We chose the "wrong" train back from Devon to Paddington Station in London.
It took four hours, via Bristol and Bath, instead of the two plus hours of our trip down. I loved every minute of those four hours. I loved the journey and I love Paddington.
At Paddington you still have that excitement of departure and arrival - especially in summer, when people have that holiday halo around them.
On a train and in stations, it's an intense juxtaposition of public and very private worlds.
That is missing from airports these days.
I love being on a train as night falls. The big windows let you see the changes in the sky and the light.
On trains, more so than in many public places these days, people still respect silence and the teeny bits of private space that a train accommodates.
We each surrender a little control, and hand over our trust to the conductor. And our souls....
to reverie, and to the world whizzing by. To what changes, and what remains the same.
(How's the weekend? Hope it's been a peaceful one.)
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