not.
The staff ride has been planned for months and I signed up for it weeks ago. I hadn’t done much study, but on the fiction side – this is the area in which Anne Perry sets her five book WWI Mystery series covering 1914-1918 about the Reavely siblings.
I was up early and we were all on the bus before 0500 heading to Folkstone. One member had to drop out as he had forgotten his passport. It is just 0700 when we roll into the parking lot. I decide that I need a coffee. At the last minute, I had pulled out one knitting project and tossed another in my bag.
Getting my backpack down from the upper rack – I pull out my notebook, snacks and keep on digging.
Have you guessed the punch line yet?
Wallet. Apparently not returned to the backpack or left on the car seat. Not only was I without passports, I was also without ID card, money, bank cards of various kinds and rail card. At the terminal.
To say that I felt like an idiot was a complete understatement. One of the guy kindly hit a cash point so that I had enough money to get home by train. Even nicer was one of the terminal employees who gave me a ride into central Folkstone so that I could catch a train. He worked first on the construction and now at the English end of the line. 16 + years all told.
I spent a bit of time looking around while I waited for the “after rush hour train fares”
as close as I got to Belgium
looking at the memorials
WW II Memorial
had my cup of coffee, then wandered through town
and be on my way, heels dragging, toward London Waterloo.
South East Trains arrive at the East Waterloo Terminal. I have often seen the signs for the
Imperial War Museum
and made the detour today in an effort to at least learn a bit more about Britain in WWI. The main floor and atrium contained a variety of
WW I plane
transport
while special exhibits were on the upper floors. That of military intelligence and MI5&6 was quite interesting. The Holocaust one, well, it is interesting how the Brits unwillingness to accept refugees in either the UK or Palestine was glossed over in favor of touting the Kindertransport.
Obviously, I arrived safely home. Feeling exhausted and stupid, I will meet the bus when it rolls in late tonight so that I can pay back the good, kind MAJ.
My only salvage out of the day was being able to spend an hour in the gym exercising as well as my train knitting…..
