Well, as Bokonon said, “Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God”. So as a result of the usual mix of misconceptions and coincidences, we’ve got the house-sitter to stay in the house when we’re gone, and the ladies and I are going to England. The ladies, in this case, are my gorgeous ex-fiancée and our daughter, she’s 21. They’ve been to England before, but I’ve always travelled in the third world, never made it to the land of my ancestors, or at least some of them.
In any case, here’s the current travel plan, subject as always to time, as in “time yet for a hundred indecisions. And for a hundred visions and revisions. Before the taking of a toast and tea.”
We arrive in London on Monday the second of September, and we’ll be there for four days, ’til Thursday. Then a week or so to drive up the west coast of the island, and another week or so to go across and drive down the east coast.
Anyhow, that’s the scheme. If you happen to live along that route and wanted to say hi, post your town and where it’s near, maybe a few words about yourself. If we happen to go by there, all I can say is we MAY get in touch … or not. Heck, once I get to London, I may never make it out of the city much, who knows? I just attempt to follow the dancing lessons, but it’s generally not as simple as when you have the dance steps painted on the floor …
Best to all,
w.
If you have time to get to Seil Island (Argyll and Bute) on Scotland’s left coast just do it.
On the way back visit Norfolk’s “Broads” – waterways: if you’re here (Norfolk) before the 12th a beer awaits.
Willis,
Have fun over there. I spent the first 26 years of my life there, Yorkshire, and I have spent many months back there on vacation, family visits and business. You have more than enough ideas above to fill a whole year in the country never mind a few weeks.
My advice would be to stay off the motorways unless you need to get from point A to point B in a relative hurry. Be aware that drivers in the UK can be quite “aggressive”, certainly compared to Canada where I live now.
Not sure if it has been mentioned but a drive alongside the remains of Hadrians wall is very scenic and has a lot of roman ruins/museums to visit. We spent a week in Northumberland a couple of years ago and it seems relatively untouched by “progress” and reminded me of the England I remember of my youth in the 60’s, One strong recommendation is to drive the west coast of Scotland, absolutely beautiful. I see someone above mentioned Fountains Abbey as a very special site and I concur. I don’t know if they still do it but in the fall evenings at one time the ruins used to be flood lit and gregorian chants were played at a suitable volume level, the overall effect always made the hair on my arms stand on end.
If Willis Eschenbach were to meet Christopher Monckton in Edinburgh, would that not be an explosive combination as together they become a critical mass of critical thought?
I see the prospect of meeting Willis has caused several here to be as giddy as schoolgirls, as there are displays of rational intellect here worthy of an episode of Gidget.
Please stop posting your email addresses out on the open internet, unless you really want the pr0n spam. Willis is on good terms with the management, just leave a note that Willis can use the valid email address you supply for posting and he can get it.
And you people aren’t even using the old-timey obfuscation measures like giddy-@t-heartcrush=dotted=net? *sigh* There needs to be a name for this surging stupidity at the prospect of meeting their science idol, perhaps the EschenRush?
How does one go about getting a drivers license quickly enough to drive in another country?
You can get an International Drivers Permit at AAA (Before you travel the world, travel to any AAA office for your International Driving Permit. Bring your valid U.S. driver’s license, $15USD , and two ORIGINAL passport-type photos (also available at AAA offices). You may also wish to fill out our International Driving Permit application in advance http://www.aaa.com/vacation/idpf.html.) It’s cheap and easy, and you can get expedited service if you are in a hurry.
“Please stop posting your email addresses out on the open internet, unless you really want the pr0n spam. Willis is on good terms with the management, just leave a note that Willis can use the valid email address you supply for posting and he can get it”
– Get a grip. My email address is freely given on “the public internet” elsewhere. What I lack in trust of personal confidentiality in gmail I gain in trust of google’s spam filter.
Willis:
May you and your family have a terrific trip!
Wherever you end up; ask directions to the local favorite pub. The real places, with low ceilings and friendly patrons and bar tenders.
(My preferences, do as you will) Order the house’s favorite porter(s) or stout(s). Order a roast beef sandwich (they go great with the dark beers and ales), chat with anyone and everyone, play darts and don’t mind when they joke with you a little.
