nz2008's TravelStream™ — Recent TravelPod.com entries TravelStream™ news feed for member nz2008 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/nz2008 en-us Copyright ©2012 TravelPod.com Thu, 17 Jun 2010 20:16:05 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com Home Again — Almond, NC http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2008/3/1276803072/tpod.html http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2008/3/1276803072/tpod.html#comment Travel Blogs http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2008/3/1276803072/tpod.html Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:16:05 +0000 Roman Holiday--in Britain
Almond, NC

Where I stayed
Home
(Almond hotels)


What Sidney neglected to tell you about our last day in England is that we had glorious weather to walk the 2.5 circumference of the City of York--and that one of the city gates (there are several) has a portcullis that still works. The rail museum there is remarkable, with train memorabilia ranging from stained glass windows and old signs salvaged from railway stations to Queen Victoria's rail coaches. Back at the working train station, we snagged an evening train ourselves back to Heathrow via London Kings Cross, and arrived at the Yotel (a "pod" hotel with rooms rather like train compartments--with bunks, a toilet, TV, WI-Fi, and shower--actually in the airport itself) just at 10 pm. It was our only option save sleeping on benches in the airport, since our flight check-in was at 4:30 am and transportation to the airport doesn't run before 5:00. But mostly we just wanted the experience. We didn't use the wide screen TV, and we only got about 3 hours sleep, but at least it was dark and quiet, and we were able to shower and change. It felt very futuristic. The flights themselves were smooth with a plane change in Munich, and then we hit the steamy sidewalks of Charlotte and record heat on the drive home. What a change from the bicycles and trains of cool England!

Now we're the usual re-entry process--laundry, mail, and catching up with office work, and weeds, weeds, weeds in the garden. We all agree we learned a lot on this remarkably content-dense-- trip. And we're glad to be home. Thanks for reading along with us.



]]> Our Last Day - By Sidney — London, United Kingdom http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2008/3/1276624168/tpod.html http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2008/3/1276624168/tpod.html#comment Travel Blogs http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2008/3/1276624168/tpod.html Thu, 17 Jun 2010 12:45:27 +0000 Roman Holiday--in Britain
London, United Kingdom

(Hounslow hotels)


Hi again, it's Sidney.

I'm writing this on a train from York to London. After we finish this train ride, get off at King's Cross, take the Tube to Heathrow, sleep for 4 hours in our Yotel, fly to Munich, change flights to Charlotte, fly back to North Carolina, get in our car, and drive for 3 hours, we'll be home. Phew.
Meanwhile, we're still in England. Today we ran around trying to see as much of York as we could before we ran out of time. Naturally, we ran out of things to do around lunch, with three or four hours to kill. What could we do?

The answer came to me. It was an ancient tradition of our family. It was a ritual made to be performed in cities. So naturally, we had to do it.We got lost.
Part of the above story is true. We did indeed see the city walls and the Railway Museum before 1:00. Dad was excited about seeing the Flying Scotsman (the first train to reach 100mph), but I spent a substantial portion of my time there examining the "Thomas the Tank Engine" store and reliving old memories. Actually, reading those books really helped me understand the museum, as every train on desplay seemed to have an analog in the Thomas books.

[After writing this part of this entry, we left the main railway and took the Tube from King's Cross to Heathrow airport. But first...]
The passengers were sparse as we searched the platform. This was perfectly natural, since it was 8:00 in the evening. Nevertheless, there was a huge rush of people at one point, who we later discovered were heading to the same place as we were. My mom asked an employee for directions,"Go left, straight, pass the bike racks, and left again." We did so. There was a large crowd of young people around our destination. We peered through the crowd. I announced, "This is it." It was Platform 9 and 3/4.

After taking pictures there, we headed to Heathrow and followed the signs toward our Yotel pod room. Checking in was fairly straightforward. We pressed a few buttons, swiped our credit card, and we were in. We headed into our suite (of which pictures will come later). It's like sleeping in a closet - literally. We're only here for about 4 hours, though, so it'll work fine.I have to go to bed now. In all likelihood, we'll be next updating from the USA!

