Europe 1975: A Throwback Memory

I've been travelling independently for well over half a century. From my earliest trips, I have scattered memories of incidents here and there. This week, I got hit out of left field by a memory from my first independent trip to Europe in 1975, thanks to Instagram's random selection of stories that the software thinks might interest me. That picture so intrigued me that I promptly went digging for more. Here's the photo that IG turned up for my consideration -- a rather unusual sight by anyone's standards.

Let's face it, it isn't every day that you see a passenger train charging across the apron at an airport terminal. The location was the airport at Le Touquet - Paris-Plage in northern France, right on the coast of the English Channel south of the ferry ports at Calais and Boulogne. The scene was the transfer point between two legs of an unusual rail-air hybrid service that used to connect Paris and London three times a day -- "The Silver Arrow."

Since this was 1975, there was of course no Channel Tunnel to speed up rail travel between the two capitals. The available options were using rail at each end to connect with the ferries across the Channel from Calais and Boulogne, or to fly from Paris (Orly or Le Bourget) to London (Heathrow or Gatwick). The all-air option was fearfully expensive, while the traditional ferry crossing would take 5 hours or more (including train times) and laid you open to the notoriously rough seas of the English Channel, one of the most seasick-prone sea crossings on the planet.

I'd just spent four weeks touring on the continent, and would soon be heading back to England for my flight home when I saw an ad (while browsing a bookstore) for the Silver Arrow. I had a vague memory of having heard of it earlier, but wasn't aware of the details. However, the price was right and I booked it with no hesitation, having had my own baptism by rough water when crossing the North Sea from England to Norway several weeks earlier (that ranks as one of the most miserable travel experiences of my entire life).

The journey began at the Gare du Nord, the same station in Paris where Eurostar expresses now depart for London via the tunnel. The train, shown in the first photo at the top, ran express to Le Touquet with only a single stop in the northern city of Amiens. As we approached Le Touquet, the diesel train left the main line on a branch. This ran north-westwards into the airport property, crossed two active taxiways, and then curved around to west and ran right across the apron into a station platform attached to the end of the small airport terminal. The track across the airport has been paved over now, but you can still see traces of the route today on aerial photographs marked here with several "silver" arrows!

As we were rolling into the airport, I was seated on the right-hand side of the train, and so completely missed a grandstand close-up view of the aircraft as we rolled in.

 

Considering that this train would go no further than the airport before returning to Paris, it was far bigger than any possible need. The plane only seated fifty people; the train probably had space for three times that number. And indeed, the train had loaded up with the inbound passengers and departed back to Paris before we'd even boarded the flight.

Check in went very quickly, and so did the security check. And then we walked out to the plane. Ah, the good old days!

The name of the airline was British Island Airways, one of a sizable collection of independent airlines in the British Isles which flew smaller turboprop aircraft like this one in and out of smaller airports at various cities beyond the big metropolitan centres of the United Kingdom. The aircraft was a real rarity, one of a number of aircraft types produced in the 1950s and 1960s by the British civil aviation sector which saw only limited service with non-British airlines. This one is the Handley Page Herald. It was one of several different types built at the same time by various British manufacturers, all seating around 50 passengers, and all powered by the ubiquitous Rolls-Royce Dart turboprop engine. The Herald struggled to make sales, and only 50 of these aircraft were completed.

Oddly enough, one Canadian airline operated the Herald around the same time period. Eastern Provincial Airways, the regional airline of the Maritime provinces, operated this type into a number of smaller airports from their main hub at Halifax.   

The two pictures shown so far were of BIA's final colour scheme, so they must have been taken a few years later on, perhaps on one of the final runs of the Silver Arrow. Here's one more picture which dates from an earlier year and shows the colour scheme as it appeared on my flight. 

