I’ve never really known any surfers. I was a kid in California but in the dessert not on the beach. When we did go to the beach the closest I got was boogie boarding (seriously what it is called, or at least was called) or body surfing. In Minnesota I guess you can windsurf, but I don’t really think it is the same thing. My sister while traveling to California with my dad took lessons but I don’t think she has done it since. So what little I know about the sport and sub-culture comes from movies, books, and magazines. You know real reliable fair. So what do I know then about surfing? Not much. Surfers talk funny and use funny phrases. They are all hippies I think. They can’t hold down a real job, and they are adrenaline junkies. Most of this I got from Kenue Reeves movies. Oh yeah and they will surf anything any time and are always looking for the next wave.
So it came as no surprise to me that surfers had found a way to surf in Munich Germany. Which you know has great sea side beaches with huge was – er maybe it doesn’t. But yet her in the middle of a landlocked city in a mountainous region of Europe people were surfing. In fact they were latterly surfing in the down town. And no to answer your question they are not using a surfing machine, wave machine, or virtual reality. They are literally hoping on a board and riding the waves. These waves though are in the middle of a river in what is known as the English Garden, a park twice the size of central park that also contains the largest beirgarten in Munich.
What people have found is that the river is forced into a man made underground tunnel to be routed in part of the city. The tunnel must be larger at it’s mouth then at the outlet because the pressure of the water escaping is quit high. The second part of the set up is that the river dramatically changes depths with in 20 feet of this outlet so that it gets wide and shallow right after being narrow and deep. This creates basically a rapid that is consistent from bank to bank as some of the water stalls when it hits the edge of the shallow area and the rest of the water floods forward. This happens also in nature when there is a large rock just under the water in a river. In fact I have been on rafting trips where we let some air out of the tubes of the raft and surfed the river. But that was 5 people in a raft.
In Munich we actually saw people with different size surf boards jump in the river, land on their surf board and surf for anywhere from a couple of seconds to a few minutes. The only kind of board I didn’t see was a long board, but I think the rest were probably represented. It was insane to watch. In fact from what I am told there always a crowd there watching these river surfers. The best by far was actually a kid about 15 years old he could easily stay in there for 10 or minutes. Most surfers lost it on entry, the rest generally could only do it for a few minutes, but the best actually did tricks as they surfed. I can honestly say that I was amazed and totally surprised to see this in the middle of Germany. And there was no Kenue Reeves, though now I know he didn’t show us everything about surfing.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
3 Days and 5 Biergartens
So I have to say right away that Munich and Bavaria in Southern Germany have to be on the short list of my favorite places to travel. After two trips there I can not find a bad thing to say about the region. The people the, the sites, the food, the beer, and the whole atmosphere is extremely enveloping. Everything is very well maintained, clean, and orderly. All of the people are friendly in the extreme, and proud, they are more then willing to tell you the best places to go, how to get there, and the history behind it. I think is due to the fantastic history of the region. This is the place of dreams. The Kings for several generations build fantastic castles and explored nature and culture. The most famous of these is of course Neuschwanstein, the very castle that Disney land was modeled after. So it should come as no surprise that RG and I thoroughly enjoyed our weekend there.
We both arrived Thursday night at the airport north of Munich. After a bit of a struggle trying to figure out how to purchase a S-Bahn (light rail basically) ticket – my German isn’t so good and the English signs weren’t very instructive – we headed into town. We stayed at the Marriott Courtyard two blocks south of the main train station. As our flights were later in the evening and the train ride is 45 min we didn’t get into the room until around midnight so we pretty much crashed right way. Then next day I worked the first part of the morning then we went out to see the town. We got lunch at a great little café in the middle of a park. We couldn’t read the menu, and even though the waitress could speak English, we just ordered blind and wished for the best! It turned out well though. The meal was great. The amusing thing though was that this was a café frequented by local business professionals and as this is Germany they all ordered beer with their lunches. I was un-phased by this but RG was in utter and complete shock. It took her several minutes for the idea to settle (mostly because it was still prior to noon and people were drinking). I tried to explain that this was Bavaria and people start having beer for morning snack.