]]> Hadrian's Cycleway Day 3--Silloth to Carlisle — Carlisle, United Kingdom http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2008/3/1276094421/tpod.html http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2008/3/1276094421/tpod.html#comment Travel Blogs http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2008/3/1276094421/tpod.html Mon, 14 Jun 2010 20:28:31 +0000 Roman Holiday--in Britain
Carlisle, United Kingdom

(Carlisle hotels)


If the wind would have been at our back all day, I would say we just blew into Carlisle. However, since gale force winds blew towards us all day, I don't know what to say, only we are sure glad to be here! We rolled out of Silloth over original cobblestones on the Roman Road that ran right in front of our lodging. It was bright and early, just after ten when the banks opened and we could exchange some cash. A fresh rain, horizontally blown by the wind greeted us just out the door and accompanied us for an hour or so, before turning the job of major annoyance over to "just the wind" for the remainder of our riding day. Thankfully the route was flat for the most part alongside the Solway Firth otherwise known as the Solway Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, a name that pretty much describes what it was like--outstanding and beautiful.

Despite the conditions, we made good time and arrived in Carlisle after 35 miles around 3 pm. Sidney and Mary Ellen even got in some practice drafting on the bikes at top speeds of 3 and 5 mph. With 8 foot high hedges either side of a single lane road, imagine drafting in a wind tunnel.

After checking into our B&B, we made a mad dash to Carlisle Castle to get in as much of it as we could before it closed at 5 pm. Lots of history there. Dates back to 1077. Right on the Scottish border. Edward I even held parliment here during the time of "Braveheart" (where he certainly would have met Mel Gibson) and Robert the Bruce. From the castle we skipped over to Carlisle Cathedral. A real oldie as well with a beautiful blue star painted ceiling. We were just in time for Evensong which I am sure must be interesting for many people. Something about going in a church, sitting down and listening to soft music just puts me right to sleep. Thirty minutes and a few nudges later and we escaped back outside and had a quick bite before heading in to our room for biscuits and tea.

Jim

]]> York: the Roman, the Medieval,and the Modern — York, United Kingdom http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2008/3/1276524387/tpod.html http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2008/3/1276524387/tpod.html#comment Travel Blogs http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2008/3/1276524387/tpod.html Mon, 14 Jun 2010 20:23:19 +0000 Roman Holiday--in Britain
York, United Kingdom

Where I stayed
Elliotts York
(York hotels)


The grand old Duke of York
He had ten thousand men.......

We've made it to York and the last place we'll visit before heading home. What a place. As Sidney says, it has all the essentials of a British city--castle, cathedral, university, and Roman ruins. Today we spent a bit of time touring the town and getting our bearings since we'll be here tomorrow as well and want to take in all the best. York is known for still having an entire wall, complete with gates, completely encircling the old city. For us, having a wall to stay within makes a large city very manageable. The roads are very narrow and often cobbled. My favorite street is known as the Shambles. On this street, as the years went by, each time someone added a story to their shop/living quarters, they cantilevered the buildings outwards to increase its size while maintaining the same footprint on the first level.

As the buildings went up they got closer and closer together. In some places one could just about reach across the street from their upstairs window and shake a neighbors hand. We had read that it was dwellings like this that contributed to the great fire of London, so it was interesting to see it first hand.

