Travelling Again

Today Wednesday 23 May I turn 80 and come Sunday 3 June I am travelling overseas again. This time to England and meeting up with my daughter Jane and husband Gary who would have left New Zealand on 1 June. We are spending the first week in a Cornwall cottage at Flushing, just across the bay from Falmouth. After this, we head for Oxford and meeting up with Brian and Jan Coulter and spending some time on a narrowboat cruising the Oxford Canal. After this Jane, Gary, Brian and Jan go across to France while I head for Cambridge to spend a week at a readers desk in the archives of Scott Polar Research Institute. This time I shall be experiencing a Cambridge summer. A change from my previous visits which had all been in the winter. I can remember walking from my hotel to SPRI in temperatures around zero, with all the puddles on the footpath frozen solid and thinking this was good conditioning for a study of old Antarctic diaries.

On the way to and from England, I will be spending two days in Singapore. A place I've not visited since the early 1990s. On the outward stopover, I am staying in Orchard Road while on the way back  I'll be in the Raffles Hotel area--not at Raffles. I picked this area and selected a hotel close to the Funan Centre, a large multi-storey building housing hundreds of computer shops. Unfortunately after booking the hotel I discovered the Funan Centre has closed down for two years while the building has an upgrade. However, there are plenty of other places of interest handy. Finally, flying back and arriving home in Palmerston North on 7 July.

A day of trains 24 July

Monday morning I am off to Kingston The days was to be rain, trains, and trains.

I checked out of my hotel, walked through the automatic doors, turned left, down an escalator, and onto the platform for the monorail to Terminal 1. After short, quick, and silent trip on the driverless monorail I stepped out at Terminal 1 and walked to the end of the platform and straight through the doors of UP train. Placed my luggage in the loading racks  and I settled into a seat. Less the five minutes the door closed and I was off to Toronto’s Union Station.

The view from my seat and the end of my carry-on bag in the luggage rack, followed by view out the window while travelling the first elevated section of the trip with the hotel I spent the previous night.

The UP train is a relatively new direct link from the airport to Toronto’s Union Station. A twenty minute ride with just two stops and trains leaving every 15 minutes. A quick comfortable ride that cost $12 return.

At the end of the UP ride  it was a short walk and I was in the main foyer of the Union Station.

From the foyer it was a short walk down a sloping floor to a lower level to the area where my ticket was checked and I headed up an escalator to the platform. I found carriage number three  the guard help load my bags, I found my seat and I was soon off to Kingston some two hours away.

Before pulling out I lent over and took this photo of the inside of the carriage.

In Prison in Kingston 26 July

The day really got underway with a drive into Kingston for lunch at Woodhouse Italian Restaurant. Here we met Maureen’s son Joel and after a excellent lunch we headed to the Kingston Penitentiary or KP as it is known locally. Here we met up Sarah, Joel’s wife, and entered into the old prison through the main gate to be blocked by a old battered wooden door with peephole that afforded a view into the prison yard. The prison, now closed, dates back to1835 and when originally built had cells just 29 inches wide. During its lifetime the prison had many changes and the cells got a little bigger. A maximum security prison it house some Canada’s worse criminals.

We didn’t go through wooden gate but headed off to our left to sign a form indemnifying the tour company of claims injury etc. Once signed, and complete with green wrist bands, we passed through the prison’s visiting area and out into open area inside the main gate.

  

From here to the family visiting facilities—a later addition—villas a bit like those at my retirement village. OK, we don’t have the wire fence and barbed-wire!

Then on the cell blocks set out in a cross format with a round full height centre guard post at the intersection. The guard-post was added after a riot in 1971. It was fortified provided the armoury for the cellblock. All prisoner movements passed through the central hub and were followed by the guards rifles poking through slits in the widows of the central guard-post.

Throughout the tour we heard many stories of riots and escapes. Even the story of one man on being released broke back into the prison and stole 12 shillings then the next day he returned to the prison to pick up his coat he had left behind. Another who was caught after the authorities tracing his letter of apology for hitting a guard over the head with a shovel handle during the escape.

A two hour tour well worth while and extremely interesting.

Trenton 27 July

After an early lunch on Thursday Maureen drove us down to Trenton about an hour from Kingston. We met up her brother and his wife then headed of to the Trenton Aircraft Museum along side the Trenton Air force Base.  A hot day as we discovered when getting out of the air-conditioned car at the Museum.

