The thrilling interior of the train, which features a large proportion of four-seat squares facing one another, with a table between (you can see a bit of it on the right, next to a Frenchman's bare feet). The other big difference in this train and your typical Amtrak ride is the windows are enormous, and you can really get a nice view, without some kind of support breaking it up every two feet.

Sometime around Reading an enormous number of students got on the train -- apparently, exams have just ended although the year isn't over yet -- and they're off on hols. I never thought of anyone being able to surf off of the English coast, but shows what I know -- a lot of kids had surf- and boogie-boards in tow; you wouldn't know them really from California students, except for the gradiation of tan.

A triplet of young giggly girls sat in my four-square and mostly kept to themselves, but eventually they got bored and started playing word-association games. I tried teaching the movie game, but they weren't very movie savvy and eventually a deck of cards was procured and I taught them poker. We played for scraps of paper; not nearly as much fun as playing for money. Memories from my dad teaching us poker as kids came up -- he tended to give some of the cards names as he dealt, but I bet nobody ever guessed I'd be saying "an eighter from Decatur" or "a lady (Queen)" on a Westbound Cornwall train to a bunch of English students some 20 years after he taught us originally.

I left the girls when I changed trains in Plymouth and they kept on to Newquay. They waved as the train pulled away. I like to think they found a way to fleece their fellow students during the next several days ahead.