After a late lunch we went on a tour of York Minster, Englands largest cathedral and second only in size to St. Peters in Rome. This giant of a building we learned was built over the course of several hundred years, and although it went from a smaller Norman church to a great gothic cathedral, it was built to serve a "congregation" of--at its largest--only 150 people. The stained glass windows are amazing (York houses a huge percentage of all the existing Medieval stained glass in Europe) and some date to the 1200s. We learned that the glass in the windows will last pretty much forever, but the lead that holds the pieces together must be replaced every 150 years or so. Also, as damage occurred to the glass from fires, bombings, sieges, whatever; the cracks were repaired using more and more lead. On some windows, so much lead would eventually be added that it became hard to see the original designs. Now when restored, they've developed techniques to remove the lead and we can see those windows much as they would have looked 800 years ago when they were first built. Currently they are restoring the largest window which is behind the high altar. It is so big and detailed that they expect the process to take five to ten years! Mary Ellen wants me to make sure to also mention the stone carving at the cathedral as well. As you can imagine, it took many, many carvers to do the job and each added his own special touches. While some of the carvings were ghoulish, others could be quite humourous, letting us know that people really have not changed all that much over the centuries.
Finally, an excavation to reinforce the foundations of the cathedral in the 1960s uncovered the remains of the Roman site on which it was built. This has now been turned into an exhibition under the cathedral itself. You can actually see the Roman, Norman, and Gothic layers of foundation stone.

With the hours counting down til we leave, we're finding ourselves getting really picky about where we eat--wanting the perfect dining experience of course. Tonight we ate at an old pub called The White Swan. We ate at another White Swan several nights ago. Since it was good, we figured how could we go wrong. As luck would have it, it was delicious, and just what we wanted. They specialized in traditional "bangers and mash"--that's sausages, mashed potatoes, and gravy--yum! The waiter recommended a seasonal local ale, so of course we had that too.

So, off to bed to get rested up for our last day.

.....for when you're only halfway up
you're neither up nor down.

Cheers!

Jim

P.S. In case you missed it, there were two entries for Durham, since we were there two nights. We posted both at the same time, so you might not have seen the first.


]]> Relaxing in Durham - By Sidney — Durham, United Kingdom http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2008/3/1276437351/tpod.html http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2008/3/1276437351/tpod.html#comment Travel Blogs http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2008/3/1276437351/tpod.html Sun, 13 Jun 2010 22:05:51 +0000 Roman Holiday--in Britain
Durham, United Kingdom

(Durham hotels)


Hi again,
Today was quiet. We headed out of the Travelodge at 9:30 and spent about an hour in wet weather trying to find tonight's lodging. We did not have a decent map, so we first hiked up to the cathedral to get our bearings, then used the map from the guidebook to find the bus station. We then, finally, used our directions to make our way from there to our lodging. We dropped our luggage there, than started into town to eat a late breakfast. Since we were low on British cash, we were limited to places that accepted plastic. Eventually, however, we ended up with a good English breakfast - sausage, beans, toast, and tea, among other things.

We then headed out to tour Durham's two main attractions - the castle and the cathedral. The cathedral opened first, so we toured the historic chapel and viewed the exhibits about St. Cuthbert, one of the more important saints of England. We then took a fascinating tour of the castle, which is currently in use as college lodging, and has been since the university was founded. Did you know that the number "4" used to be written using the cutoff top of an "8"?
After our cathedral tour, we sought out a place to eat a late lunch, which turned out to be our dinner as well. A small meal of pizza, salad, and sandwiches turned out to be all we needed. This was just as well, considering the milkshakes came exactly as advertised (flavored milk). We then retired to our lodging for the evening to relax, watch the telly, and write our blog.

Sidney

]]> Hadrian's Cycleway Day6--Ovington to South Shields — Durham, United Kingdom http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2008/3/1276431475/tpod.html http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2008/3/1276431475/tpod.html#comment Travel Blogs http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2008/3/1276431475/tpod.html Sun, 13 Jun 2010 16:56:06 +0000 Roman Holiday--in Britain
Durham, United Kingdom

Where I stayed
Travelodge Durham
(Durham hotels)


