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Phew, home

This’ll be brief; we just got back from a day in London (bidness thing for Uncle B, but we got some shopping in). Caught the bullet train. Ashford to St Pancras in thirty minutes.

Okay, that doesn’t mean anything to most of yez, but trust me…that’s fast (at least two hours by car). Also, it makes a day in London practical, at least occasionally.

That there’s the St Pancras Midland Grand Hotel, in the same style as the original St Pancras Station (the current station is modern and nearby). It’s an awesome building.

When it was built in 1873, it was absolutely state-of-the-art. Elevators. Revolving doors. Oh, it was the future.

Just not quite the future enough: no running water in the rooms. In 1873, not a big deal. Not long after 1873, really big deal. By 1935, it had declined so far it had to shut down. Spent almost eighty years boarded up.

Imagine that. Great huge bulk of a building smack in the middle of London, empty. I bet it was spooky inside.

Anyhoo, the Marriott chain got hold of it, fixed it up and reopened it last year.

Admiring it from street level is about the best this pair of mustelids could afford.

March 28, 2012 — 10:02 pm
Comments: 23