pay is no problem, you just tap your credit or debit card. All buses are accessible and have buttons on the side you push for a ramp to come down from the middle door. About half the tube stations have elevators. And all the stations along the gleaming new 72-mile Elizabeth Line bisecting London are accessible.

This last point isn’t about trains. But upon arrival at London’s Heathrow this was the best Customs experience I’ve had. No speaking to agents just an electronic gate using passport recognition. Sort of what's at Pearson without the added “speak-to-Customs” bit.

- Ron Stang, Windsor Ontario Canada, a frequent traveller

Lost in currency conversion

You’ve heard of lost in translation. Often happens when you travel. But how about lost in currency conversion. This appears what happened when the Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA) incorrectly billed for an overnight stay in June of last year at the Cape Berton Regional Hospital. The health department sent two notices (together) that an outstanding amount hadn’t been paid up. The original cost was $7818.10 (Yup, that’s what it costs for overnight and a few tests). Yet, the dear people at Nova Scotia Health didn’t seem to make the connection between Canadian and US dollars, or should that be the conversion. They kept insisting that $1637.69 was owing. Uh, no. The patient, an American, was covered by GeoBlue travel insurance, a US provider. The bill was paid in full. Their payment, dated Nov. 17 of last year, was for the total $7818.10. It even says this on the form to “NSHA Accounts Receivable Service Centre $7818.10 Canada Dollars.” But it was paid in US currency which was $6180.41, the equivalent of the Canadian amount. So, Nova Scotia Health made a boo-boo. They thought the $6180.41 was Canadian dollars and therefore remitted a balance (two notices) of $1637.69 ($7818.10 minus $6180.41). Clearly, they assumed the payment by GeoBlue was in Canadian money when it was in US. We alerted Nova Scotia Health August 30, resending GeoBlue’s documentation as proof of payment. We’re still waiting to hear from them as to whether the bill has been cleared. The wheels of bureaucracy turn...

- Ron Stang, Windsor Ontario Canada, a frequent traveller

Unknown customs that make a foreigner look foolish

When at a Waitrose store in Bath, England, yesterday and purchasing a reporter's notebook – a great writing pad that I've never seen for sale in North America, it having the perfect dimensions of not being too small or large - I checked it through a self-checkout only to find the machine wouldn't tally my payment. I had to call an attendant, whose long beard made him look like a philosophy professor. He took my item and simply moved it from a lower shelf to an upper shelf at the top of the till. I’d never seen this kind of configuration, at home having a till where you move items in parallel from one side to the other. 

At the Bath RR station waiting for the Great Western Railway train to London Paddington, the announcement says that first class loading is from Zones 1 and 2. Where are the platform zone numbers? There are numbers posted above but they seem haphazard. I had to ask a railway attendant (always wearing orange vest). He pointed to the other end of the platform, and then I saw them, circles painted on the platform floor with the zone numbers. A lot of the time you wouldn’t see these because the platforms are so crowded. 

Finally, after exiting the Elizabeth Line station in central London and walking to my bus stop I see a “diversion” (detour) notice asking me to “read down.” Only there’s no information when I look down the bus stop pole. It’s not until I walk a little ahead do I notice the information on the side of the pole indicating the next closest stop.    

There have been a couple of other mishaps recently with maps or wayfinding. Yesterday in Bath (photo: Bath's Roman Baths)I exited the surprisingly small station (for a city of 100,000) over what I thought was a river to the centre of town (it was a canal). But if this was the centre of historic Bath – a highly popular tourist destination for its Georgian architecture and Jane Austen legacy – then this was disappointing indeed. Yes, there were some fine historical residences but not much traffic and only a small commercial area, where I stopped to buy a cappuccino. There, speaking to a young family, I asked if  I’d gone the wrong way out of the train station. Yes, “there’s a tunnel,” they said, leading into the main city itself. And, yes there was, I eventually found, and leading into a vast commercial and historic quarter just teaming with shops, restaurants and people! Amazing how it’s possible to get directions so wrong having consulted my Lonely Planet map. .... And last week in Cambridge, leaving the train station and consulting the Here We Go app, I was told to walk way off in a different direction to find Trumpington Rd., leading to the city centre. I found it alright, but by a great circuitous route that probably took a half hour longer than if I’d just walked down the street straight from the station., downtown Cambridge being a mile and a half from the railway. 

- Ron Stang, Windsor Ontario Canada, a frequent traveller

No refund in arguably exceptional case

This was something we were not expecting. Arriving at the Georgian Bay Hotel  (photo) in Collingwood last week we checked-in to the reserved room only to find the beds were too high. One of us is disabled and could not climb on to it. We had never experienced this problem before. Yes, we had earlier been offered an “accessible” room at a $30 upcharge – again, something we had never seen before at any accommodation. (Usually, accessible rooms are offered free of charge if available.) Was this charge discriminatory? Perhaps, or not. (I have complained to several industry agencies.) The hotel justified this by saying the suite offered “upgraded amenities, including a kitchen and features that contribute to a more comfortable and accessible stay” and yes, “a lower bed option.” When we told the front desk about the bed height they checked if an accessible room was available but was not. We had to find another hotel. We had booked through Booking.com, whose agent assured us we would get a “full refund.” But first we had to contact the hotel to inform it Booking.com, as a broker, would be requesting the refund. I thought this a bit strange but did so. About 12 hours later I got an email saying the hotel “is unable to make an exception in this case, and you will be charged the entire cancellation fee.” The fee was the full amount for three nights or $877.67. The alternative accommodation was $491.55. So, our total trip accommodation amounted to $1369.22. By the way, the alternate accommodation, Luxury Inn, proved to have an even better suite at just over half the price. Not only were the beds lower, the room larger but there were two armchairs where Georgina Bay Hotel only offered a desk chair (though there were two outside patio chairs). Georgian Bay Hotel Trademark Collection is a Wyndham property. In a follow-up email Ashleigh Levoy, VP of hotel operations, while offering no discount, did offer this: “We would be happy to provide you with a customized discount on your next visit as compensation for your experience.”

- Ron Stang, Windsor Ontario Canada, a frequent traveller

If this is Lonely Planet's new format, count me out

I have been a fan of Lonely Planet travel guides for several years now, after I converted over from Rough Guides. Lonely Planet captured me with both a text-forward approach (like Rough Guides) but with more graphic appeal - wonderfully colorful charts, maps, section dividers - all in all a travel guide tour de force. So I was very looking forward to LP's 12th edition, published July 25 and pre-ordered it. I eagerly opened the Amazon package and sat down to look it over. Um, something different about it. The old layout was gone. The book is now way too graphic-heavy with color, photos and maps dominating. Detailed info about travel (i.e., how to get round England by train) was reduced to one graph. Something was wrong. LP has revised its guide (apparently all future guides will be like this?) for what I can only call the 'Gen Z' generation or people glued to screens and not print. Gone are the detailed text info about hotels, restaurants, visiting sites. I submitted a review to Amazon which has gone live: "Very disappointed in this new edition. I loved previous Lonely Planet guides because they were text heavy with complementary appealing layout and graphics. This edition is clearly for the Gen Z generation accustomed to looking at screens and with short attention spans. Very little text, graphics and maps heavy. In a phrase, dumbed down."...So I've packed up the book, put it in a new envelope, printed out a return label, and will drop it off tonight. I've ordered the 11th edition (2021) instead. Maybe I'll have to go back to Rough Guides.

- Ron Stang, Windsor Ontario Canada, a frequent traveller