Day 15 - Family Business - Borough Green and Eynsford

The Circle Line trains have a great deal of capacity, seen here in the morning. Coming back in the afternoon the trains were very, very full indeed.

We left Paddington in good time and travelled by the Circle Line to Victoria where we caught a train to Borough Green and Wrotham. This was through pretty familiar territory - Bromley South, Bickley, St. Mary Cray and Eynsford. Linda and Frances met our on time train at Borough Green and we walked to Amy and George's home.

Our train was on time at Borough Green

Frances and Linda were a great welcoming committee

We had coffee with Amy and George and handed over the family bible which was dated 1863.

Paul hands over the bible to Amy

Amy and George have just put up their Christmas tree

We all went to lunch at the Malt Shovel in Eynsford which I remember visiting for the occasional lunch while excavating the Lullingstone Roman Villa in the summers of 1959 and 1960. Beckie (from Sidcup), Amy's sister, joined us for lunch.

The Malt Shovel



After lunch Linda and Frances took Paul and I to visit the Lullingstone Roman Villa. It has changed immensely since I was there. The whole area is now well protected by an overall roof, a visitor centre and some well thought out signs that gave a good impression of the way the building was built up and the life in those times. 






These pictures bring back pleasant memories about the times I spent excavating the Lullingstone Roman Villa in the summers of 1959 and 1960

There was then an interesting ride back to Bromley to see Trevor and Doris, Linda and Frances' parents. It was great to see them again.

A quick ride back from Bromley South to Victoria and a very full Circle line train completed a full day. Linda and Frances were very kind and it was good to meet some additional family members. We spent some time sorting out how we were related to each other. I am not sure that I have it straight now but we have met some interesting and friendly people. A great day.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Railfan Tour of Switzerland - Wednesday - Zurich Hauptbahnhof Part One

Image
Zurich Hauptbahnhof  Paul has prepared some extensive notes and photos of the Zurich Hauptbahnhof.  This will be in several parts.  The busiest station in Switzerland is Zurich Hauptbahnhof (Zurich HB) which is used primarily by the SBB. It has 26 tracks serving almost 3000 trains daily and it is one of the busiest stations in the world. It was built in the 1870s and is a main shopping destination as well as a transport hub. There are three levels for platforms and the "Shopville" shopping plaza.  The river Sihl river passes right through the station with platforms passing above and below the river. This shows the general layout of the station with the surrounding tram tracks shown in purple Tracks 3 to 18 are terminal tracks located at ground level, served by two side platforms and seven island platforms. These are used by long-distance trains from throughout Switzerland, and by international trains. Tracks 21 and 22 are underground terminal tracks, served by a single island
Read more

Thursday 21 September - Wrap Up

Image
  Flytoget at Oslo Central I caught a Flytoget express train to Oslo airport. These run every ten minutes throughout the day. Every other one stops at Lillestrom which was convenient as Paul joined me there, (he was staying at a nearby Lillestrom hotel). This is a high speed train which runs from the airport to Oslo Central station in 20 minutes. The trains are frequently crowded. This is an excellent service. Compare this to the "service" OC Transpo will be providing to Ottawa airport. A diesel train a couple of stops to the Trillium line, change to another diesel train to Bayview, then change to the electric Confederation line to get downtown. Tourists are going to love this with their large cases. We took a KLM flight to Amsterdam where  we changed to a KLM flight to Montreal and finally the KLM bus to Ottawa. We had anticipated some problems in Amsterdam with a relatively short transfer but everything worked out to the minute. The cabin crew on the flight from Oslo were g
Read more

Monday 18 September - Oslo Trams

Image
The weather here is atrocious cool and wet with heavy rain at times. I bought a 24 hour local transport pass at the tourist office. This allows me to travel around for 24 hours. I first had a look at the Central Station. The older units make quite a bit of noise Some cars are for people who need to buy a ticket. I then started to ride a few trams. Routes 12 and 19 seemed the most promising. I started with the 19 route and rode it out to the end at Majorstuen and then back through town but the trams were not running beyond Oslo Hospital because of track work. I then decided to sample route 12 which I rode out to Majorstuen and then back all the way to Kjelsas. This is a delightful ride. It runs close to the water then along major parks as well as climbing quite high at Kjelsas which gives good views over the city. At Majorstuen route 12 trams become route 11 and vice versa. Route at at Central Station route 12 at Majorstuen Route 11 at Kjelsas My day went well although the weather was a
Read more