The rest of the day we saw the sites Glockenspiel, the twin domes of the Frauenkirche, the Königsplatz, and Beirgarten(1) in the main market along with a couple hour break in the afternoon so I could take some conference calls and RG could take a nap (we both liked this arrangement). After the napping/working was finished we decided to walk to the English Gardens, find the China Tower, and have a beer at the biggest biergarten(2) in town (4000+ seating). This part of the plan went well through dinner. I tried to order beer in German, miserably, even though the sever knew English just fine and we ate sausage, pretzels, and kraut. However around 9 in the evening mother nature decided to have little fun with us and the dark storm clouds rolled in. We were probably 3 ½ miles from the hotel and the park have very confusing paths. So without umbrellas and in the dark we tried to find our way out of the park. After 40 minutes we did emerge from the park, soaking wet, not really knowing where we were. But lucky for us there was a Hilton close by with a line of taxis (tip: when lost find a major hotel there are always taxis, bath rooms, and a dry place to wait out the rain).
The next day our plan was to meet up with some family friends at the end of the train line to the south. RDtl had flown in Arizona with my dad and lives just outside of Munich, he and his family were very nice and took us out for the day. We arrived at the train station about 10 in the morning. RDtl stop by his house to pick up his daughter and he drove us out to Neuschwanstein. RG and I did the tour while RDtl and daughter went to a Roman bath nearby to soak in some salt water. He doesn’t like to go into castles as his parents had drug him through so many when he was young. This was my second trip to the Castle and it was just as amazing as the first. I thin that RG was totally amazed. It is too bad that it was never finished. After this tour we drove through the mountains stopping at another castle briefly and then taking a walk through a town famous for creating wood carvings and crafts. Most of the stores were closed and biergarten(3) we were told was not a true biergarten so after ½ hour of stretching our legs and taking in the beauty of the town and the Alps we were off again. We then visited at RDtl’s house for a while then went to dinner at a great restaurant, which if it was summer also had another good biergarten(4) we could have enjoyed.
The next day we met up with RDtl’s son LDtl. He is a student at one of the universities in Munich studying engineering. He went with us to see the newly opened BMW world, next to the BMW factory and world headquarters. It is a large strangely shaped aluminum building that houses exhibitions of BMW technology, concept cars, and current line up. It was worth the walk through, especially since it is free. We didn’t due the museum because it is closed on Sunday. Adjacent to the BMW campus is the site of the Munich Olympics. A wonderful park that is open to the public and were people still play sports in the pavilions or swim in the pool. There are tall hills with views of the whole city, and walks for miles. At the top of one of these hills is one of LDtl’s favorite biergartens(5). So of course we spent an hour soaking in the warm spring sun, listening to some strange, semi-German/Austrian music, and drinking tall beers. It was a great relaxing, lazy afternoon. Later we did go to see one more site before collecting our luggage and heading to the airport but that is a story that must wait for a post of its own.
We both arrived Thursday night at the airport north of Munich. After a bit of a struggle trying to figure out how to purchase a S-Bahn (light rail basically) ticket – my German isn’t so good and the English signs weren’t very instructive – we headed into town. We stayed at the Marriott Courtyard two blocks south of the main train station. As our flights were later in the evening and the train ride is 45 min we didn’t get into the room until around midnight so we pretty much crashed right way. Then next day I worked the first part of the morning then we went out to see the town. We got lunch at a great little café in the middle of a park. We couldn’t read the menu, and even though the waitress could speak English, we just ordered blind and wished for the best! It turned out well though. The meal was great. The amusing thing though was that this was a café frequented by local business professionals and as this is Germany they all ordered beer with their lunches. I was un-phased by this but RG was in utter and complete shock. It took her several minutes for the idea to settle (mostly because it was still prior to noon and people were drinking). I tried to explain that this was Bavaria and people start having beer for morning snack.
