The distinction drawn by Uwe Siemon-Netto amongst civilised sea vacation and fast flights, in particular on Concorde is well timed (Letters, FT Weekend, June 19).
Like him I observed Concorde thrilling but I did not head the limited place. My flight was for a swiftly arranged meeting in upcountry Connecticut which also necessary a dismal two-hour Greyhound bus journey from JFK. Devoid of Concorde I would have refused the conference. The flight was a excellent contrast to the two days it experienced taken, 15 many years before, on a propeller aircraft, from Gatwick to Freetown, a similar length, with refuelling in Lisbon, Las Palmas (an right away stopover) and the Gambian funds Banjul (or Bathurst, as it was then termed).
However, subsequently I chose the even for a longer period 10-working day passage from Liverpool aboard the pretty Elder Dempster mail boats for my West African travels, with civilised eating and the congenial business of fellow “coasters”.
John Gapper (Belief, June 12) and Siemon-Netto dismiss the solution of rail vacation, when it is accessible. In the late 1960s the British isles Treasury presented economic climate course air vacation or very first class rail when I had to attend UN conferences in Geneva (with orders to stop the introduction of an additional financial league desk wherever the United kingdom could be base).
By natural means I selected rail. I boarded a comfy solitary couchette from Victoria to Paris (the coaches went on the ferry to Calais), followed by a wander from Gare du Nord by means of the Marais to Gare du Lyon to catch the Orient Categorical to Lausanne. There I transformed to the attractive Rheingold from the Hook of Holland, with its heavily upholstered seats, and mahogany and brass fittings, to arrive calm in Geneva.
Existing limitations make contemplation of these kinds of civilised foreign journey hypothetical. When it gets doable my wife and I will just take the Eurostar and TGV to Awesome again, in preference to the pressure of flying.
Malcolm Levitt
London SE13, British isles
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