Order the fish and chips during the day or supper times (less late night stomach burn/burps for us more experienced guys); get fish and chips wrapped in paper, sprinkle with vinegar and walk around nibbling, listening and chatting.
Drink tea, (milk or cream goes in the cup first or without if preferred), enjoy walking to shops and pubs, enjoy bangers and rashers with your morning eggs. Breakfast may be the only meal where pints and half pints are not common. On the other side of the channel, wine can be common at every meal.
British have a remarkable tendency towards rally car driving on narrow twisty country roads. They will pass you, going uphill, around a blind curve on these same narrow roads; enjoy the freedom of their driving. Given your third world experiences, you’ll no doubt consider British driving very civilized. On the other side of the channel, driving habits are a more interesting.
I’m sure you will love the place(s) and I hope your family loves them just as much. Enjoy the many British sports cars and drive every one you’re allowed to. Hopefully, the British sports car era will revitalize.
The closest I ever got to owning a British sports car was when I bought a Triumph Herald in 1971 for $150. My friends bought TR4As, MGs, Sunbeams, Spitfires and one friend even had a Jag; a Triumph Herald is basically a neutered Spitfire with a bread box body design.
Not enough time Mr. Eschenbach, but do the best you can.
From katabasis1 on September 1, 2013 at 2:28 pm:
You did publicly reveal your email to help a compatriot. Yet you obfuscated your email on your revolutionary blog. Which is quite an amazing site. You rally for internet freedom. You decry the actions of government intelligence thugs, and such as the PRISM program revealed by Snowden.
You place your trust in Google, which gives up their information to those governmental mini-tyrants and their programs, even after confirmation that Google has been snooping on emails, examining their contents.
You set up a site to draw in the would-be revolutionaries, using fiery rhetoric. “Katabasis: Take up my sword if I fall”, “The world will know that free men stood against a tyrant, that few stood against many.”
You then direct others to use that proven complicit with the “tyrants”. Those who could readily be classified as possible terrorists by the intelligence services, are directed to an email service that will readily provide emails with all their contents to the intelligence services.
Okay…
So despite the harassment potential from merely having someone else’s email address, for example I could post messages here under your name verified by your email address (and was tempted to do so as an example), you’re fine with public posting due to a mere spam filter. Got it.
WAG you are flying ex SFO
http://www.flightstats.com/go/FlightStatus/flightStatusByRoute.do;jsessionid=A34D68C57E04FCBE4A881CB5580945ED.web4:8009?departure=%28SFO%29+San+Francisco+Intl%2C+San+Francisco%2C+CA%2C+US&arrival=%28LHR%29+London+Heathrow+Airport%2C+London%2C+EN%2C+GB&departureDate=2013-09-01&x=29&y=3
http://www.flightstats.com/go/FlightTracker/flightTracker.do?id=307759410&airline=UA&flightNumber=901
A visit to the New Forest (est.1079 by William I) or even Sherwood Forest might be a nice change of pace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherwood_Forest
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Forest
Damn, I’m so late to the party here, and this would have been my forte (fort-ay) – (how do you do French accents again?). I’ve been an ad hoc tour guide for so many of my American friends.
For the last three days, I’ve actually been on a whirlwind tour – based in Paris, I’ve managed to visit Monte Carlo for a show, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, and even got to see the fountains at the Bellagio Hotel, if you get my drift.
I haven’t read all the comments but Willis, if you’re still tuning in, when you head out west and if you have Stonehenge on your itinerary, try to find time to visit a better (IMO) stone circle – Avebury. It’s pretty close to the M4 (easier to get to than Stonehenge) and is so big, there’s a village, complete with village pub …. in the middle of the stone circle. It’s so real that not only can you walk up to and touch the stones (unlike Stonehenge), you can tread in sheep s**t, before having a pint in the Red Lion pub.
Lost memories of warmer times abound for true non-d****rs of climate change. Have a great trip.
…… and PS, my Mom told me they were expecting better weather.
