Travelling - Transport

Categories: holidays, friends

Date: 13 January 2009 09:44:32

Fortified by the fruit of the blessed Juniper berry, I continue the story of my travelling -- the telling of which appears to be longer than the actual holiday!

While being where you actually want to be is a great experience, I find the travelling to a place often equally as enjoyable. There are a number of ways to get from A to B, and each country, each city even, has its own unique style of transport. Something as everyday as a car, in that case my friend's, is an adventure: being on the opposite side if I found myself in the front, and even seeing and experiencing the different rules, such as U-Turns at roundabouts [verboten here in Sin City] and right-turn on red lights [when safe], makes you realise things are different everywhere you go.

Taxis are interesting enough in your own city, well taxi drivers at least!, but when you in San Diego [one day of work on my holdiay] are only a couple miles away from Mexico and can see it [including a giant flag I did not manage to catch], another country! [eternally fascinating to a resident of an island home like I am], there is something special about hurtling past it along a freeway -- so close, yet I imagine a million miles away from anything I could imagine. And then you have the familiar, such as a Westfields Shopping Centre, with the extraordinary: not only different shops, but a off-site parking courtesy shuttle that takes you right to the door.

Even something as everyday as a bus can be interesting, taking you through places you have never seen, and may even surprise when the route number and destination change to wish you a festive greeting:
'Happy Holidays' Bus

Trains are a transport I find fascinating. I am not sure that is true for local network, but perhaps familiarity does breed contempt. A short walk from my friend's place in San Jose was a Light Rail station. A very convenient ad enjoyable way to get downtown [again, a new word for me -- we say CBD [Central Business District] or "the City"]. Interesting to see that they had decided to build it down the middle of a freeway: makes sense:
Capitol Light Rail Station
Light Rail - Downtown San Jose

In San Francisco there is the BART, and I used it this trip to get to San Franciso airport from the Caltrain station. The Caltrain is for longer journeys, from San Jose up to San Francisco: the carriages are rather large, and the steps rather steep in comparison to what I am used to here. But, again, interesting experiences: especially to see how popular bikes are around San Jose and San Francisco -- and the presence of a "bike car".
Caltrain
Caltrain - Bike Car

Another mass transit train was the Amtrak train I caught from Flagstaff to Williams -- supposedly a half-hour or so, but due to slow freight trains ahead it was an hour or so longer. Still, as I mentioned previously, I was chatting to the conductor so time went by reasonably quick. Compared to the station at Flagstaff:
Train at Flagstaff

Williams Junction was rather sparse, particularly with the snow. A shuttle bus awaited to take us to Williams.
Williams Junction Railway Station
Williams Junction Railway Station

Planes featured heavily in my travels given the distances I was often travelling. They ranged in size from jumbos down to propellor planes. I do enjoy plane tavel: though I will say the last half-hour on a trans-Pacific flight can be the longest ever experienced: I just want to land! Denver was a city I never saw -- though the mountains looked nice from the airport -- arriving there well into the night and leaving early the next morning. The airport was rather nice though, even if I couldn't make heads nor tails of this display [I enjoyed a Jamba Juice while pondering]. It was also interesting to see that the toilets were also used for another purpose, fortunately not needed while I was there:
Tornado Shelter

My adventures from Denver to get to Yellowstone need a post of their own so I shall leave that for another day.

The smaller planes I flew, those from the very large Phoenix airport [stunningly surrounded by hills] to the charmingly-smalll Flagstaff airport and back, were good fun. On the way out we had a very funny flight attendant who had us in stitches with the safety demonstration. From my window on the plane I had a nice view of what went on before take-off, such as taking the covers of the propellors, to seeing the change from take-off and the dry and dusty desert land around Phoenix to the snow-covered mountains near Flagstaff, which is at 2,106 metres (6,910 ft) compared to Phoenix's 340 metres (1,117 ft). Landing in the snow was a first-time experience for me.

Heading back we had clear skies:
Plane at Flagstaff

but this soon changed once we were on-board. We had to wait until the storm passed, and when it was clear the wings had iced up. So the de-icing machine was called. Having a window seat over the wing I had a prime view:
De-icing the Plane

Then it was take-off, and heading back out of the snow to the dusty plains [with a bit of green for the golf course] of Phoenix:
View of Phoenix from the air
Clouds from the air
Phoenix from the air
Golf Course from the air
Phoenix from the air

Very enjoyable travels, very enjoyable experiences, and some of the most wonderful views from car, bus, taxi, train or plane.