What a beautiful day for riding! Fortified with yet another huge breakfast, we started out at about 9:30, riding the last 25 flat miles of Hadrian's Cycleway. We rolled through Ovingham (pronounced "Ovinjam") past The White Swan, the pub where we ate last night, and then followed a cycle path along the river for many miles, passing dog walkers, runners, and other cyclists. All the towns seemed to have city parks that connected to each other to create one continuous wooded, auto-free route that ultimately led to the quayside along the River Tyne at Newcastle. I had expected Newcastle to be a rather dirty industrial city. It certainly is a working town, but what we saw of it is spiffy and appealing, with its own Millenium (foot) Bridge, a curved, cantelevered affair that swoops over the river, and a concert hall that looks like an undulating elongated silver bubble. Home of Sage, an international technology company, this city reminded us a bit of Seattle. No wonder it's a favorite destination for stag and hen (batchelor and batchelorette) parties. We saw a gaggle of women walking along the quay in matching t-shirts announcing that's what they were there for.
We stopped for a a scant hour at Walls End, where, as the name implies, Hadrian's Wall ends. It's also the site of Segedunum, another excavated Roman fort, this one with a restored bath house. Also on the actual end of the wall was a stone inscribed with the names of all the men who built that section, commonly placed by the Romans. After a picnic lunch we were off again to catch the ferry across the Tyne, a 7-minute ride from the port of North Shields to South Shields and at about 2 pm arrived at Arbeia Roman Fort, the eastern end of the ride. Arbeia has a reconstructed gate, barracks, and officer's quarters. Each of the five forts we've visited has emphasized something different, and between them we've got a pretty well-rounded understanding of Roman life on the wall.
So ends the cycling portion of our trip--174 miles from the Irish Sea to the North Sea. Peter arrived to collect us and the bikes and deliver us to our accommodations in Durham, another Roman town a half-hour to the south.

I'd learned lodging was scarce in Durham this weekend because of the university's annual regatta, the first of its summer festivals. We watched some of the races (including alumni crew and high school and middle school teams, and at least one from elsewhere in Europe!) this evening from the canal bank, enjoying the general carnival atmosphere and thinking of Benjamin and Abby Perrin, who are on crew teams in the U.S. Right now we're doing what the rest of the country is doing: watching England play the United States in the World Cup. The U.S. just scored.
]]> Hadrian's Cycleway Day 5--Twice Brewed to Ovington — Ovington, United Kingdom http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2008/3/1276274778/tpod.html http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2008/3/1276274778/tpod.html#comment Travel Blogs http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2008/3/1276274778/tpod.html Fri, 11 Jun 2010 22:11:03 +0000 Roman Holiday--in Britain
Ovington, United Kingdom

Where I stayed
Ovington House Bed & Breakfast
(Ovington hotels)



We headed out into the windy, overcast morning wearing all our layers, and spent it visiting Vindolanda, a famous excavated Roman Fort located on the Wall itself. Vindolanda is known for a number of things, but one I find most interesting is that it's the site of the discovery of a written birthday party invitation from a Roman woman to her sister-in-law. The invitation proves not only that Roman soldiers had their wives and families with them on the frontier (as Vindolanda was at the time it was written), but more importantly that women were educated. It is the only example of its kind yet discovered. The numerous writings and documents found at Vindolanda are considered the most important artifacts in all of the UK and most are now kept in the British Museum in London. Here we also ran into another American cycling family, a father and son who were biking the other direction. By the time we'd finished touring the extensive excavated fort and the museum with all its artifacts, the sun had come out.

We rode happily on--so happy to reach the highest point on the route, in fact, that we rode right by the turn to the next excavated fort, Housesteads. After a, shall we say, "animated" discussion, we rode a mile back up the hill (into the wind) to the turn, where we rode down and then up again to Housesteads, which offered a view of a continuous section of the wall, and it was worth it. The weather was glorious and the views picture perfect--blue sky, puffy clouds, white sheep, light grey Roman stones, and green fields with neat deep green hedges.

