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We are up at around 05:30 after we have folded away the beds, and shower and dress. It is 06:30 and the train is just stopping at Barstow, it should have stopped there at 03:30, so we are approximately 3 hours behind schedule. Although the tour guide reckons there is an hour of slack in the schedule and we should be only 2 hours late in getting into Los Angeles
We eat breakfast in the dining car at around 06:30.
The train eventually arrives at Los Angeles Union Station at around 10:00, approximately 2-hours late as predicted by the tour guide.The guide that will take us on a tour of LA meets us. We board the coach and hit the log jam that is the Los Angeles traffic, it was even worst today as there was a Bikothon taking place and a lot of roads were closed.
We make our way to Hollywood Boulevard, essentially to visit the Chinese Theatre where all the famous movie stars have left their paw prints. We also visit the Kodak Building where the Oscar ceremonies take place. The area is pretty tacky. Di and I head for a drink in the Hard
Rock Café, there is a regular Sunday Brunch Concert going on with live music. The act is a female C&W artist from Texas called Giita Rose? – she is pretty good.
We then board the coach and take in Sunset Strip, Beverly Hills, and Rodeo Drive.
We then head out to Long Beach to check in to our room on the Queen Mary, which has been turned into a Hotel and Convention Centre. Only a proportion of the rooms are ready, but we are lucky and get our room key straight away. The rooms are made up of only the first class cabins and staterooms from the original vessel, and are a lot bigger than we had envisaged. The second-class cabins are no longer in existence. We drop off our hand luggage and go for a look around. I go on a one-hour tour conducted by the “captain”. We are presented with the history of the vessel with numerous facts and figures as we stroll round the various decks and rooms. Meanwhile Di is exploring the upper decks. It is a truly amazing vessel with so much history; all the walls have wooden veneer. There are a number
of trees used for the veneer and we are told that four of the trees that have been used are now extinct. We are told of when the shipped transported 16,000 troops at a time during the war, and 8,000 were permanently seasick, can’t have been a fun-place! It must have been areal luxurious experience to travel first-class on the vessel in its hey-day. Although the vessel was not very stable and had a tendency to “roll”, the vessel was originally built with no handrails in the corridors, but after the initial voyage, ambulances were waiting when the vessel dock for the passengers that had been injured during the cruise, after which handrails were retrofitted.
We book a table for 19:00 in the Sir Winston Churchill restaurant and go for a drink in a bar at the bow of the vessel. We meet up with George and Pearl, a couple we have met on the tour and decide to dine together.
We have a lovely meal and the food is excellent. We then all retire for an early night; 07:50 start in the morning!
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