Everyone I talked to who had the chance to ride the trains up from London loved the trip. What a great way to get to this very special town and wonderful event! Details inside!

The Trains The trains are great, really great looking, fast quiet, and altogether the very best way of travelling across the English countryside. The trip up was a fast, pleasant 2 hours and 10 minutes, and the posters were advertising an even faster service. The day started in London bright and sunny and cold, but the weather changed as we went north, cloudier. As great as the train was, St. Pancras station, the train center on the Picadilly Line, was wonderful. Transportation centers have become giant shopping malls, and quickly following on the air terminals leads, train stations are now awesome theaters of consumption! The St. Pancras station is very big, very easy to find your way around in (I mean, I did it!), with very helpful staff. Oh, and great looking trains, too!

Arriving In Sheffield The station in Sheffield is less commanding than St. Pancras, but pleasant just the same. Don’t ask me. How can a station be pleasant? Well, it wasn’t Penn Station, for example.

Just near the station is the registration area, and easy walk even with bags.

And registration was quick, tickets were ready, and it was time to inspect the flying saucers.

The Flying Saucers No one had previously mentioned to me that Sheffield had apparently been visited by other worldly creatures, who had left behind their flying machines, but to a wide eyed first time visitor, that’s what it sort of looked like. Up closer, it seemed a little different, and will be investigated before this visit is over …

The walk to the Leopold Hotel is a quick one through the center of town. On the way there is a charming pub that deserves more attention than this snapshot.

Continuing on, however, one sees — a ferris wheel — hmmm. Right in the center of town, with a shopping plaza reminiscent of Sta Monica perhaps, but a ferris wheel. Past that a block is the Leopold, an imposing structure apparently built as a boys school maybe more than 100 years ago, and only recently renovated as a hotel. Pleasant, close to everything, and a good internet connection.

More later!