 

Attribution:

Ken Fielding/https://www.flickr.com/photos/kenfielding

 

Once we were all aboard and seated (and the plane was not full), the engines were fired up with that memorable plaintive whining tone unique to the Dart engines, and we taxied quickly out to the runway. It was a beautiful sunny day, and the flight to London Gatwick airport took only 35 minutes, a great advance over the 90-minutes-plus that a ferry would take from Calais to Dover. We flew at a fairly low altitude and had a great view.

Why Gatwick? London Gatwick had a feature that was nearly unique in 1975, although it's now seen as more or less essential in Europe and much of the rest of the world. This airport had direct rail access to the city with a station on the main line from Brighton up to London Victoria. Once we deplaned at Gatwick, it was a quick walk through the terminal, across the footbridge over the tracks, and down to the platforms. Our ticket included travel on the premium-priced Gatwick Express service which ran into London nonstop in a matter of 35 minutes.  

I was saddened a few years later to find out that the Silver Arrow was no more. It wasn't the Channel Tunnel that caused the demise of this unique service -- that still lay years in the future. It was something completely different in the world of ferries.

 

 Photo credit: Andrew Berridge, CC BY-SA 2.5 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5>, via Wikimedia Commons  

 

  

Photo Credit: Bachcell, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

 

These monsters, the SRN-4 hovercraft, could carry 450 passengers and 100 cars at a time, "flying" across the waters of the English Channel a short distance above the waves, and (most significant) were capable of crossing in wave height conditions up to 3.5 metres (11.5 feet). The hovercraft service was already in existence in 1975, and I admit it was a tough choice, but the unusual aircraft won out over the exotic hovercraft. I never did get a chance to cross the Channel in this way. Pity.

 

Sunshine Supertrip # 1: The Cat's Out of the Bag

 Okay, folks: with this picture, the cat is officially out of the bag.

 

Holland America Line photo.

 

This is Holland America Line's flagship, newest and largest vessel in their fleet, the Rotterdam. And, yes, I am currently on board and off on another adventure.

 

This was the cruise I booked for myself after my December cruise on the Rotterdam had to be cancelled because of illness. This time, too, I was afraid illness was going to do the plan in, but this virus proved to be an exemplar of good taste, doing its dirty work and then exiting with commendable haste. And here I am, on the high seas again.

Once again, I have opted to travel down to Fort Lauderdale for embarkation via Montreal rather than on a nonstop flight. The reason is simple. Flying nonstop from Toronto with Air Canada during the winter, you either have to get up at 3:00 AM to catch the morning flight, or you have to arrive on the later afternoon flight after dinnertime. Going via Montreal takes longer, but you leave at a more civilized 9:00 AM and still land in Fort Lauderdale just after 5:00 PM.

 

First piece of advice: never, never fly to board a cruise on the day the cruise is leaving. Between weather, crewing issues, mechanical glitches, air traffic control backups, and so much more, the odds are getting longer and longer every year. Go the day before and you don't have to worry.

 

To prove the point, look what happened to my perfectly planned day before this cruise. I arrived at Toronto airport at 6:35 AM, ample time for a 9:00 AM flight to Montreal. And then I waited and waited and waited.... At 10:15, the flight was cancelled due to a mechanical problem. At 10:55 I got to the customer service desk after waiting a while in line. The agent was soon able to rebook me on the last direct flight from Toronto to Fort Lauderdale that night, since there was no way I was going to get to Montreal in time for the reserved flight. I paid no extra money for the rebooking, but took a massive kick in the value equation by ending up in a regular economy seat on Air Canada Rouge when I had booked and paid for Premium Economy on Air Canada mainline. Such are the perils of travelling at the peak of March school breaks. Since this flight too was delayed, it took until about 2:00 AM on Friday to get my bags and get to my hotel.

 

For the night-before-cruise stopover for those flying in, this hotel is a good bet. It has a free on-request shuttle 24/7 to and from nearby Fort Lauderdale Airport (even when arriving in the wee hours), a paid shuttle to and from the cruise ship docks (by reservation), and a decent restaurant on site for dinner and breakfast. This is the Crowne Plaza Fort Lauderdale Airport/Cruise Port.

