Our hotel was in Rennes, basically, northwestern France. Our next spot was De Panne, a Belgian shore town, not quite due north of it. As you might imagine, the best way for us to get from Rennes to De Panne was going through Paris. The trains run that way, or at least the trains run more frequently that way. So this was another travel day but, we had reason to hope, our last travel day until the flight home Monday.
The train to Paris was fast and routine as we were accustomed to, even despite the incident going out to Rennes the other day. And then it was yet another trip on the Metro to get from Gare du Nord to Gare de ... I forget which. Not l'Est this time. But we also had to get more money put on our Metro cards because we had thought to get only single trips the last time around. Anyway, a lot of going up and down stairs and walking along long hallways, some of them starting to get nice and familiar.
The trick with the train to Belgium is that it's more a commuter line than a passenger rail like we'd been taking to this point. As in, you buy a ticket, but it's just for any train that day and you aren't guaranteed a seat or anything. Just, good luck. Turns out we had perfectly fine luck, getting on the train without issue and finding a seat with enough free space even for my new suitcase.
When we got to De Panne --- the end of the line, so it was easy not to miss --- ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger knew our hotel was just off the train line. We just had to start walking on this particular numbered street and eventually make a right turn. And from the train station we could see Plopsaland De Panne, what would turn out to be the only amusement park we'd get to visit this trip. The place where, had things gone right with Nigloland, would have seen my 300th roller coaster.
So, the hotel. It turned out not to be just next to the train station. It was, however, just a block or two off the tram station, the tram in this case being a 130-year-old interurban that we'd had vague plans of riding the whole length of Sunday, after we'd been to the park. The bright side is that walking rather than taking the tram let us get a feel for De Panne, and also for bunnyhugger to take her daily walk without particular fuss.
The hotel was a lovely one, with a nice modern style, by which I mean we couldn't figure how to get the elevator to work. There was just a flat metal panel with a 0 on it and we knew the lobby floor in hotels were storey 0. Turns out we needed to not touch the center of the 0 --- our best guess --- but rather touch the 0 ring, like, going across the whole loop. So we guessed, at least, after seeing the desk clerk have no trouble, and learning that every floor had a flat metal plate with a '0' on it for summoning the elevator.
Our last question for the day was where to get dinner. bunnyhugger found on google maps an Automat and absolutely, yes, we wanted that. We'd loved the handful of experiences with Automat-style food service when we were in the Netherlands in 2012. And it was only a couple blocks away, and on the shore, so everything we could hope for. Except that, first, we had a terrible time finding the place. And then when we did find it we found that Automat didn't just mean 'wall of coin-operated doors with ready-to-eat foot items inside'. It also meant 'vending machines'. And in this case, nothing with, like, a sandwich or other full meal inside, although we could get some cold cuts? I guess that'd be something. At least one of the vending machines was out of order; possibly that would have had viable meals.
So we needed some secondary plan, and we found that by walking around until we found a kebab place open. We ordered some falafel meals --- me, a pita, bunnyhugger a box --- and waited what felt like forever to get served. (Also they were cash only, so took us down to almost no folding European money through this.) I think a combination of a bunch of people going to the place that was open with one of the workers being on break caused the slowdown; when other guy got back into action everyone got served fast enough.
We took it all back to our hotel room, the largest we'd had yet and in many ways (having a mini-fridge, for instance) the nicest yet. Saturday was looking to be a great day.
What's not a roundabout way to get somewhere? ... Uh. Wait, this is a bunch of pictures of Calhoun County Fair carnival rides, most of which are about going in a circle. Sorry. Enjoy.
The carnival doesn't have a Scrambler they bring, but they do have a very similar ride and that's on display here in motion, catching the LED flickers so make the movement look more complicated.
That's what it looks like from the ground; it's almost supernatural in its shape.
And another picture with the shutter held open a little longer. I'm amazed you can make out one of the cars this clearly.
Here's a shot of the merry-go-round in action, only looking like it's going 300 rpm.
And the drop tower, looking like it's driven the passengers twenty feet under ground.
From this perspective the swings and the Ferris wheel look like they're going quite speedily.
Trivia: The Greenwich Observatory's chronometer was in 1850 observed to have a daily gain or loss of 0.149 seconds, based on the average gain or loss per month. Source: A History of Mechanical Invention, Abbott Payson Usher.
Currently Reading: Lost Popeye Zine, Sundays Supplement Volume 16: 1954, Tom Sims, Bela Zaboly. Editor Stephanie Noelle.
