Nearing Ithaca : Dublin to Glasgow (Part 4)

The ScotRail train pulled out of Stranraer and made its way slowly up the Ayrshire coast. I was reciting Burns poems in my head when we pulled into Ayr, and I got off to change trains. As a child I had memorised Burns, and his description of Ayr is in Tam O Shanter: '..this truth fand honest Tam O Shanter, As he frae Ayr a night did canter: Auld Ayr, wham ne'er a town surpasses for honest men an bonnie lassies' 




Next stop was Kilwinning for a coffee and a square sausage sandwich. Before getting the final train to Largs. 

There has always been something emotional for me pulling into Largs. As a child we would drive to Largs from London, and as soon as we saw the sea our hearts would jump. I would be in the middle of my two sisters in the back of an end-of-times British car - Morris, Marina, Ambassador - all with the same door handles. My Dad would be driving and also visibly cheered about reaching his birthplace and heart-land. My mum glad that the 9 hour drive was soon to end, and no longer would she have to juggle Benson and Hedges Cigarettes for my dad and sick bags for my sisters.

Fifteen years ago, my son and I took fifteen days to journey by train from Hong Kong to Largs, arriving on Saturday 10th July 2010 at 09:45. Then Largs was also journey's end - Ithaca. No suiters to deal with and Penelope (Marie) was waiting at the platform as I scratched my Odyssean beard and Telemachus (Robert) rushed to greet his mother. For more see Train Trip With Son


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why 'Journey without maps'?

Image
It used to be the way I travelled - much to the initial annoyance of my wife. It is the title of a Graham Greene Novel  Journey Without Maps  I read in my late teens. This book gave me the itch for independent travel - at least to justify the way I travelled. I would inter-rail and hitch-hike around Europe in 1988, take a bus across America 1999, test my nerve in Peru in 1990, and then take the backpacker trail around SE Asia in 1992 I then travelled across India by train, walked through Nepal into Tibet and China in early 1993. Re cuperating in H ong Kong, playing Bridge on a boat to Discovery Bay, I decided to fly back to Bangkok. There, on a beach I met a traveler, whose tales of adventure and fortune in Cambodia led me on my own journey without maps. Now, forty years on from reading the book, my journey is anything but without maps.  Even 15 years ago we planned a meticulous train trip from HK to Scotland - see  Traintripwithson In my recent work trip to Ireland ...
Read more

China by train (Part 1)

Image
I love trains. I have taken hard seats and hard sleepers across Europe, India and China. I have experienced the luxury of soft sleeper on the Trans Mongolian from Beijing to Moscow, and ridden on the roof of a train in war-torn Cambodia. This month I am taking a train from Laos to China, and then to Vietnam.  I had thought I would take the train all the way from Singapore to Laos and onwards, but I have done much of the Singapore to Bangkok journey before. Given the time constraints, and work obligations, I decided to fly to Vientiane for my first meeting, and then take a train to my last in Hanoi next weekend.  As there is no train from Laos to Vietnam, the obvious alternative is the train from Laos to China and then to Hanoi. The latter just reopened last month after being suspended since Covid in 2020. So here we are on day one of this mini trip. 10:00 Scoot from Singapore to Vientiane.
Read more

Glasgow's miles better: Dublin to Glasgow (Part 7)

Image
The rain threatened as the train pulled into Glasgow Central shortly after 9am. I needed to get some cash for use later in the museum locker (I planned ahead) and then walked across the street to the bus stop. Fifteen minutes later I arrived opposite the Kelvingrove Art Gallery And Museum. I hadn't realised that on Fridays the museum doesn't open until 11am so I had time on my hands (it is 10am most other days). I started to walk towards the park that held the statue to Lord Kelvin (more on him, again, later) when the threatened rain started to descend. I sought refuge in a nearby excellent coffee shop and enjoyed two delicious cups of single origin coffee. At five minutes to eleven I joined a small queue of people waiting to enter the museum. The museum itself is free, but there is a charge of two pounds (cash only) to deposit bags or coats in the left luggage area on the ground floor. I was happy to leave my coat and suitcase there, and then explored the museum at a fairly co...
Read more