We ate lunch, peeled off a few layers, and prepared to enjoy payback time. After yesterday's uphills, the afternoon riding was almost all downhill. We rolled through stone villages and past fields of rape and maize and barley. The weather warmed the lower we got and the windswept, open hilltop pastures were replaced by hedges and woodland lining the road--much more closed in. Signs had names like Thistlerigg Farm, Fourstones, and Whinney Hill. We rode 29 miles in about 2.75 hours.

Tonight we're staying in a stone farmhouse surrounded by sheep fields and horse paddocks. We walked on a public footpath to a pub in the next village for supper. Here there are public paths which traverse fields, cross fences over stiles and go right through people's yards in some cases. So different from in the US, where you'd be more likely to see no trespassing signs dotting the landscape.

]]> Hadrian's Cycleway Day 4--Carlisle to Twice Brewed — Twice Brewed, United Kingdom http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2008/3/1276173705/tpod.html http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2008/3/1276173705/tpod.html#comment Travel Blogs http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2008/3/1276173705/tpod.html Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:55:08 +0000 Roman Holiday--in Britain
Twice Brewed, United Kingdom

Where I stayed
Vallum Lodge Bardon Mill
(Bardon Mill hotels)


Hi again, everybody. I haven't written since my infamous dissertation on warfare, so I thought I'd chronicle today's adventures.

Breakfast this morning, in my opinion, was the best yet. This was mainly because of the many vegetarian, non-egg options (egg is a food that, for some reason, I simply cannot stand) as well as the many courses and variety of foods available.

Riding and Romans--Sidney's View

We started out riding with a nice urban route out of Carlisle, followed by a reasonably enjoyable but cold (although the relative lack of wind was a blessing) countryside ride. My finger joints feel like someone sliced them with a penknife because of the amount of gripping the handlebars, brakes, and gearshifts I've been doing.

We began the rolling uphills and downhills and continued on to the Roman fort of Birdoswald, stopping there around noon.We had tea first, as the British weather is much colder than that of North Carolina, then toured the surrounding excavations and exhibits. I purchased a book when we were leaving, entitled LEGIONARY : The Roman Soldier's Manual. It proved to be an especially informative, interesting, and amusing book to read. We biked for a while longer, before arriving at our lodging, where I read through the rest of my book before we headed to dinner.

The pub food was traditional British and was good, although I think my parents enjoyed their lamb and cod slightly more than I enjoyed my spicy Mexican dish. The verdict was reversed when it came to dessert, because I ordered a "pavlova." As readers of our New Zealand blog might recall, this is a dish combining cream, ice cream, meringue, and in my case strawberries. It is extremely good, and I cleaned it up quickly.

I must sign off now, and I hope you enjoy this entry.

-Sidney


I want to add that we rode 37 miles today and up (and down!) some very steep hills. Wild carrot, wild geranium, comfrey, and buttercups lined the route and the air was perfumed with manure from the cattle farms. Our first glimpse of the wall appeared at about noon--and it was interesting to think that many houses and most stone walls in view had been built with stones taken from its ruins.The view itself made us feel on top of the world; we are approaching the highest point in our ride. For those who might be searching Travelpod.com for information on Hadrian's Wall Cycleway, it took us 7 hours, including a 1-hour stop at Birdoswald.

Mary Ellen





]]> Hadrian's Cycleway Day 2--Egremont to Silloth — Silloth, United Kingdom http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2008/3/1276013683/tpod.html http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2008/3/1276013683/tpod.html#comment Travel Blogs http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2008/3/1276013683/tpod.html Tue, 08 Jun 2010 21:37:43 +0000 Roman Holiday--in Britain
Silloth, United Kingdom

Where I stayed
The Queen's Hotel
(Wheyrigg hotels)


Today we paid better attention and stayed on track. After breakfast in the kitchen, we left Egremont and headed out in misting rain, passing through Whitehaven, a working port with a very attractive waterfront--the route took us right through it. As we left the town, we were excited to spot a lone boatman rowing out to sea in a wooden skiff--not something you see often these days. Our path wandered along the coast, sometimes on a high beach path and other times further inland. The Solway Firth was always in view. It was an interesting juxtaposition at one point: a nature preserve (the third we've passed) on one side of the path and huge wind turbines on the other. We've seen many wind turbines.