On walking inside you come face-to-face with a four engine Halifax bomber. A bomber that crashed and sunk in a Norwegian lake  back in April1945. It lay 750 feet under water until 1991 when it was brought to the surface, restored and had the museum building built around it at Trenton.

Both inside and outside the buildings there  were many interesting aircraft, stories to read, engines to see, and plenty of aircraft associated items. And just for Gary a Hercules Bristol Freighter engine.

Outside you can go from WW11 aircraft to the Korean War, the Vietnam and later. I even walked around and early Hercules that reminded me of flights out of the Antarctic in the sixties.

After walking around the aircraft outside, getting very hot, and spending some time sitting down in the shade we returned inside and the air-conditioning.  Inside we all took advantage of the lift to the mezzanine floor.

 

The day finished with a salmon meal in one of the local restaurant and an interesting drive back to Kingston.

Hotel and monorail

Off the plane at Terminal 1 and quickly through immigration and customs I was in the Arrivals Hall. Turn right follow the signs then a hard left and through a set of automatic doors I am standing in the UP and monorail station. The UP, the fast train into Toronto’s Union station, that I will be taking tomorrow, and the monorail linking the terminals at Pearson International Airport. It is free, quick, and has something like a five minute schedule. Within minutes the monorail pulls in, I climb aboard and sit down in a bright blue décor, and cool atmosphere which is a relief from the extremely hot terminal.  A few minutes later at Terminal 3 I head up the escalator turn right and through the automatic doors, first trying the exit without success. Through the doors and I am the reception desk of my Hotel.

The monorail is a set of two trains operating in opposite directs, on separate tracks, powered by cable like a cable car. The following shows the single track with the drive cables and the glass doors opening into the station.

Then the train as it came into the station.

Back at terminal I walked along the platform to find the UP train ready to leave for Union Station in central Toronto. A twenty minute ride and I step out of the UP  and cross into the main station ready to board the VIA train to Kingston.

The Toronto Flight 23 July

My seat had slight problem with  adjusting the Back, but everything else was fine. There is an adjustable air vent and fold out table that could be adjust to give me at least 6  cm clearance. The two previous flight, Air New Zealand and Cathy Pacific had my stomach hard against the table even when fully adjusted. Thank you Air Canada.

Then a good a breakfast, much appreciated as I had been on the go since 4 a m. Sorry I  ate it all before taking the following  the photo.

Half way over the Atlantic and is ice cream and pretzel time. Then an hour out Toronto an Italian Meatball Hot Wrap and tomato juice. Sorry again I have just eaten it.

Excellent flight, straight through emigration and custom. Took the monorail too next Terminal 3 and my hotel. Sat down with my feet up enjoying the cool air and silence

Sunday23 July

Alarm and wakeup call 4 a.m. Up dressed, finished packing, and down for the Hopa Bus to terminal 2. Into a lift at the airport and off to Departures on the fifth floor. Checked in using using a kiosk and after a couple tries it asked me if I wanted to upgrade--yes please just what I wanted. Now all set everything turned to custard. I had to go to the check in desks and shuffle along in long in long queue I handed over my passport only to be told I needed an ETA to enter Canada. Back to the lifts and down to Arrivals on level 1 to access a set of iPads to register online. There are lifts a plenty but always several lift-loads of people and baggage pushing to get in. At the iPads I couldn't get past first screen @#$%& Apple. Eventually I found some help, and after a half hour headed back up to fifth floor and up to check in. They needed my ETA number that had been emailed to me. I left the check in and looked for my email on my mobile. No sign of it, but happily after 10 minutes it came through then back to check in and this time successful. After 1.5 hours of pushing case around Terminal 2 I entered security with just carryon bag. After setting off the alarms, going through the body full body Cray standing on the yellow footprints and my hands on my head in "surrender mode" then being padded down I was off to find Gate B39  just a 15 minutes walk away. I flagged down one of those small golf carts and got ride most of the way. As the cart moved along it developed its own wind. Much appreciated in the hot terminal by hot sweaty traveller. The final leg, up a steep escalator and another 5 minute walk where I grabbed a bottle of water before continuing my trek to Gate B39 to find the plane loading. Eventually in my seat after a 2.5 hour ordeal I sat down, relaxed, took my morning pills, sent text to Jane, and started to write this blog