Day 125: Dover to Horley, UK: Mostly by train

September 21, 2012

We lined up all our bags in the hallway of the guesthouse, and were amazed at how many and how heavy they were. "How did we carry all that across the continent, we barely got it down here out of the room!"

Once back on the little bikes, the bags magically became mobile again, and we glided easily to the Dover Priory Train Station. Though we had two changes of train to get to Horley (near Gatwick airport) it went smoothly, with the bikes going into and out of the cars without problem.

Through Crazyguy we had met Tony Calvert, and he graciously agreed to put us up at Horley. We found Tony's place, and Tony, and spent an initial couple of hours exchanging cycling stories. Tony has done a lot. You can see his journals here.

We walked back to the train station and headed on in to London's Victoria Station. We needed to pick up the Friday's suitcases from a family member downtown. Of course we already had had our introduction to London when we came from Canada, way back in May. We had noticed the hustle bustle of Victoria station, and the large number of tourists around the main sights then, but it did not seem to hit us the way it did today.

It felt to me like I was watching a video that had had the fast forward button pushed. Everyone weas moving so fast! And there were so many, buzzing in every direction! We edged forward, being the useless combination of Canadians who have also been out on lonely roads for a long time. "Oops, excuse me. Sorry, Sorry".

Dodie got the idea that we should use the Underground to reach the spot where our cases were. Yikes, the people were even thicker and faster down there. We got out on Oxford Street. Oxford Street on a Friday afternoon! "Oops, excuse me. Sorry, Sorry".

Finally we got a bit tougher and began to make headway, but it was slow going. We did get our cases and even got back to Horley. We need to spend one day packing, but that still gives us one day to play with, before flying on the 24th. Will we go back to London? Well, if we can rest up (and calm down) enough tomorrow, maybe we will give it a go.

Even with a recent mailback, we have tons of stuff to carry.

Our bikes went on board each train fully loaded, with no problems.

Chatting with a businessman who routinely takes his bike into London and cycles there.

We returned to Horley after four months and 6000 km

After leaving our bikes and gear with Tony, we went into London. We found Londoners more numerous and faster moving than four months ago. Maybe the Olympics speeded up their thinking.

Lots of iconic double decker red busses.

Trying to get back out to Horley. This screen (if you look closely) shows that the train is leaving in under 10 minutes but the platform is still unknown. There are at least 20 platforms. If you are not near the right one when it is announced, your chances of getting on the train are slim. In this case, the actual time between knowing the platform and the train leaving was under 5 minutes!

Today's ride: 5 km (3 miles)
Total: 6,579 km (4,086 miles)

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