Goodbye, England (for now)

The last two days in England were just as full as the rest. On Wednesday we went down to Brighton, where I saw the English Channel for the first time with my own eyes. We hung out on the beach, had some fish and chips which were pretty good for how inexpensive they were. Then we set off to find the Embassy Court apartments and angel statue across the street from it, where the real-world exterior shots in Mirrornask were filmed.

The building had been rennovated since the movie was shot, so unfortunately it had none of the real character that it had in the film. Still, it was neat being able to say I’d been there.

Movie locations ended up being the theme of my last few days in England. On Thursday, we tracked down the Winchester; the pub from “Shaun of the Dead”. Unfortunately, it was in the process of being rennovated, so we were unable to have a pint there, but I did at least get a few photos.

After that, we headed to No. 1 Buckingham Place. This was where Number 6 in the show “The Prisoner” lived before he was abducted and taken to The Village. It looked now to be some kind of law office, and no doubt the tenants were wondering why these two guys were posing for photographs in front of their door.

After that, we saw the real touristy sites, like Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, the Eye of London, and so on. Then we headed to Whitechapel, to find all the sites of the Jack the Ripper murders. Whitechapel is very different from how it was 120 years ago—owing mostly to the German ‘blitzkrieg’ which hit Whitechapel particularly hard. Since then, a lot of modern business offices have taken root, and apparently what was once the most impoverished part of London has now become a major business centre.

Still, a lot of the old buildings were there, and the area does still have a lot of the feeling of the Victorian Whitechapel we’ve read about. A lot of the roads were worn down, rubbish everywhere, although surprisingly no beggars that I could see.

The tour ended with us eating at a Vietnamese restaurant for George’s best man’s birthday. I ended up having Pho, but I quickly started drooling over everyone else’s dishes. But the important thing was that I had fun.

The next morning I got up bright and early to catch the train to Belgium. Those things are fast! It only took two hours to get from England to Belgium—about 370km—and I arrived safe and sound at Brussel Zuid, where Annelies was waiting for me with a large sign that read “Ian” in giant letters on one side, and “Welcome to the Future” on the other. (Bit of an inside joke between us, due to the time zone difference.)

We caught the train to Londerzeel and drove the rest of the way home in her teeny tiny Fiat 126. At her place, I met her parents and we all sat down for a dinner of horse steak, beans, potatoes (which I loved) and witloaf (which I wasn’t so fond of). Then, after a quick shower, we took off in her parents’ car to see Peter, her boyfriend, during his 100km walk (part of an annual event called the “Dodentocht” (death march)) and cheer him on. The walkers all looked upbeat, but this would not last long.

The next day, we went to see him again, but this time we rode bicycles so that we could keep pace with him for the last 25 or so kilometres. Everyone who was still walking was looking quite haggard by this point—we even saw one guy who was walking as though he had elephantitis. But after a few more hours, he crossed the finish line! We met his parents and all sat down for Belgian fries and drinks, and everyone was very friendly.

But then came the bike ride home in the rain. By this point, I had been riding for quite a few hours, and my ass was really starting to hurt. But when we finally arrived home, we were treated to a delicious meal of… pigeon!

The next morning, we drove to Hammel to pick up Peter and then drove out to Gent. We took a tour of a medeival castle, had a beer, and then went to Veldstraat (hopefully I spelled that correctly; I only heard it spoken) to find a plaque that commemorates the Treaty of Ghent, signed between the still-new United States and the UK, ending the War of 1812. This spurred a very interesting conversation about America, its place in the world, how we’re behaving, how other countries see us, and so on. Then we found our way to the cinema to watch ‘The Dark Knight’, which I hadn’t yet seen. Great movie! But it was quite long, and we ended up getting home after midnight. Annelies has to work today, so now I’m going to go get ready to find my way to Brussel by myself.

Wish me luck!