Sunday, April 18, 2010

Planes, Trains, Automobiles, and Boats, or, How I Got to the London Book Fair

So you've probably heard about the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, 





which has led to the cancellation of all transatlantic flights leaving travellers stuck all over the U.S. and Europe and prevented hundreds of foreign publishers from getting to the London Book Fair, which starts today.  Your correspondent, however, is not easily deterred. Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor airborne particles of sulfurous ash and jet-destroying silicates was going to keep me from schmoozing my colleagues from Britain and elsewhere. Undaunted, I set off on Friday from my office in  the Flatiron


for JFK Airport. There, I boarded a plane for Dublin. This was the flight I had originally booked weeks before--not because I am amazingly prescient, but because I got a cheap ticket on an airline I like, Aer Lingus. The leprechauns were with me, because I took what I believe was the last flight to reach Europe that evening. (A later flight to Dublin got halfway and was turned back.) An Aer Lingus official told me they couldn't promise any flights beyond Dublin--but friends in Edinburgh, my next stop, told me Scottish airports were open as of Friday afternoon.



So they were--but by the time I landed in Dublin Saturday morning, Irish airspace was closed and all flights across Europe were cancelled.  The airport was full of long snaking queues of befuddled travelers. (I must say that airline staff were extremely courteous, and almost every traveler around me displayed remarkable patience in a situation that was obviously unlooked-for by everyone.)

I went to Plan B, and booked the next non-cancelled flight to Edinburgh (the next morning). But that seemed dicey, so it was time for Plan C: the ferry from Dublin across the Irish Sea and train to London. The problem with Plan C was that I couldn't confirm on the internet that there were train tickets available--I was far from the only traveler who thought of the ferry solution. But my friends in Scotland told me there was a ferry from Belfast to the Scottish coast, and volunteered to pick me up at the dock (above and beyond the call of duty, since their house looks out on the Firth of Forth--the other coast of Scotland). Thus was launched Plan D.




I got into Dublin and caught the train to Belfast with enough time for breakfast--coffee was what made this journey possible. From Belfast Central, a taxi to the port, where I boarded the ferry to Stranraer. From there, Michael and Jane whisked me cross country to Edinburgh.

And this morning, after a blessedly civilized evening and a delicious night's sleep,  I hopped the train from Edinburgh's Waverly Station to London. 


I confess I actually enjoyed my trip. It was a beautiful weekend to be traveling around Ireland, Scotland, and England, and by the end of it, I felt like Phileas Fogg.  All that was missing from the adventure was a hot-air balloon. 


Tomorrow, I'll be at Earl's Court Exhibition Centre for the Book Fair, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and hoping to scoop up an armful of bestsellers that my fellow Americans aren't around to see. 



Then I just have to figure out how to get home.


(all photos via Wikimedia Commons. In the train photo I have taken a liberty: I did not ride the Flying Scotsman steam train. But Phileas Fogg would have. ) 

11 comments:

Myrna Foster said...

Thank you for sharing your adventure with us. Reading this, especially the references to Phileas Fogg, made me smile. I hope you've squeezed in a bit of a nap or some other rest in though.

Myrna Foster said...

I have one too many "in"s in that last sentence. Maybe I'm the one who needs a nap.

Kate Allan said...

Well done!

Pierre A. Lehu said...

Peter:

Congratulations. I'm scheduled to fly to Paris on Thursday, pleasure rather than business, but I hope the leprechauns are working OT. I have a sister-in-law who was scheduled to come back from Italy today. She took a train instead of a plane to Rome, and the Italian trains being what they are, missed her flight, which did leave, and is now stuck in Rome, at 300 euros a night, until Sunday. I was so hoping she'd be able to leave because the last time she was in Italy Etna erupted, so I was figuring that if the family volcano magnet could leave that side of the pond, maybe everything would settle down. Oh well.

Sarah Janet said...

Great story! It reminds me a lot of a book I just finished, called Grounded. The author traveled around the world without getting on an airplane, which involved many ferries and trains (and a few other modes of transportation).

Victoria said...

loved this. we were on the OTHER Dublin flight that was turned around. totally surreal. You are rich with friends, my husband tried to convince me we if we actually arrived in Dublin, could have hitchhiked, but forgot that we had hauled books over in three pieces of luggage. I'm glad we were turned around.

Anita Saxena said...

What an adventure! Have fun at the book fair!

Terry Stonecrop said...

What an adventure! How resourceful. Have fun!

Peter Ginna said...

Thanks to everybody for your kind comments. I have been in meetings nonstop since the Book Fair began, but will try to post a wrapup after it ends tomorrow.

Pierre, good luck to you and your sister-in-law!

* said...

Nothing is comparable to what President of Georgia did to reach Poland for its president burial: http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=22207

Peter Taylor said...

Wonderful! Travelling from Australia, I made the Bologna Children's Book Fair on the last BA flight before a strike, was lucky to get out of Bologna to connect to London because they were still striking and made it to the LBF, too, and the Digital Conference. I even had luck on my side and got out of the country on time with my scheduled flight being the first QANTAS one to leave.

Did you make it to the Digital Conference?

Many thanks for all your thoughts and posts.

Best wishes

Peter Taylor
www.writing-for-children.com
Coordinator SCBWI Queensland

PS Hope you found 'good things' and made good sales at the LBF. I discovered a lot of publishers with so many cancelled appointments they actually had time to talk to people like me, an author and illustrator - which was great.