I may have to save this post for ideas. I spent a month in England in 1975, while on a post-US Navy “Grand Tour”, then a couple of weeks in 2009, mostly at the 50th anniversary celebration of the Mini in Longbridge, but I did get to Warwick Castle, the Gaydon Motor Museum, The RAF museum in Cosford, and Coventry (stayed at Coombe Abbey – fabulous!). I keep thinking hard about spending a year in the UK when I retire in a few years, just to see everything there is to see.
Warwick! That was the Castle name I could not remember! Go down to the river level and the eel trap and power house.
Also check out the Royal Chelsea Hospital and surrounding gardens–and the little museum at the Hospital.
check out the pubs around it.
I did mention Bletchley, I think.
Did I mention the British Museum?
Welcome to London, Willis + family!
Robin, London, sceptic, amateur mathematician and scientist, increasingly enthusiastic reader and thinker about history, philosophy and patterns of human behaviour. Reluctant ‘finance professional’.
Much enjoyed reading your posts, Willis, if you plan to spend a relaxing evening in a pub in London, can recommend:
1. The Southampton Arms which is near Gospel Oak station; or
2. The Wenlock Arms which is near Angel.
I would regard it as a privilege to be able to buy you a pint.
Best, R
Willis – welcome to the UK.
If your travels were to include the South West (fyi the further West you go the more beautiful the South becomes!) then my family and I would gladly say hi from the town of Poole in Dorset.
We could even put you all up for a night or two and I’m in and around home for the next couple of weeks…
The “fee” would simply be the sharing of stories over a beer / wine or two 🙂
S
Willis:
I write to offer two suggestions in the event that you decide to accept the invitation from ‘Steve R in UK’ to stay at Poole.
Do not miss the opportunity to visit the Tank Museum at Bovington.
If you can get a boat trip along the Jurassic Coast in the presence of a geologist then take it. The Jurassic Coast is one of the greatest wonders in the world, and it certainly deserves its World Heritage status. I think a journey Eastward from Exemouth is best because you start from the past and travel to the present (but that is a preference). And there are several places on shore for finding fossils. If you have someone to teach you which stones to break then you are sure to find some (several decorate my fireplace). Fossil hunting with a near certainty of success is fun for all the family: it is like opening presents at Christmas when you don’t know which parcels contain something.
Richard
Willis – I can save you a bit of time on the East Coast journey.
After you drop down from North Yorkshire, you’ll probably end up in York which is a beautiful city. From there, the engineer in you will most likely want to see (and cross) the Humber Bridge which was, when built around 1979, the largest single span suspension bridge in the world. Now listen carefully – on the north bank of the Humber is the city of Hull and to the south lies the TATA steel town of Scunthorpe and the fishing/food town of Grimsby. All three are fugly beyond belief and have no redeeming features – don’t even stop if you’re busting for one! If you can, just plough on straight through to Lincoln which has, at least, a beautiful cathedral and a bit of history.
Now if you need a place to kip before you get to Lincoln, (no frills mind) I can offer a bit of grub, lots of whisky and a half decent acoustic guitar for the night. Not sure how I’ll explain it to the missus, but I’m sure I can come up with something.
I’m wondering (oddly) if you’ve got the sense of scale of Britain correct – basically, if you’ve got a couple of weeks, you can go just about anywhere and have time to spare, so long as you don’t mind travelling. Whilst hardly small, if you are in a hurry our transport network is (just – which seems to have been the case for all recorded history) good enough to get to one place to another quickly. Unless one or the other place is one of the really outlying bits – Cornwall, West Wales, Argyll, northern Scotland, and the east side of East Anglia – which may take half a day to get to from the main transport network (although unsurprisingly all are worth it). And then you have the rest of the British Isles as well…
Welcome to the Britain, Willis. Even the jet-stream is cooperating to provide you with some spectacular late summer weather. I do hope you will be able to do a write-up your impressions of England, Scotland and Wales on WUWT, (‘The UK’ includes Northern Ireland). Something along the lines of your great story of ‘hitch-hiking to a wedding’, maybe.
We drive on the correct, or left hand, side of the road, because most people are right handed. Before police appeared we had to defend ourselves – using a sword or some weapon in our right hand, so we walked or rode on the left with the many hedges you will see, protecting our left. That also applied to horse drawn carriages. When cars first appeared they just had to fit in, so the steering wheel was on the right and the shift stick (gear lever) operated with the left hand.