 

 

The first four floors of the building are a parking garage. The fifth floor up holds the lobby, restaurant, bar, meeting rooms, and the outdoor pool. Then the six storeys of guest rooms begin above that point.

 

 

The restaurant is rather more straightforward than elegant, but has a more diverse menu than many hotel restaurants I have used in the past. The breakfast buffet is decent but not super-impressive, and the cost of the buffet at this writing is US$20 plus tax per person. With that number in mind, you may want to consider getting a breakfast-included rate.

 

Once I got to the dock, the check-in process took 20 minutes, and then I sat for perhaps 30 minutes more  in the large waiting area for my numbered group to be called to board. Since this was now just a few minutes before 1:00 PM, the rooms were available. Once I did get into my room, the rest of the day passed with unpacking, a time out to watch the video safety briefing, and then a quick walk upstairs to the theatre to show that I knew how to find the muster station for emergencies. 

 

By this time, I was decidedly hungry, and headed for an old favourite from my cruise on sister ship Nieuw Statendam last year: the Grand Dutch Cafe. And here's my light lunch:

 

 

For those not familiar with traditional Dutch snacks and light lunches, this is a Broodjekroket, which means a hot croquette on a crusty bread roll. Broodjes of all kinds were a huge deal in Amsterdam when I first went there in the 1970s, and even though the once-ubiquitous chain Broodje van Kootje is no longer in existence, there are other places selling them , and the croquettes here on Holland America are just as good. This one, by the way, is a vleeskroket, a croquette with a creamy filling of finely minced veal. The cappuccino is in a league of its own, made with rich, dark coffee from Rotterdam which would only be ruined by adding any kind of sweetening. The lunches and snacks (and the desserts) at the Grand Dutch Cafe are included in the standard menu, but premium drinks like cappuccino are surcharged. And notice the frequent use of the Dutch national colours of orange and dark blue.

 

The Cafe is on Deck 3, overlooking the atrium. The tall sculpture in the atrium, unlike the massive piece on Nieuw Statendam, allows you to see the atrium around it!

After all of that, a tipple of prosecco from the minibar in my cabin was just the ticket to celebrate going to sea again. Note: Even if you have a drink plan, the drinks in the minibar are not included -- and I did know that when I popped it open!

 

 

Just as I was about to pour it, my steward arrived with my big suitcase. A good thing, too, as the bow thrusters were firing up in preparation for departure right after he left. I'd be worried if my bag hadn't arrived by the time the ship sailed! And here's the view from my window as the ship pushed sideways off the dock, before gliding smoothly forward and out to sea.

The cabin I'm in is one of the dozen single cabins which can be found on Rotterdam, and on the almost identical sister ships Koningsdam and Nieuw Statendam. It's on the lowest passenger deck, all the way forward, and with a window for the sea view. Look at the picture of the ship above. You can see a row of windows just under the inscription of "Holland America Line" on the hull. My cabin is the third one back, but on the other (starboard) side.

 

Here's what it looks like. Yes, it's a full queen-sized bed as in any of the standard staterooms, but due to the smaller size of the cabin the bed has to be pressed against the outside bulkhead. These cabins are located where the ship's sides are curving in towards the bow, hence the deep well in the wall containing the window, and the decision to market them as singles.

 

 

It's a smart move. More and more singles are cruising every year -- many of them, like me, widows or widowers. Cruise companies are belatedly realizing that it's a bit of a dirty trick to force single travellers to pay a full double fare, as most of them do if you take a normal cabin. What percentage do you actually pay? That depends very much on the itinerary and the time of year. For this cruise, it was about 160% of the normal adult fare when two are sharing. 

 

The next question, on a Caribbean cruise, is naturally about the outdoor recreation spaces. Rotterdam has the new essential of the modern resort and cruise trade: a pickleball court which can be reserved for time slots throughout the day. The ship also has two pool areas. This is the midships Lido pool. It is equipped with a sliding glass dome which can be opened, as here, or closed. 