The rest of the day we saw the sites Glockenspiel, the twin domes of the Frauenkirche, the Königsplatz, and Beirgarten(1) in the main market along with a couple hour break in the afternoon so I could take some conference calls and RG could take a nap (we both liked this arrangement). After the napping/working was finished we decided to walk to the English Gardens, find the China Tower, and have a beer at the biggest biergarten(2) in town (4000+ seating). This part of the plan went well through dinner. I tried to order beer in German, miserably, even though the sever knew English just fine and we ate sausage, pretzels, and kraut. However around 9 in the evening mother nature decided to have little fun with us and the dark storm clouds rolled in. We were probably 3 ½ miles from the hotel and the park have very confusing paths. So without umbrellas and in the dark we tried to find our way out of the park. After 40 minutes we did emerge from the park, soaking wet, not really knowing where we were. But lucky for us there was a Hilton close by with a line of taxis (tip: when lost find a major hotel there are always taxis, bath rooms, and a dry place to wait out the rain).
The next day our plan was to meet up with some family friends at the end of the train line to the south. RDtl had flown in Arizona with my dad and lives just outside of Munich, he and his family were very nice and took us out for the day. We arrived at the train station about 10 in the morning. RDtl stop by his house to pick up his daughter and he drove us out to Neuschwanstein. RG and I did the tour while RDtl and daughter went to a Roman bath nearby to soak in some salt water. He doesn’t like to go into castles as his parents had drug him through so many when he was young. This was my second trip to the Castle and it was just as amazing as the first. I thin that RG was totally amazed. It is too bad that it was never finished. After this tour we drove through the mountains stopping at another castle briefly and then taking a walk through a town famous for creating wood carvings and crafts. Most of the stores were closed and biergarten(3) we were told was not a true biergarten so after ½ hour of stretching our legs and taking in the beauty of the town and the Alps we were off again. We then visited at RDtl’s house for a while then went to dinner at a great restaurant, which if it was summer also had another good biergarten(4) we could have enjoyed.
The next day we met up with RDtl’s son LDtl. He is a student at one of the universities in Munich studying engineering. He went with us to see the newly opened BMW world, next to the BMW factory and world headquarters. It is a large strangely shaped aluminum building that houses exhibitions of BMW technology, concept cars, and current line up. It was worth the walk through, especially since it is free. We didn’t due the museum because it is closed on Sunday. Adjacent to the BMW campus is the site of the Munich Olympics. A wonderful park that is open to the public and were people still play sports in the pavilions or swim in the pool. There are tall hills with views of the whole city, and walks for miles. At the top of one of these hills is one of LDtl’s favorite biergartens(5). So of course we spent an hour soaking in the warm spring sun, listening to some strange, semi-German/Austrian music, and drinking tall beers. It was a great relaxing, lazy afternoon. Later we did go to see one more site before collecting our luggage and heading to the airport but that is a story that must wait for a post of its own.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Avesbury, Stonehenge, and Glastonbury Abby
I finally did get through a successful road trip. This time I used the TomTom (GPS) in a different way. Instead of programming in the whole trip I just programmed each stop as we went. I am probably missing out on some of the convenience but now I know it will take me where I expect to go. That said it was a really interesting trip, and I assume that it is the first of many. I will try to go somewhere every weekend I am in Portsmouth. Of course I am sure when people come and visit I will most likely need to go back to some of them. This trip I went with a coworker of mine (BMc) that will be splitting his time between the UK, Germany, and New York, like myself - but on a different schedule. He will still be based in New York. Most of the trip was actually his idea. I would have tried to stretch it out more and put more miles on. But I actually think we did it right the first time so it was a good plan after all.