Dogs are not an issue when you're cycling in England. We've yet to see a dog on the road without its owner. If it is not on a leash, the owner snaps one on as soon as s/he sees us. Loose farm dogs watch us from the barn or dooryard and seldom bark. Other bikers are very friendly; one offered to guide us through Workington on a route detour that was very confusing. He turned out to be the head of emergency services for the town and told us of the flooding that had happened here last fall, showing us the remains of a massive bridge that was swept away and an entire hamlet that had been deluged.

We were making good time until Sidney got a flat. In the process of changing the tube, the valve got pulled out of the new one. Jim put in another new tube, but soon it went flat again--the piece of glass was still in the tire. By the time we sat down to lunch at a pub in Maryport it was 1:30 and we were starving. The pub was draped in the St. George flag in anticipation of the World Cup soccer match (England plays the U.S. on Saturday) and posters all around announced specials on drinks and food while England plays.

We pedaled the last 15 miles after lunch in a stiff headwind. Some of the route was coastal two-lane highway with a fair amount of traffic. We passed a coastal golf course ("a 'real golf course'," Jim said--with players out in the rain) and rode on a promenade for a while, but it was mostly though farmland on lanes between hedgerows. We noticed what seemed like too many farms for sale. Jabe told us in London the economy is worse here than at home and maybe that's why. At any rate, we arrived at our B&B in Silloth and are happily ensconced in a room looking over the sea to Scotland, which we can just barely see. It never really did rain hard today. We pedaled 40 miles--our longest day in mileage, but we have a couple of very hilly days to come later in the ride.
]]> Hadrian's Cycleway Day 1-- Ravenglass to Egremont — Egremont, United Kingdom http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2008/3/1276012963/tpod.html http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2008/3/1276012963/tpod.html#comment Travel Blogs http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/nz2008/3/1276012963/tpod.html Tue, 08 Jun 2010 21:35:00 +0000 Roman Holiday--in Britain
Egremont, United Kingdom

Where I stayed
Horse & Groom Court
(Beckermet hotels)


Factoid: it gets light here at 4 am. We made our 9:07 am train from Oxford and it was a relaxing 4.5 hours riding through the countryside to Newcastle, where we met Peter Irvine, the man who arranged the bike hire and transported us from the east coast to the west coast to begin our ride. Peter is in the business of transporting cyclists and other tourists. He is also the Newcastle agent for Saddle Skedaddle, a large bike tour company based in England which runs tours internationally. The bikes were supplied by Skedaddle.

During the three-hour ride to Ravenglass, where Hadrian's Wall Cycleway begins, Peter gave us tips on which Roman ruins are most interesting, and information on where we'd be riding as we passed it in his van. It took us just three hours to travel by car the distance that will take us six days on bikes. We arrived at Ravenglass at about 4:45 pm.

After changing clothes and pedals (we'd brought ones with toe clips), loading our panniers, and adjusting seat posts, we were off at about 5:30, with 15 flat miles to ride. Although it was overcast, we thought the weather perfect for cycling. If you look at the map you'll see we were following the Solway Coast (as we will be for a few days) and the view from the bike trail was spectacular. Fragrant wild roses bloomed along side. Later, we rode next to a nuclear power plant.

We would have made the ride in about two hours, but without knowing it we got off the marked route and rode an extra four or five miles. When we arrived at our lodging, a bike hostel, it was deserted, and it felt a bit surreal entering the passcode on the door and entering a building empty of people. Fortunately, we had brought backpacking meals for supper and breakfast (it was too late to go out again and we were too tired besides), and cooked and ate them in the kitchen. We had rented sleeping bags, which were waiting in our room. By the time we'd finished eating, we were only too happy to craw into them. So, not a very fancy or welcoming place,and probably wouldn't stay here again, but it met our basic needs.
]]>