 

 

 

The Seaview Pool, at the stern, is my favourite -- it has much better sun exposure, and the best feature of all: signs at every entrance proclaiming it "Adults Only Pool." That fact alone tells you a great deal about the typical Holland America cruiser. 

 

Rotterdam is every bit as dramatic a floating art gallery as her older sister, Nieuw Statendam. One of the joys of cruising with Holland America is the huge and diverse range of artistic riches waiting around every corner -- all of them commissioned from various living artists for this ship (a long-standing Holland America tradition). Here are a few of the intriguing, whimsical, puzzling, or dramatic pieces I've spotted around the ship, in addition to  the big sculpture in the atrium.

 

 

There's only one holdover from Nieuw Statendam, and even the twin pieces outside the Tamarind Asian-fusion restaurant have different colours on them from those on the other vessel.

I'd like to say that the striking, sculptural main Dining Room is the biggest artwork of them all. It never fails to give me a sight to study.

It is identical to the Nieuw Statendam, as far as I can see, but how did I ever miss the impressive flowing shape of the wine cellar, accessible from both decks of the Dining Room?

Well, that's enough about the ship. I chose this particular cruise because it includes four full sea days out of a nine-day cruise, and because of the selection of port calls. There will be more to see and report, and photograph, when we get to that first port in two more days. For now, relax and enjoy life at sea, a true pleasure in its own right for me!

 

Final note: I've made frequent references to my previous experience on Rotterdam's sister ship, Nieuw Statendam. If you'd like read more about that  vessel, and see some more photos of another floating art gallery, here's a link to that post from last year:

 

 

A Floating Arts Centre

 

 

Out to the Mountains and Back # 1: The Beauty of Life in Kelowna

It's a natural fit. I've loved being around and near mountains for as long as I can remember. Kelowna is a modern city, surrounded by mountains, on the shores of Lake Okanagan in southern British Columbia. When my nephew, Robert Stephen, tells me he's got another commission to create a new work for Ballet Kelowna, that gives me all the reason I need to pack my bags. I had no part at all in making Robert the wonderful artist he is. I'm just extravagantly proud of him, and go to see any of his work whenever I can manage it. Call me a "Robert Stephen groupie."

 

So this trip began with an overnight stay in a hotel at Toronto airport, followed by a morning flight to Calgary and an early afternoon connection to Kelowna. On the main flight to Calgary, I had put in a request for upgrade using my credits, not with much hope, but at boarding time I got the upgrade to the last available seat in the Premium Economy cabin. On Air Canada, this means that the flight is being operated by a wide bodied aircraft, normally dedicated to overseas service. The Business Class cabin has individual pods with lie-flat seats that turn into beds. Premium Economy is not unlike the Business Class on a narrow-bodied aircraft: wider seats (seven across instead of nine), much better legroom, with the same or similar meal offering as Business Class, and free alcoholic beverages. 

That certainly made the flight much easier! The breakfast and coffee were delicious. And then, I walked off the plane in Calgary and my connecting flight was at the gate directly across the hall -- barely fifty steps' walking. Was I getting the breaks that day, or what? The 1-hour flight to Kelowna was on a commuter turboprop with 72 seats, so there was only a simplified beverage service, but that was fine.

I was soon checked into my go-to hotel in Kelowna, the Delta Grand Okanagan Resort. It has a splendid view over the waterfront park to the waters of the lake, especially so when you get an upgrade to a higher floor with the view. The view to the south from my room takes in the huge marina and waterfront promenade. You can also see the outdoor portion of the hotel's pool, the hot tub, and the covered outdoor pool which will be opened and surrounded with lounge chairs  when the warmer weather comes.

 

 

To the east, you see more mountains with snow.