We started early to beat traffic. No one in Britain leaves their house before 8 am so we were off at 7:30. In no time we were ahead of schedule and had time to stop for breakfast. We went to a neat little tea room in a town called Marlboro, like the cigarettes but I think with no relation, called Polly’s Tea room. Which we later found out was a local favorite. We walked around the deserted town square, saw a garden, ate breakfast, took some photos, and took off again. The first major stop of the day was Avesbury stone circles. A place where 4000 years ago people stood huge 2+ meter stones upright in several circle formations. The area was huge. There are probably hundreds of stones standing on end. The funny thing is people built farms in and about these rings. So as you go around you are constantly coming in and out of fields. In one field you have to watch your feet because there are sheep grazing. No one knows why people built these structures or how, but they are something to see.
After Avesbury we went to Stonehenge. A place I was surprised to find out my wife had never heard of. I thought everyone knew about it. So to briefly describe it, it is a formation in a ring of stones that weigh in the 10s of tons. There are several stood on end with other set on the top. Original these stones on top formed a ring, but many have fallen. Here you do not have as much freedom to walk around they are working to preserve the site so you can not get close to the stones. But they have a nice audio tour and you can still see everything. I actually remember going there as a kid, around 5, and I think at that time you could still walk into the structure. The place is a bit eerie I think. It is on top of a hill and all the country side is cleared for miles around. The current plan is to actually move the highway underground to restore the site to a more original setting. That would make it even stranger. The sheep are in the same fields here as well but they are kept back by electric fencing. I dared to BMc to touch it, but he chicken’d out.
These stops took up most of the morning. The final location to visit was a place called Glastonbury Abby. This was the site of the first Christian location in the UK. It is said that Jesus himself may have visited it as an adolescent. Originally it was a temple, then a small church, then a chapel, then for centuries it grew into a massive compound. Finally when King Henry the eighth was trying to consolidate his power it was shut down and fell into disrepair. Today there are only a few massive walls and archways of the main cathedral and a few other buildings. Interestingly enough at one time it was announced that the grave of King Arthur and his queen were found on the location and they were exhumed and moved into the cathedral under the supervision of the king at that time. The maintain a plaque still at the site. A couple of miles walk and a couple of thousand feet up there is also a tor, or tower over looking the town and country side.
We made the walk up this hill with some effort. It was cold and at a couple points snowed while we hiked, but the view was amazing. The tower has been a place of pilgrimage for years and the town now is over run by hippies. With new age book stores and healers surrounding the Abby. By the time we got down the hill we were both quite hungry and went to the first dive we could find. The joke was on us however, the place we found was called the ‘Who’d a Thought’ café or restaurant. The food was amazing. BMc had duck and I had a great lamb dinner with greens. BMc said he thought we chose the right driver (me) because it snowed, heavily at times, on our drive both in the morning and at night. Apparently because I am from Minnesota it is better if I drive in the snow. I didn’t argue though. BMc is from Jamaica and in this case he was probably right that I was the better driver! Besides the weather thought it was a pretty perfect road trip. I hope I can do a repeat performance in the future.
We started early to beat traffic. No one in Britain leaves their house before 8 am so we were off at 7:30. In no time we were ahead of schedule and had time to stop for breakfast. We went to a neat little tea room in a town called Marlboro, like the cigarettes but I think with no relation, called Polly’s Tea room. Which we later found out was a local favorite. We walked around the deserted town square, saw a garden, ate breakfast, took some photos, and took off again. The first major stop of the day was Avesbury stone circles. A place where 4000 years ago people stood huge 2+ meter stones upright in several circle formations. The area was huge. There are probably hundreds of stones standing on end. The funny thing is people built farms in and about these rings. So as you go around you are constantly coming in and out of fields. In one field you have to watch your feet because there are sheep grazing. No one knows why people built these structures or how, but they are something to see.
