Sensible traveler Destinations Where they went Get in gear
Going Strong All Along Taking Off
WHERE THEY WENT
Touring, the hard way
By Diane Daniel, 2/16/2003
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Sensible traveler Destinations Where they went Get in gear Going Strong All Along Taking Off
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Shane Hudson, 27, had planned to cycle from Amsterdam to Paris last summer with his mother, Susan Hudson, 55, of Greenville, N.C., and his boyfriend, Andrew Gladstone, 26, as volunteer crew members. They had all brought clothing, tents, and sleeping bags. Shane, a South End resident, and Andrew, who lives in the Fenway, are partners in GhostLight Media, an arts consulting company. They had been to Europe several times, but it was Susan's first time out of the country.
The trip started ominously with Shane's bike flying out of the unsecured trunk of the taxi that took them to Logan Airport. It hit the highway ''and skidded for 300 feet, still in the box. I figured it was probably fine,'' Shane said.
On arriving in Amsterdam, he learned that not only was his bike not in great shape, neither was the ride, whose organizer, Pallotta TeamWorks, was going out of business. Shane decided to donate the money but not do the ride.
Susan, meanwhile, was walking around ''like a wide-eyed kid in Disney World,'' she said. She was particularly taken with the toilets. ''They don't have water, just a little hole. And when you flush there's a big rush of water.''
Some facilities for men left Shane, too, amazed. ''They have things that look like huge traffic cones, out in the middle of the street. I used them several times. Mom and Andrew were horrified.''
When they weren't answering nature's calls, they were touring the city and the canals, the Anne Frank House, and shoe stores. ''There's no place in the world that has better shoes than Amsterdam,'' Shane declared.
They stayed downtown in a European-style hotel, which Susan loved. ''It was just a tiny little room and a tiny little bed and no air conditioning, of course. All I had to do was lean out the window and there was everybody.''
One night the trio had to share a room. ''We had two little beds and huge amounts of camping gear, which you had to step over to get out of bed,'' Shane said.
At least in Amsterdam they had been able to store the bike at the train station. Not so in Paris.
''It was a nightmare,'' Shane said. ''We lugged everything around. '' At one point they left Susan ''surrounded by 13 bags'' while looking for storage. They had to take two taxis to get to their hotel, and the driver with Susan and Andrew got lost. The hotel was overbooked and had to move them - and their gear - two blocks away.
Shane found a company that leads semiprivate tours and they toured Paris and Versailles by van over two days. They also took a river cruise and climbed the Eiffel Tower at night. ''You see Paris sparkling. It was breathtaking, '' said Susan, who is a writer.
They next took the Chunnel to London. They could stash the bike at Victoria Station, but again, there was a hotel snafu and they had to share a room the first night.
''When we got up, Mom had disappeared. ''
To make a long story short, Susan had gotten a stomach virus, was able to get her own room, and later that day ended up checking herself into the hospital. ''I thought I was going to die,'' she said.
The confused hotel staff couldn't locate her until the next day. Meanwhile, Shane, baffled, called his brother in the States to see if Susan had contacted him.
Near the trip's end, Susan rallied enough to go on a double-decker bus and ride a boat along the Thames. Shane and Andrew took in several plays.
Leaving London for Heathrow Airport brought more mishaps - dragging bags and boxes down long halls of the wrong terminals and then getting on an express train headed back to London, which Andrew stopped by pulling the emergency switch. Although that almost provoked his arrest, it did the trick, and the threesome made it back over the pond.
Send suggestions to ddaniel@globe.com.