 

The view to the southwest gives a clear sight of the bridge across the narrows of Lake Okanagan. This vital link not only continues the highway southbound down the valley to Penticton and on to the U.S.border, but also leads to the freeway which runs west through the mountains to the Coquihalla Highway, the main route of the Trans Canada Highway towards Vancouver.

The resort has a lovely indoor-outdoor pool, plus a sizable outdoor-only pool which will open in warmer weather. There are indoor and outdoor hot tubs, although the indoor one was out of order. I'm not surprised. So many hotels are pulling the things out altogether. They're a royal pain in the you-know-where to keep running because people keep dumping drinks and food into them, "by accident" of course, and clogging the jet pumps. Nor does it help when people decide to bring the shampoo and wash their flipping hair in the hot tub! Yes, it happens.

 

As soon as you step out the door of the hotel, you see this view across the lagoon towards the mountains on the far shore of Lake Okanagan.

 

 

The hotel also looks impressive when looking backwards from across the lagoon in the park.

 

 

I did a lot of walking in that park, and along the waterfront walking path as a whole. Yes, the weather was a bit chilly, but with hardly any wind, the outdoor walking was a delight. Here are a few pictures of the outdoor park area north of the hotel. 

 

On top of a small hill in the park is this artificial spring, which feeds two small streams tumbling downhill over rocky beds into the lagoon. 

 

 

 

A panorama of the lake and mountains from the slopes of that small hill. 

The trees show fascinating sculptural silhouettes in winter when stripped of vegetation.

 

 

What looks like clear, calm water at a first glance proves to be a very thin skin of new ice with an equally thin layer of liquid water lying on top of it. The true open water is riffled by the breeze.

At noon on my first full day, I walked north a bit from the resort, and at the first bend in the road found this impressive and evocative sculpture.

 

In another couple of blocks, I came to the Train Station Pub. I ate there twice, and highly recommend it as both meals were fantastic. So was the service. Here's the exterior of the old station.

Here's a better view of the delightful statue of an old-school train conductor standing on the corner outside the pub.

 

 The interior of the pub shows a thoughtful mix of the old and the new.

In the area south of the resort, there are some further striking public art sculpture installations.

 

 

One of them actually appears as a location on Google Maps. "Ogopogo" is the name of the mysterious water beast which lives in the lake. Ogopogo is quite likely a first cousin of the Loch Ness Monster, and like Nessie is lengthy, serpentine in form, and shy to the point of being reclusive. The map label, "Ogopogo Statue", sounds impressive, but the result is better described as whimsical and user friendly.  Parents are always coming to perch their little ones on Ogopogo's back or head for pictures.

 

There's also a sizable outdoor skating rink, and a sunny weekend day like this with the high temperature just below freezing was perfect for skating. 

Just inland from the promenade lies the Kelowna Community Theatre, and here it is from the outside, with the advertising sign for the ballet's production plainly visible on the right. 

Here's a picture from Ballet Kelowna's social media of the cast after the performance of Robert's new work, Mustard, inspired by the play of the same name by Kat Sandler. Robert is standing second from left in the back row. The entire show was fantastic, both Mustard and the other premiere, Delicate Fire, by the company's Artistic Director, Simone Orlando.

Ballet Kelowna photo.

 

The afternoon after the final performance, I flew down to Vancouver. The takeoff from Kelowna's airport showed both an intriguing cloud pattern in the sky and a clear and detailed view of the city centre on the shore of the lake.  

 

 

I spent a relaxing night at the Westin Wall Centre hotel near the airport, another location I recommend highly. A top floor room gave a spectacular view over the industrial district near the airport to the majestic mountains on the north shore of Burrard Inlet, including the two angular peaks of the Lions of Vancouver.

 

The next day, I rode the hotel's free shuttle back to the airport and then took the Skytrain downtown, changing trains at the Waterfront station to get out to the Main Street station. From there, it was a short one-block walk to the Pacific Central Station on Terminal Avenue, the point of departure for my trip home.