London Book Fair

It is recommended that cars show up 45 minutes prior to departure for boarding on the Eurotunnel train that takes you across the English Channel, beneath the water.There are only two departure times, 8:15 in the morning and 10:30 at night. So it was an early morning for us, since we still had to drive thirty minutes from Dunkirk to Calais. Then of course we sat in line for forty minutes waiting to board. Customs has a drive through booth to check passports before you get in line.

Then it is just a matter of driving directly through a side door on the last train car. On door leads to an upper level and one leads to the lower level. It's a double-decker train.

Then we just followed the car ahead of us until we were as far forward as we could get. Parking assistants helped keep the cars parked close together without bumping bumpers.

Once everyone is aboard, all engines are shut off and the doors between train cars are closed, it's just a matter of riding the train to England. Passengers are free to get out of their vehicles and move about. There are toilets on every other train car and a lunch bar on the lead train car. It's only a twenty minute ride through the tunnel, so Alice and I just stayed with the car. Once we arrived, an overhead display board informed us to start our engines and proceed to disembark. We drove off the train and into the left hand lane of the English highway to London. Remember to drive on the wrong side of the road!

The London Book Fair was awesome and almost overwhelming. Publishing houses and distributors and authors from around the world. Turkey seemed to be the spotlight for this year's event. We talked to publishers and attended lectures until our heads were ready to burst.

Of course we made time for a pint of Guiness and an order of Fish and Chips at the Blackbird Pub while we scheduled our afternoon seminars.

Amazon provided the best talks and meetings for Alice and I. The Authors Corner gave writers a place to meet other writers and discuss the digital world of self publishing. Marketing and branding were topics covered by successful writers. We will definitely plan on attending next year.