After Avesbury we went to Stonehenge. A place I was surprised to find out my wife had never heard of. I thought everyone knew about it. So to briefly describe it, it is a formation in a ring of stones that weigh in the 10s of tons. There are several stood on end with other set on the top. Original these stones on top formed a ring, but many have fallen. Here you do not have as much freedom to walk around they are working to preserve the site so you can not get close to the stones. But they have a nice audio tour and you can still see everything. I actually remember going there as a kid, around 5, and I think at that time you could still walk into the structure. The place is a bit eerie I think. It is on top of a hill and all the country side is cleared for miles around. The current plan is to actually move the highway underground to restore the site to a more original setting. That would make it even stranger. The sheep are in the same fields here as well but they are kept back by electric fencing. I dared to BMc to touch it, but he chicken’d out.
These stops took up most of the morning. The final location to visit was a place called Glastonbury Abby. This was the site of the first Christian location in the UK. It is said that Jesus himself may have visited it as an adolescent. Originally it was a temple, then a small church, then a chapel, then for centuries it grew into a massive compound. Finally when King Henry the eighth was trying to consolidate his power it was shut down and fell into disrepair. Today there are only a few massive walls and archways of the main cathedral and a few other buildings. Interestingly enough at one time it was announced that the grave of King Arthur and his queen were found on the location and they were exhumed and moved into the cathedral under the supervision of the king at that time. The maintain a plaque still at the site. A couple of miles walk and a couple of thousand feet up there is also a tor, or tower over looking the town and country side.
We made the walk up this hill with some effort. It was cold and at a couple points snowed while we hiked, but the view was amazing. The tower has been a place of pilgrimage for years and the town now is over run by hippies. With new age book stores and healers surrounding the Abby. By the time we got down the hill we were both quite hungry and went to the first dive we could find. The joke was on us however, the place we found was called the ‘Who’d a Thought’ café or restaurant. The food was amazing. BMc had duck and I had a great lamb dinner with greens. BMc said he thought we chose the right driver (me) because it snowed, heavily at times, on our drive both in the morning and at night. Apparently because I am from Minnesota it is better if I drive in the snow. I didn’t argue though. BMc is from Jamaica and in this case he was probably right that I was the better driver! Besides the weather thought it was a pretty perfect road trip. I hope I can do a repeat performance in the future.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
INTERNET PLEASE!
So I might have mentioned that British don’t ever seem to be in a hurry to do anything. My wonderful wife knows what is like. She wanted to go shopping one afternoon, but we didn’t get to the stores until 4pm, on a Saturday, and they were all closing in the next hour or so. Ordering utilities even worse, in the States people may complain about the phone company, the cable company, or the guy delivering their new washing machine. But in all honesty they don’t know how well they have it. The Brits only work Monday through Friday from maybe 9 am to 4 pm when it comes to deliveries or installations. So if you need to take time off of work to be there. And they like to have unbelievably complicated procedures so expect to have to deal with each company 3 or 4 times.
I know this because I am currently living through it. All I really wanted in my apartment in Portsmouth was internet. I really could care less about phone or TV services. So read through the websites and thought I had it figured out. I could order a DSL line from Sky. While I was at it I would go ahead and get cable (this was part of the packages of services I can expense). I could have ordered from BT (British Telecom) and got a phone line and a DSL line but it would cost more than the line from SKY and it would be slower. Well when I called sky up I found out I would need a phone line anyway. Just the 8 GBP line a month but I would need it anyway or they could install TV but not internet. Ok so I put the order on hold and called BT. Three days later I had a phone line. One week in the apartment down.
The next day I received a follow up call from Sky told them I had a phone line and they said they would schedule me for install, but the internet would not get activated until after the TV was active. Ok weird, but ok. Well the first appointment they had was a week and a half later! Ok there goes two more weeks. I take an hour off of work and let the guys install the TV feed. It actually went quite smooth. Then I began waiting. Supposedly I would get the router and internet that Wednesday. Well it didn’t happen. Ok I thought I will wait till the end of the week the mail could be slow. Another week down. Monday nothing came in the mail so I called Sky. ‘Oh did you want to sign up for internet’ she asked. I almost lost it at this point. ‘YES I WOULD LIKE INTERNET’ I said ‘how fast can we do this’. ‘We’ll have you all set up in 15 days’ she responded. WTF, after a month I have not had internet and now it’s going to be another two weeks.
