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L O W L A N D S - L - 13 March - Volume 03<br>
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<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">From: <span class="gd"><span style="color: rgb(0, 104, 28);">Roger Thijs, Euro-Support, Inc.</span></span><span class="gi"> </span><span class="go"><<a href="mailto:roger.thijs@euro-support.be">roger.thijs@euro-support.be</a>></span><br>
Subject: <img src="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Ron/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msohtml1/01/clip_image001.gif" width="1" border="0" height="1"><span class="gi">LL-L Travels</span><br>
<br>
1 - Flight</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">I have been In Wilmington
DE again past week. After the forced stay in Bangor, I reported about in January, I got a
voucher from US Airways of USD 150 deduction for a next flight. Although I used
US Airways again, I did not use the voucher, since it required ordering at a
0800 number in the USA,
where I got a ticket offered that was 400 USD more expensive than what I found
on the internet. What you get on the internet over here is in Euro all
included. What you get offered in the USA is in USD, airport taxed
excluded, to be added at the end. So one should have a calculator at hand and
be very carefull.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">2 - The return flight had a
delay of 4 hours before take-off. They had problems with the first plane, we
finally got seats reallocated in a second plane that came from St Thomas. That one stayed on the ground more
than an hour after us being boarded, apparently for an issue with catering.
After all, that waiting was not worthwhile I think, since what we got as
evening meal was a little bit of macaroni with just some stiffened milk on
it, and for breakfast a little 1" by 1" cookie.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">3 - Before artrival I have
been reading the customs declaration form. You have to declare that you have no
food nor fruit with you, and you risk a serious penalty for a false
declaration. I always have Belgian chocolates with me, as also Belgian waffles
and cookies, as well as dried figs this time (dried fruit that you find at the
Wallgreens tastes horribly, so ...). Since I did never took care before, I
signed for not having any food and I was fortunately not checked at the custom
gate. What is annoying me is that in the US Airways Duty Free Shopping guide
they offer:</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">- 180 g of chocolate covered
blueberries, Wildy Delicious, for USD 13</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">- 4.25 oz of original
gourmet jelly beans (... natural ingredients ... real fruit...), Jelly Belly,
for USD 8</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">- Luxury 6 bar assortment
Godiva chocolatier, for USD 18</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">- 7 bar pack Toblerone
chocolate, 7 x 50g for USD 10</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">A question for frequent
intercontinental travellers: do you eat this stuff before you leave the plane
when returning in the US?
Or do you show this stuff spontanuously for inspection at the customs when entering
the US?</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">4 - I used Amtrak 2 times.
On Sunday for visiting an exposition at Yale in New Haven, CT.
For this quite short distance it takes 3:45 hrs with the Nortwest
Regional or 3:15 hrs with the Arcela Express. The Express train has less
stops, but except for that, it has virtually the same (slow) speed as the
Northwest Regional. I took the latter for saving some money. It arrived 25 mins
late at Wilmington station for departure, which
turned out to become 50 minutes late at New
Haven. Since it was raining heavely I wanted to
shorten my stay in New Haven,
but I finally did not since the penalty for a ticket change was USD 69.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">It is the first time I do
some travelling with a train in the US. The seats are confortable and
clean. The toilets are not since the travel time between Washington DC and
Boston is very long and there is quite some commuting public on medium
distance (For very short distance commuting there are other systems on the same
rail tracks, as "Marc" in Maryland, "Septa" in Delaware and
Eastern Pennsylvania, "NJ Transit" in New Jersey, "Metro
North" and "ShoreLineEast" in CT etc.).</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">They only give access to the
platforms 5 minutes before departure. At major stations as Penn in NYC and in Philadelphia they take 10
to 15 minutes sincey the want to have the platforms cleared from arriving
passengers before the give access to departing passengers.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">Since it is all so very
time-taking, and air traffic is time consuming as well, I plan to use one of
the long distance busses a next time (as e.g. Greyhound or Peter Pan). Do some
members of the list have experience with these?</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">5 - Tuesday I used Amtrak a
second time. This time South to Washington
DC (about 90 minutes). The
Express was still too expensive for me, but I got a business class at the NorthEast
Regional for a small premium. In coach class the tablet was touching my belly
when down Sunday before, in business this time I had about 40cm extra space. I
didn't see any other advantage. The business class coach is at the front end of
the train, which requires a long walk, but it has advantages upon arrival on
end stations as the Union Station in Washington
DC. In Washington my busnisesses were all close to
the Red Line, and I even had a spare hour for a quick tour of the Ford's
Theatre (really worthwhile). I had a very affordabe dinner at the Cosmos Club
at 2121 Mass Av (This club has a reciprocity agreement with our Flemish
business club "De Warande" in Brussels).
In the late afternoon I attended a book presentation in an auditorium of the
Cato Institute 1000 Mass. Av. There were quite a lot of extremely enthousiastic
students of different universities attending. While Europeans are generally
quite sceptic when dealing with political philosophy, Americans often have a
religious enthousiasm for the political stream of their choice.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">6 - Wednesday I had some
time in the morning for visiting Lewes (Swanendael). I have passed at the
museum (a copy of the town hall
of Hoorn, Nl), but it
looked closed and there was not very much alive downtown. All shopping areas
are at at the outskirt of the town. On the way back I was stopped in Milford, Sussex
County, by the State Police for driving 81 at a four lane road, with
limitation to 55 mph. I can choose between appearing in court in April or
paying a fine of USD 98 + taxes, bringing the total upon USD 196.65. In the US a customer
never knows what he has o pay at the end. The taxes added on the ticket
include: ."Victim comp.", "Video Phone", "DELJIS
fund", "Transportation Fund", "Court Security",
"Court Costs".</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">7 - Thursday I had some time
at noon and I visited downtown New Castle (formerly Fort Casimir,
later Nieuw Amstel). It has a nice green with colonial houses around the square
and the old court, turned into a museum, in the middle. It is quite nice, but
apparently not known by the tourists (In Belgium all those houses would most
certainly be turned into cafés and eateries). I had a long chat with the guide
of the museum, since he spoke Dutch fluently. He has been military at
Soesterberg for many years, and, as many of his military friends from the Dover area did, found his
wife in the Utrechtse Heuvelrug area. There are regularily "Holland" events in
the area South of Dover.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">8 - However informal the US may look
like, at formal occasions one has to respect the rules of the game. On formal
diners as e.g. of the dinner of chamber of commerce, one wears a dark suit,
white shirt and tie. It opens with an invocation by a minister of a church or
by a rabbi followed by the national anthem. For the New Castle County
dinner last week the latter was combined with the Posting of
Colours by the DE National Guard. In Europe we
are not used to this, and I think, presenting the Belgian flag in such a formal
way, would be counter productive. Charity is part of the game: you pay 200 USD
for the food + water excluding other drinks, which you cand find (for cash +
tip) at a cash bar. During the dinner you are pushed to buy some raffle tickets
(20 USD each), last Monday evening sold by the real Miss Delaware of the year,</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">I'm back in Belgium for just a week, and I will return to
the US
for Promat (<a href="http://www.promatshow.com/" target="_blank">http://www.promatshow.com/</a>).
I attended that event before in 2009. I will take care my fine in DE will be
paid before I re-enter the us.</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">Regards,</p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">Roger</p>
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> </p>
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