LL-L "Travels" 2011.03.13 (03) [EN]

Sun Mar 13 23:35:16 UTC 2011

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L O W L A N D S - L - 13 March - Volume 03
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From: Roger Thijs, Euro-Support, Inc. <roger.thijs at euro-support.be>
Subject: LL-L Travels

1 - Flight

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.

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.

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:

- 180 g of chocolate covered blueberries, Wildy Delicious, for USD 13

- 4.25 oz of original gourmet jelly beans (... natural ingredients ... real
fruit...), Jelly Belly, for USD 8

- Luxury 6 bar assortment Godiva chocolatier, for USD 18

- 7 bar pack Toblerone chocolate, 7 x 50g for USD 10

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?

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.

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.).

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.

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?

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.

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".

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.

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,

I'm back in Belgium for just a week, and I will return to the US for Promat
(http://www.promatshow.com/). I attended that event before in 2009. I will
take care my fine in DE will be paid before I re-enter the us.

Regards,

Roger

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