So as I write this I still do not have internet in my apartment 5 weeks after trying to order it. What is more fun is that they can only deliver it I am home, if not I fill out a card then 2 days later I can pick it up at the post office. No kidding. So as if I wasn’t aggravated enough at this point I decided that the day I ordered, or should I say reordered internet, I thought it would be a good idea to pay the bill for the phone line I have had for no reason for the last month. So I went to the website, you can set up direct debit there if you have a UK bank, which I don’t. You can send a check through the mail if it is a UK bank, again I don’t have a UK bank (this is also fun with my rent). You can also pay with a card, but not over the internet and not over the web, you have to physically go to a post office.
So I went to the post office over lunch hour. Not a smart move, the line was out the door. But before I could even get that far I had to find a bank to get cash to pay for parking, because there is no parking at the post office. This took 20 minutes because the parking is several blocks from the bank, luckily I didn’t get ticketed while I went for money. So I waited in the que for 40 min finally to pay my bill with a credit card. None of my cards work because of the machines they use. My cards are legal tender in the UK but they only have machines that will read a smart chip embedded in the card. So luckily I had gone to the cash machine, I had literally a pound left over from my withdrawal between parking and paying the telephone bill. So next time I am in the states and I have to deal with the utility company and they give me a 5 hour window that they will be there, I will just be glad because at least the window was on a Saturday and they were able to do it the first week.
I know this because I am currently living through it. All I really wanted in my apartment in Portsmouth was internet. I really could care less about phone or TV services. So read through the websites and thought I had it figured out. I could order a DSL line from Sky. While I was at it I would go ahead and get cable (this was part of the packages of services I can expense). I could have ordered from BT (British Telecom) and got a phone line and a DSL line but it would cost more than the line from SKY and it would be slower. Well when I called sky up I found out I would need a phone line anyway. Just the 8 GBP line a month but I would need it anyway or they could install TV but not internet. Ok so I put the order on hold and called BT. Three days later I had a phone line. One week in the apartment down.
The next day I received a follow up call from Sky told them I had a phone line and they said they would schedule me for install, but the internet would not get activated until after the TV was active. Ok weird, but ok. Well the first appointment they had was a week and a half later! Ok there goes two more weeks. I take an hour off of work and let the guys install the TV feed. It actually went quite smooth. Then I began waiting. Supposedly I would get the router and internet that Wednesday. Well it didn’t happen. Ok I thought I will wait till the end of the week the mail could be slow. Another week down. Monday nothing came in the mail so I called Sky. ‘Oh did you want to sign up for internet’ she asked. I almost lost it at this point. ‘YES I WOULD LIKE INTERNET’ I said ‘how fast can we do this’. ‘We’ll have you all set up in 15 days’ she responded. WTF, after a month I have not had internet and now it’s going to be another two weeks.
So as I write this I still do not have internet in my apartment 5 weeks after trying to order it. What is more fun is that they can only deliver it I am home, if not I fill out a card then 2 days later I can pick it up at the post office. No kidding. So as if I wasn’t aggravated enough at this point I decided that the day I ordered, or should I say reordered internet, I thought it would be a good idea to pay the bill for the phone line I have had for no reason for the last month. So I went to the website, you can set up direct debit there if you have a UK bank, which I don’t. You can send a check through the mail if it is a UK bank, again I don’t have a UK bank (this is also fun with my rent). You can also pay with a card, but not over the internet and not over the web, you have to physically go to a post office.
