*The theme for my A to Z is Childhood Stories. Some are real, some are embellished, some are downright fictional but are based on the kind of things I imagined when I was younger.*
Channel tunnel to be precise.
Growing up, we travelled down to France several times a year to see the family. Sometimes we took the plane, sometimes we drove down and took the ferry (that was also exciting, except when we took a hovercraft and the sea was rough – that was seasickness central), and then an amazing new piece of engineering entered our life.
The Channel Tunnel. For those of you who don’t know what it is, over a number a years a tunnel was dug under the Channel to connect the UK and France, so you could drive form one to the other without having to bother with ferries etc.
Considering how often we did the trip back and forth, we followed the digging of the tunnel with interest. For my part, I went to the library and got out a book on fish. I looked at the fish and other creatures of the deep.
Soon I’d get to see them all for myself from the tunnel! I couldn’t wait.
In my mind I pictured the tunnel as a long pipe that would rest in the bottom of the sea. There’d be enough light from the tunnel — I reasoned — for us to see whatever creatures were nearby. Maybe I’d be able to convince my dad to stop the car in the tunnel for a while so we could go and stare out the windows at the fish.
I’m sure you can guess where this is heading. There are no windows in the channel tunnel. The cars are loaded into a train, and there are window in the train, but all you see flashing past is concrete and the odd light. That’s it.
It was a hugely disappointing experience.
In a nice twist of serendipity, my first ride on the tunnel was twenty years ago, and a few weeks ago I kind of got to celebrate that anniversary by going to the amazing aquarium in Monterey, California, and seeing some of the creatures I had expected to find floating around the Channel Tunnel windows. Here are a few of the highlights:
Celine Jeanjean's Blog: Down the Rabbit Hole 
I like your idea for the tunnel – it would have been much more interesting if they’d built it that way!
I can’t see the highlights – did you forget to post them?
Eileen @ In My Playroom (also doing the A to Z Challenge)
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There are the photos Eileen – I thought I had posted them but obviously something went wrong 🙂
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Amazing photos. thanks
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My cousin was an engineer and he worked on the building of the tunnel for a time. Last year my family and I traveled to Wales and London and at one point in our trip planning were thought about taking a train trip to France to go through the tunnel but time didn’t allow and we had to forgo that part.
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Oh wow, that’s really cool that he worked on the building of the tunnel – that must have been quite amazing!
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I love tunnels. I remember being disappointed to learn that underwater tunnels don’t lie at the bottom of the river or bay or channel. I like your version better.
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Definitely! 🙂 It would be much more fun to have tunnels be tubes that rest at the bottom of the ocean – although the thought of all that water and pressure against a bit of a metal would be pretty terrifying!
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I can think of lots of things that were disappointments because my imagination had come up with something much better. I can’t see the highlights either!
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I’ve put in the photos now – I’m not sure what happened to them earlier!
Yes imagination does so much of a better job than reality for those kind of things….
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Got them now! Worth seeing.
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I can’t believe it’s been already twenty years the tunnel exist 😦
But I think if i had been a kid travelling on it, I woudl have imagined fish all around as well 😉
@JazzFeathers
The Old Shelter – Roaring Twenties
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I know! Makes me feel so old!! 😉
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I used to think that’s how the channel tunnel worked, too, and then I looked it up online once and was sorely disappointed to find out it was pure concrete (although from an engineering standpoint, I guess I get it). It’s really too bad when our imaginations are far better than reality. And I can’t see the Monterey Bay pictures either?
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Yes, I don’t know what went wrong with the pictures, but they are up now 🙂
It’s funny that the tunnel as it is, is the result of the imagination of (no doubt) very talented engineers, and yet to our imagination it’s a bit disappointing!!
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Oh, the pictures are lovely!
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Thanks Caitlin 🙂
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That would be disappointing. I used to love tunnels as a kid. When going through a tunnel in a car, we kids used to hold our breath and make a wish. Then, if you hold your breath for the whole thing, your wish is supposed to come true. Amazing the number of things kids can find to wish upon. I imagine that would be hard for the Channel tunnel though. 😉
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Aw that’s so cute! Yes, if you’d tried that with the Channel Tunnel you would have gone quite blue in the face 😉
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I remember reading about the building of the Channel Tunnel (do they still call it the “Chunnel?”) in stuff like Popular Science and Popular Mechanics when I was a kid, and I was totally blown away and fascinated by it. I’ve always loved engineering projects like that, even stuff like building subway lines beneath existing streets/
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Well I never heard it called the Chunnel, but Wikipedia informs that yes, apparently people did call it that 🙂
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We recently took the Chunnel from London to Paris. How amazing to think one can cross the water like this. But yes, it’s rather dark out those windows…
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Yes, a major design flaw 😉 So handy though, and so quick!
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I think I’d find that tunnel a little too claustrophobic for me. Maybe they should put in windows that project views of fish. 🙂
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It’s actually quite wide once you’re in the train that goes through the tunnel. It kind of feels like being in a really long, moving carpark. You have no idea where you are really. (I added the photos from the Monterey Bay aquarium since they didn’t work first time around, thought you might like the little reminder of the weird creatures to be found in there!)
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I took a look – great pics! I love the jellyfish. 🙂
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Nice photos! I agree the Channel Tunnel would be much more interesting with that kind of view. I’m not sure I’d ever be able to see it, though. I’ve never been good with tunnels. Too claustrophobic for me.
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Well if they ever take my suggestions on board (and I think you should, Channel Tunnel people), I’ll take photos for you and post them on the blog 🙂
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