After nice weeks in London & Paris, put the family into a taxi this afternoon to Charles de Gaulle before schlepping via Metro to Gare du Nord. Spent 25 minutes on finding the ticket window, with Metro, SNCF, Eurostar, and Thalys each with their own separate sales. Finally sit back in the seat on 15:00 Thalys to Rotterdam.
At Rotterdam I change trains and sit in the 1st class quiet car. Students are talking in the vestibule and I over one say that it doesn’t matter, no ones ever in the quite car. As he comes through he is startled and laughs to see me. A large group of students come through talking loudly and they quiet when they see me as they pass through. A girls lets out a loud sarcastic “shhhh!” and muted laughter ensues. I am amused by my unique place in this busy train and turn to watch the countryside roll by in my lonely silence.
As the train glides over the dutch countryside, the sun outlines long rectangular pools that make it seem that everything, every house, field, outbuilding, even the track itself, is floating on an elaborate system of pontoons.
As the train slows I realize that it does not go to my destination. I am left pondering how to get from den Haag HS to Centraal Station when I see a bright grey screen on the opposite platform proclaiming den Haag Centraal as the destination of the waiting train. Saved, I scurry across the platform and stand in solidarity in the vestibule with the students looking at the somber old men behind the glass wall demarcating 1st class and I am left with the thought that if I were younger, I would sit with the old men behind the glass just to show that I could.
tleitch 