So I went to the post office over lunch hour. Not a smart move, the line was out the door. But before I could even get that far I had to find a bank to get cash to pay for parking, because there is no parking at the post office. This took 20 minutes because the parking is several blocks from the bank, luckily I didn’t get ticketed while I went for money. So I waited in the que for 40 min finally to pay my bill with a credit card. None of my cards work because of the machines they use. My cards are legal tender in the UK but they only have machines that will read a smart chip embedded in the card. So luckily I had gone to the cash machine, I had literally a pound left over from my withdrawal between parking and paying the telephone bill. So next time I am in the states and I have to deal with the utility company and they give me a 5 hour window that they will be there, I will just be glad because at least the window was on a Saturday and they were able to do it the first week.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Learn to program that GPS thing next time buddy
Well the cooking adventures that I and RG end up in aren’t the only interesting situations that would end up in the movies. Though I have to admit the others are generally my fault. The same weekend that we had fun in the kitchen, I had driven ½ way across England and back. Though we did plan to end up on the other side of the island things certainly didn’t go to the plan I had laid out. However at the very least I think I did learn a couple of valuable lessons from the day. I probably should have learned them before, but I do have kind of a think skull about some things.
So I had planned to drive out to see Leeds Castle, one of the more famous castles because of its nice shape and picturesque setting. Built on a small island in the middle of a lake its owner in the late 1700 was one of George Washington’s mentors believe it or not. After the castle I had planned to drive out to Dover to see the famous white cliffs and take a stroll along the English Channel. I also wanted to take a route that would let us trace the southern shore line until we reached Brighton then head north from there. I didn’t really look at the maps, or read much about traveling such a route, I also didn’t take some warnings from my coworkers about the traffic in England (having already driven for a month I new it was a little busier than in the states but not really that bad outside of London).
So the night before I spent ½ hour programming my fancy TomTom with the route. To get it to work I had to tell it avoid a lot road and to plan the route through Brighton. I also put Leeds Castle in as part of the drive finally ending in Brighton. The TomTom said it would take about 2.5 hours and I have always beaten TomTom’s time by 15-30 minutes so I figured it would be an easy drive.
We left the apartment mid-morning. Not too late, not too early (well anything is too early for RG but you can’t sleep away every Saturday). The first thing we hit was a little que due road construction. ‘No worries’ I thought to myself, this won’t last long. Then we hit a que at a round-a-bout. After another .8 miles we hit yet another round-a-bout with a que. I think the first and biggest flaw in my plans is already showing itself. The route I picked went through to many towns; each one had a couple of round about-a-bouts with decent sized ques. I think I was ok at this point. I didn’t get to angry and we chatted, looked at the country, and kept moving. As usual I was committed to my mistake like a sea captain going down with his ship.
After slugging it out through at least 20 round-a-bouts we did finally come to the sea shore for our scenic drive. And it was scenic. The ocean was pretty wild with some good sized waves, the weather was clear (though very cold), and you could see for miles. The problem was that we only moved 10 feet per minute. Again the culprit was construction. But this time it took the better part of an hour to get through. Now I was getting a little hot under the collar. I tried not to show it but I bet my wife knew. And she was actually being very understanding. When we finally did reach Brighton, a city only like 50 miles from my apartment, we had already spent 2 hours or so in the car.
Once out of Brighton we moved much faster, even if we were driving through cow and sheep fields. No joke, my routing put us right into the country, no highways to be found. But eventually we did hit a major road and started to cruise. The next thing you knew we were in Dover, with 15 minutes before the last entry to the Castle in Leeds. What-What? I had programmed the TomTom wrong. Instead of directing us to the Castle, having us stop, then having us continue to Dover, we simply drove by the exit for the castle (a little out of way if we were going straight to Dover) and continued to Dover. At this point I decided I still wanted to see a castle so we went up the hill to Dover Castle. Only because it was raining half the touring area was closed, and because it was so late all of the other tour spots were sold out. So no Castle for me.
