I don't think I've ever met anyone that hasn't seen the image of Paddington Bear at least once in their lifetime. But do you know the story? This all came about when I mentioned to the relatives in Cardiff about our adventure on the train taking off from Paddington Train Station in London to Cardiff Central. At the train station, they have a store "Paddington Bear at Paddington Station" along with a bronze statue of the bear. Siew's cousins told me the neat story which I never knew until last night - over some Pimm's No.3, Spiced Vodka, homemade Eggnog etc... so if I explain the story wrong you know why. In any event, the story goes that at Paddington train station a long time ago, the actual Paddington Bear was found and it was lost by a child from Peru while on a visit to London. So they named the bear after the train station. Kind of a neat story - with a sudden twist. I've done some browsing on the internet, and this story apparently is the made up one taken from the first Paddington Bear storyline that has now become generally believed across the board. I guess the true story is that the original author, Michael Bond, wrote the story of Paddington Bear when he saw a lone stuffed teddy bear on a shelf (which he bought) at Paddington Station in London. Either way a great little story that will make me want to sign out the original when I get back home.
BTW - the ride to Cardiff and my experience with the European train system was all good. Super cheap ($50 CDN for First Class tickets to Cardiff) and quite a lot of fun, although the trains are showing their age a bit. It's still tough to beat Japan. How the Japanese stay on time to the very minute 99% of the time (as claimed by Japan Rail and witnessed by us when we were there) is one great mystery and their Shinkansen is still the best I've been on.
