Transportation Woes Continue

So, I finally got to London. Despite being a fairly good "flight sleeper" normally, I didn't get much sleep on the plane and arrived in London more tired than I wanted to be. Sicne the flight got in at about 7 AM, I decided to go to my uncle's place in Purley and relax a bit before heading to the Royal Holloway University of London.

Rather than taking the cheap train to Central London (50 minutes), I opted for the Heathrow Express which gets you to Paddington Station in less than 20 minutes (at a much higher cost). At Paddington, I switched over to the Central Line to get to Victoria station where I had to switch over to the Main Line to get to Purley. By the way, I have to give kudos to British Rail for the incredibly well thought out signage everywhere at the ststainos. Despite being a confusing morass of different lines and train systems headed all over the city and outskirts, I never had trouble knowing where to go at these stations. I had to switch lines, terminals, and platforms, btu at every point there were clear signs telling me where I needed to go. As the English would say, "Bloody Brilliant!"

The short ride on the circle line to Victoria extended my bad luck on the transportation front this week. While the entire tube system was running well, two stops into my ride, the train stopped and there was an announcement that there was a problem at the monument station and that we would be delayed. We finally pulled into Gloucester Road station and were informed that the train had been told to stop there indefinitely until the problem at Monument was fixed. With that 20+ minute delay, the time I gained taking the Heathrow Express was effectively wiped out.

I finally made it to Victoria and found out that my best bet was to take a train to East Croydon and then switch there to a train to Purley. All of this was relatively painless and smooth. I should also give another quick shoutout to the beauty of the big train stations in London. Paddington, Victoria (and later Clapham Junction) were all beautiful structures and I could have spent an hour in each place just wandering around watching people and admiring the architecture. There is something quite special about the environs of an English train terminus that everyone should experience.

I got to Purley and had some trouble calling my uncle (public telephones are not quite as ubiquitous as they used to be). But, I finally got through and he came by and picked me up. I was fed a great Indian meal at home after I showered and cleaned up. We watched Federer start to lose to Berdych and I was driven back to the train station so I could head to Egham, my destination for the conference.

By this time, I was definitely fading. I hopped on the train at Purley and saw that I had a 25+ minute ride to Clapham Junction where I would switch to the Egham train. The next thing I remember after getting on the train is waking up and finding that the train was *just* leaving Clapham Junction. I had fallen asleep and missed my stop. I got off at the next station and took a train back. Luckily the trains are so frequent and well managed that this was not a big problem (except for the lost time). Fifteen minutes after landing at Clapham Junction, I was on the train to Egham.

Egham is a tiny village outside London with a correspondingly tiny train station. There were only two taxis at the stand and someone had beaten me to them. Since the lady asked to be taken to the University, I just asked her if she was heading to the ACR conference and whether I could ride with her. Meanwhile, another conference attendee overheard and joined us for the short ride to the University.

The room was as spartan as I experienced during my last stay at University accommodations in France (LaLonde conference) many years ago. Despite this being the "premium en suite" accommodations costing GBP60 per night, it was a basic tiny dorm room with no phone or TV. Most disturbing to this spoiled American was the fact that like my LaLonde experience several years ago, there was no air conditioning or even a fan. I just don't understand this "no fan" business. How are you supposed to live through the summer (especially at night) when there is no air movement in the room? Luxury accommodations this is not.

I went for the conference reception and registration which was held in the beautiful Founder's Building Courtyard (photos of this will come later as I didn't have my camera). Had a couple of drinks and met several friends and colleagues. We went to the Founder's dining hall for a rather awful dinner. The "Malaysian Chicken" was rather tasteless and they refused to give me any of the "vegetable biryani" or "tomato soup" as I was told I was allowed only one of the options. A group of us then headed to the "Happy Man," a local pub where I enjoyed a pint. This time, the fact that it was slightly warm beer that tasted strong just added to the ambience and did not cause any complaints.

By the time I got to my room at about 10:45 PM, I had a splitting headache. I remember taking a couple of Advil and lying down in bed. Next thing I remember is looking at my little travel clock and finding that it is 8:30 AM.