We drove down to see the cliffs. Unfortunately it was so cold, and I didn’t bring hats and Gloves that we couldn’t make the mile or so walk to get in front of the cliffs to get a great look. We only got glimpses from the side. So we found a pub, ate dinner, and headed home. Just to add injury to insult we got snowed on, on the way home. I felt like such an idiot. We drove 5 and ½ hours to eat at a pub in Dover. It wasn’t bad, but it certainly wasn’t worth 5 hours! Surprisingly RG didn’t get to upset by all this. I may have been, but she just came along for the ride. Next time I will know to trust TomTom’s routes and to plan that for stops we actually stop at them not just plan the route to go by them!
So I had planned to drive out to see Leeds Castle, one of the more famous castles because of its nice shape and picturesque setting. Built on a small island in the middle of a lake its owner in the late 1700 was one of George Washington’s mentors believe it or not. After the castle I had planned to drive out to Dover to see the famous white cliffs and take a stroll along the English Channel. I also wanted to take a route that would let us trace the southern shore line until we reached Brighton then head north from there. I didn’t really look at the maps, or read much about traveling such a route, I also didn’t take some warnings from my coworkers about the traffic in England (having already driven for a month I new it was a little busier than in the states but not really that bad outside of London).
So the night before I spent ½ hour programming my fancy TomTom with the route. To get it to work I had to tell it avoid a lot road and to plan the route through Brighton. I also put Leeds Castle in as part of the drive finally ending in Brighton. The TomTom said it would take about 2.5 hours and I have always beaten TomTom’s time by 15-30 minutes so I figured it would be an easy drive.
We left the apartment mid-morning. Not too late, not too early (well anything is too early for RG but you can’t sleep away every Saturday). The first thing we hit was a little que due road construction. ‘No worries’ I thought to myself, this won’t last long. Then we hit a que at a round-a-bout. After another .8 miles we hit yet another round-a-bout with a que. I think the first and biggest flaw in my plans is already showing itself. The route I picked went through to many towns; each one had a couple of round about-a-bouts with decent sized ques. I think I was ok at this point. I didn’t get to angry and we chatted, looked at the country, and kept moving. As usual I was committed to my mistake like a sea captain going down with his ship.
After slugging it out through at least 20 round-a-bouts we did finally come to the sea shore for our scenic drive. And it was scenic. The ocean was pretty wild with some good sized waves, the weather was clear (though very cold), and you could see for miles. The problem was that we only moved 10 feet per minute. Again the culprit was construction. But this time it took the better part of an hour to get through. Now I was getting a little hot under the collar. I tried not to show it but I bet my wife knew. And she was actually being very understanding. When we finally did reach Brighton, a city only like 50 miles from my apartment, we had already spent 2 hours or so in the car.
Once out of Brighton we moved much faster, even if we were driving through cow and sheep fields. No joke, my routing put us right into the country, no highways to be found. But eventually we did hit a major road and started to cruise. The next thing you knew we were in Dover, with 15 minutes before the last entry to the Castle in Leeds. What-What? I had programmed the TomTom wrong. Instead of directing us to the Castle, having us stop, then having us continue to Dover, we simply drove by the exit for the castle (a little out of way if we were going straight to Dover) and continued to Dover. At this point I decided I still wanted to see a castle so we went up the hill to Dover Castle. Only because it was raining half the touring area was closed, and because it was so late all of the other tour spots were sold out. So no Castle for me.
We drove down to see the cliffs. Unfortunately it was so cold, and I didn’t bring hats and Gloves that we couldn’t make the mile or so walk to get in front of the cliffs to get a great look. We only got glimpses from the side. So we found a pub, ate dinner, and headed home. Just to add injury to insult we got snowed on, on the way home. I felt like such an idiot. We drove 5 and ½ hours to eat at a pub in Dover. It wasn’t bad, but it certainly wasn’t worth 5 hours! Surprisingly RG didn’t get to upset by all this. I may have been, but she just came along for the ride. Next time I will know to trust TomTom’s routes and to plan that for stops we actually stop at them not just plan the route to go by them!
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