Will T Rogers

During a recent call to one of the last travel agents in the world I said, “I’d like an undersea round-trip ticket on the Bullet Train from New York’s Grand Central Terminal to London’s Victoria station. I understand it takes under two hours. Can you also book a two-week stay for me at a hotel in London’s South Kensington?”

One of the nice things about the Bullet Train is that you don’t have to sit on a plane seven or so hours each way.

To make the undersea trip in so short a time the train needs to gradually accelerate for fifteen minutes to nearly 2000 miles per hour and then at its end take fifteen minutes to slow back to a stop. During the trip you ride through the longest undersea tunnel in the world. Its design is based on--but more advanced than--the English Channel Eurostar train tunnel that runs under the seabed between southern England and northern France.

A week later I left at noon for my trip on the Bullet Train. Two hours later passing through five time zones I reached London at 7 PM. I then took the District Line two stops from Victoria Underground station to South Kensington. From there I walked several blocks along Cromwell Road to my hotel. Later I strolled the neighbourhood and stopped at a pub for supper.

After paying the bartender for a gin and tonic and a dish of sausages and potatoes (called bangers and mash) I read the Daily Mail while waiting for the food.

On the way to the pub I had bought a picture postcard and an international stamp at a convenience store. Whenever I travel I send a postcard home as a memento. Months or years later I can look at the card and message to remember something about the trip.

For me, London is nicer than New York. One difference between the cities is the better Underground trains versus the grungier New York Subway. For picture-takers, London offers a good supply of subjects. New York is not as photogenic, beyond the skyscrapers and bridges.

People do things in London they might not do in other cities. For example some buy small boats on which to live along the banks of London canals. Others rent these boats as though they were apartments or flats.

For an unusual experience, you can take a guided tour of Deptford Creek at low tide to see interesting things.

Someone else decorated a several-hundred years old home (the Dennis Servers House) to look like it did in the eighteenth century. You step through the rooms and imagine it’s still 1775 because household things, like a half eaten slice of bread, make it look like the family has just gone out. 

Many people visit the thousand-year-old Tower of London or the two-thousand-year-old Roman Wall. And while other big cities may have one or two main train terminals, London has fourteen, each with a different design.

Like New York, London is a city of bridges. Its bridges are sometimes older and have interesting histories and designs. One 39-foot-long bridge on the Grand Union Canal rests in a coiled octagon or clock shape on one bank while not being used. When in use It uncoils to reach the opposite bank to let pedestrians cross, after which it recoils back to its unused position on the one bank to let small boats pass.

Lately, 1950s styled American diners have become popular in London. The most authentic is Fatboy’s Diner on Trinity Buoy Wharf (at Bow Creek, a part of the River Lea). Nearby an artist installed a double bell on the Thames riverfront that chimes a melody when the tide rises. Someone else renovated an always docked 550-tonne lightship as a sound recording studio.

Several hundred years ago someone purchased an indoor cistern probably used to store water for plants in a nearby building. They promoted it as “Roman Baths,” akin to the two-thousand year-old ones in Bath England. Although not Roman the much smaller London Baths have become an attraction because they are now four centuries old.

I came home two pounds lighter than when I left. Walking the city to take pictures while carrying camera equipment and avoiding heavy meals at expensive restaurants both help explain the weight loss. I took fifty photographs to add to my travels-webpage:

WritersReadersAndBeyond.com. 

The trip home on the Bullet Train was not as exciting as the trip outward. But because the trip took two hours to cross five time zones I arrived home in New York “three hours” before I left London.

The Bullet Trains are not allowed to depart until several computers independently scan ten thousand data-sensors spaced across the undersea route. The scans verify that no dangers threaten the tunnel’s security or train passage.

The undersea line has at present four passenger trains that rotate in and out of service. It also has a variety of track-maintenance rail vehicles based in London and New York.