Handicap (and Luggage) Unfriendly

Lesson learned from my last trip to Europe - try not to over pack because my BIG suitcase was FULL and HEAVY. I had to pay extra $ and get it tagged as 'HEAVY.' But that was like a 10 day trip. This last trip was only a seven day trip and I was really roughing it this time out - only three pairs of shoes (not including the one I would be wearing to the wedding) and I had each day's outfit picked out with a couple of extra tops in case I needed to change due to weather. I was actually pleased with myself because when I was done packing, I still had empty space that fit a medium-sized gift I got the bride-to-be.

When we were leaving for the airport, I couldn't believe how heavy my bag was - I even pulled out the bathroom scale to see if I exceeded the 50 lb limit. I couldn't tell - my luggage covered the display. I kept saying that I didn't pack that much and I started panicking because I didn't want to start the trip off on the wrong foot and pay extra $ for heavy luggage. Thankfully, I hit the 50 lb. mark on the dot - no more, no less. But it still baffled me that it was so heavy. I guess winter clothing is just heavier than spring clothing. I also think that the gift was a good 5 lbs because it was boxed and wrapped...(that's what I keep telling myself).

Getting to London was no problem - I had porters at the cab stand to help me load my luggage into the taxi. There was a doorman at the hotel that helped lift my luggage up into the hotel - and since there were elevators in the hotel, I decided to take my own luggage to the room, out of sheer embarrassment for how heavy it was. I think it was the ticket counter woman at Dulles that remarked on whether I had a dead body in my suitcase - which led to talks about a movie where there was a killer that did that and got away with it. But I digress.

First few days were a piece of cake. It wasn't until we packed it up and headed to the "country side" of St Albans did things start to go downhill. We got to the train station on Friday afternoon (before rush hour) only to find that there were NO elevators OR escalators to get down to the platform. That left me heaving my heavy bag (without the bride's gift - I gave that to her earlier in the week) down a long flight of stairs. Thankfully, a kind gentleman took pity on me and helped me half way down. Hey, if he was offering, I wasn't about to decline. We got on the train and I sat with my suitcase because it was too wide to fit down the aisle to get to a seat. The commuter train was not only luggage unfriendly, but it was DIRTY. There were empty coffee cups, discarded newspapers and other garbage just laying around the seats - ick. When we got off the train, you knew we just had to be let off on the middle platform - where we had to walk up two flights-worth of stairs into a tunnel over the other platforms, and down the same amount of stairs to get to the main station and exit. Again - no elevators or escalators.

Thankfully, there weren't a lot of people at the station and it wasn't rush hour yet so Amanda and I start heaving our luggage up the stairs - at this point, I am basically dragging it up, step by step, by the handle, cause there was no way in heck that I was going to be able to lift it and clear multiple steps at a time. Same thing for the way down - we took it step by step, pound, pound, pounding all the way down...

And here is where I'd like to take a writer's break to talk to you about the excellent quality of Delsey luggage wheels. Me and my Delsey luggage gave new meaning to the phrase 'pounding the pavement.' I was so afraid that my wheels were going to fall off any minute from all the steps I had to overcome. I was even more afraid that one of my silver chrome wheel rims was going to fall off leaving my bag looking like an abused, old car with a missing hub cap. But no - my wheels stayed intact and the rims are still there - thank you, Delsey, for being so incredibly durable.

Where were we? To summarize - no escalators, elevators or means of helping handicaps or people with heavy luggage down to the platforms in commuter stations or suburban locations. By this time, my arms were tired. Someone got it right, though. Another family of ladies was traveling with big luggage and they got some station attendant to help them up and down the stairs - SMART! It was also upon arrival in St Albans that I had the bright idea that we should've unloaded our unnecessary luggage at the Marriott (our hotel for Sunday night) and just brought weekender bags. Good idea, just a little slow in getting there.

So we make it to the hotel and the front desk person asks if we need assistance to our rooms. Considering the hotel was only two floors, we didn't think we needed assistance. Boy, were we wrong! After declining the help, we asked, "Where are the lifts?" Yeah - there were no lifts to speak of. So here we go...up the flight of really old, creaky stairs. Step by step, thump by thump....we started rolling our luggage down the hall, only to be approached by four steps going up and a few short feet away, seeing four steps going down....WTF?! By this time, I am ready to speak out for the handicap and the difficulties they would have 1) coming and going from the 'burbs and 2) getting to their rooms. Of course, I'm sure if someone was handicap, they would've put them on a first floor room. I'm also thinking, "Man, I hate this hotel." If it wasn't for their attached gym/spa, I would give the hotel two thumbs down - instead it gets one thumb in each direction.

Dreading the trip back to London and hoping against all hope (and it was against all hope) that our train would just leave from platform 1, right outside the main station (aka - no stairs), I decided to whip out the extra duffle I had for souvenirs and use that as my 'rest of the weekend' bag and just pack up the luggage in hopes that dividing the load would make it easier to carry. And in the end it did. Traveling became SLIGHTLY easier but we still had a MONSTER staircase waiting for us at the station was arrived to in London (different from the one we departed from). All the people with luggage (so, it wasn't just us) hung back and waited for the walkers to get up the stairs. No offers for help either. We were on our own...and if hoisting your bag up a ton of stairs weren't bad enough, there was traffic going down the stairs at the same time to make your ascension to the station even more enjoyable!

Finally - when we got to the Marriott Marble Arch, where we were spoiled with the LUXURY of two elevators to our sixth floor room and didn't have to worry about stairs for the remainder of the trip. As my New Jersey kin like to say, "Thank Gawd!"

So what's with the medieval conditions out at the commuter stations?