Planes, Trains, and Automoiles #2

Once in Liverpool we traveled by foot, public trains, and Andy's car.

From their house it was about a mile walk to the train station and then onto the train to get to the city center where we explored for the day.

The end of the line.

First train in the UK!

Andy picked us up and we experienced a little more of  the crazy international driving. But I guess crazy is all relative.

I do not think I would adjust quickly to driving on the other side of the road. It was hard enough to know which way to look to cross the street.

Something that I had never really thought of was the cost of the public transport as to owning a vehicle. Here in Greenville, SC public transport wouldn't really work for the life that I lead. But in England, where there are trains and buses all over, it would likely be much more affordable.

If I thought about all of my trips to town in how much money in gas they cost me, I might think differently about taking them.

After our 2 days in Liverpool, we took another taxi to the train station to board a train to London!

This train was a little different than the public trains.

The things about train travel that were strange to me were that you don't know what platform to go to until about 15 minutes before it arrives. Then once it is announced, a large group of people all move toward that platform. The other thing is that you could be on the wrong train and not know until it is too late to do anything about. If you are, you have to pay the price for that ticket and be in the wrong place when it stops. Thankfully, this did not happen to us.

First city to city train.

Once in London we traveled by sight seeing tourist double decker buses and by foot.

I stole this pic from Google. I didn't take any pics of the actual buses we rode.

The double decker tour buses were a great choice for those having no clue how to navigate the city. The tour buses are so well used that they are on the city bus stop signs.

We also took a little boat cruise on the river Thames (which I still have no clue the correct pronunciation of).



In leaving London we were scheduled from the King's Cross station which is home to many Harry Potter souvenirs and things and Platform 9 and 3/4. It was a huge train station.

Sadly, it was dark out for most of the ride. The lady next to us told us that was a shame because the countryside was very lovely. She was a very sweet Scottish lady.

In Edinburgh we traveled only by foot as everything we wanted to do was an easy walk from our hostel.

Road construction in Edinburgh.

After our 2 days there we boarded another train, this one was cram packed and a little overwhelming with people for half the trip. But it slowly unloaded after each stop and we made our way back to Liverpool to finish up our time across the pond.

Waiting to find out a platform.

For 30 by 30, this trip marked off travel by train and taxi, both things that I had never traveled by.

Not quite weary travelers.

If you plan to travel by train in the UK, I recommend what Andy recommended to me, thetrainline.com. Great rates and very easy to use. I planned our travel times based on price, which put us places at weird times a little, but it was very inexpensive to go at non-peak times.