Early gear boxes were very hard to work, so when cars were first used in America someone probably said, ‘why dont we use our right hand (usually stronger) to shift the gears, and put the steering wheel on the left’?.
Very early film shot in San Francisco, before the earthquake, show many cars with the steering wheel on the right.
Enjoy your visit here.
Too late to warn him now but to “warn” others, here’s an olde drive report that I did last century on driving in England and Wales.
I returned again in 1999, which included a couple of trips through London and the area subseqeuntly converted into a Congestion Charge Zone. When the zone was defined, I was puzzled as I couldn’t remember any excessive congestion. Very little “congestion” even during the middle of the day. It was much worse in the outer suburbs as the roads were clogged by Chelsea Tractors (faux wheel drives) collecting school children.
Locals informed me the “Red Ken”, then the mayor of the city, had completely screwed up the traffic flow, de-synchonising traffic lights and turning most lanes into bus lanes. Not surprisingly, reducing the available road space by 500% to 66%, led to substantial congestion. The charge to drive through inner London isn’t what I would consider to be “affordable”. Businesses operating in the zone simply raise their prices to pay for the increased operating expense or move out of the zone.
Bonkers Boris on a Bike (I think it’s from practicing headers with a medicine ball) was elected as mayor but simply left the lucrative business of collecting the charge and didn’t fix the congestion by fixing the causes of congestion.
The Congestion Charge is so popular with Londoners, that it’s administrated out of an office block in a business park outside of Coventry, some 90 miles away.
“How does one go about getting a drivers license quickly enough to drive in another country?”
You can legally drive on a USA licence for 12 months in the UK, After that you need to get a provisional (learners permit) and take a driving test. An IDL does not exempt you from this, save your cash.
majormike1 says:
Probably not worth it as the IDP is only a translation of the licence details into multiple languages. It’s only valid in conjunction with a real licence.
The only time that I could have used one (and I did have one in the car), was when I got caught in a speed trap in Germany (popular for local fund-raising). I presented my Western Australian licence, which didn’t have a picture.
The local cops of Neubrandenburg were (still in 1997), more likely to be able to read Polish or Russian than English. But there were no difficulties with having my licence accepted. The cop who interviewed me asked for my Personalausweis (personal ID papers, which we don’t have in Australia because we don’t get so drunk as to forget who we are) but I handed them him passport. We cordially discussed the ethical aspects of setting a trap at the end of what was effectively 2 km of open road, just before it turns at 90 degrees into a suburb and that 70 km/h was most certainly not an excessive speed for those conditions by themselves.
There are lots of areas in Germany where towns aren’t more than a couple of kilometres apart, but the speed limit is the default 100 km/h so I was feeling a bit guilty about holding up the traffic behind me. The default speed limit is 50 km/h within localities whose bounds are marked by signs. If you think you missed a sign because it looks like a country road, it’s “safest” to continue at no more than 50 km/h. Especially in regions where the local government is short of cash.
I agreed to pay the 75 DM local toll for falling into the trap. Meanwhile, there was a constant flow of vehicles into the trap while I was sitting comfortably in the van, dotting the t’s and crossing the i’s.
P.S.: If you plan to travel to Germany for fun, first change your name to Max Mustermann. Still wreaks havoc with systems that use it as a traditonal placeholder.
Willis, if you do manage to get north of the border and perhaps see Edinburgh, I’d like to suggest a stop on the way back down the east coast, where you can get out and enjoy just a few tranquil moments, away from the noise: Cove harbour, just off the A1 at Cockburnspath. Usually deserted as it’s no longer in use. Small car park at the top, short path down to cave through the hillside, and there it is…
Just has an archetypal sort of feel.
Abandon in case of bad weather (couldn’t possibly happen here in September – oh wait…)
From the look of things, you could stay half a year free of charge. Cornwall and the Lake District are distinct pleasures.
While in London go on a guided walking tour, they cover everything from the Law Courts to Jack the Ripper, go and look at a canal preferably where there is a flight of locks ( and usually a Pub)
Coming from a country with a big flat bit in the middle you will delighted how our landscape and geology changes every 25 miles or so.
Welcome