Travel Diary Britain ’06 – last entry – 26th July 2006

So, now I’m sitting at the airport, waiting for the check-in to open and re-living the events of the past week in my head. A truly marvellous week and a week full of firsts: it was a first for me to drive a British car, a first to see British Baroque, to see Shakespeare’s birthplace and to see a Shakespeare play in English, a first to see the impressive monument of Stonehenge, to see truly beautiful English beaches and to stay at Charlie’s place. A week full of experiences and impressions, without a single boring minute. Even now I’m not bored as I’m busying myself with finishing this diary…
It wasn’t exactly cheap, especially all the petrol and parking but the whole experience has once again confirmed it to me: it is well worth living a modest life as long as you can go travelling once a year!
My little round trip has also given me confidence on British roads: while I was kind of anxious and uncertain how well I could handle a car with the steering wheel on the right side, now, after 1500 miles of driving practice on all types of roads – from motorway right down to 20mph – single – lane country roads – I’m really confident in my driving skills and I don’t rally feel any difference between driving on the left and driving on the right side of the road anymore. So, in a way this trip has also opened the roads of the world – including Japan and Australia – to me. And it has also proven to me that England has really clean and nice places with no litter on the pavement, with no broken windows and bricked-shut doors.
It has also shown to me that there are some really peaceful places providing rest and the chance to observe the stunning beauty of nature and, speaking of nature, it has also proven the cliché wrong that almost all of England is flat. In fact the area around Cornwall, Somerset and Dorset is pretty hilly and of course there is also the Peak District that didn’t get its name by chance.
Yet another thing this road trip has done for me is that it helped me memorising a good deal of place names – the names of the cities and countries I was passing through. Of course, if you make an effort, you can also learn these names by heart from an atlas and in fact I had learned quite a few names before but it’s just not the same as to be able to link a place name to a live memory because only that is what will ensure that the names remain in one’s brain and don’t get forgotten again.
So, all in all it was a great trip, I regret nothing and I wouldn’t do anything differently if I had the chance to do it again. It is only that it was a bit short. But then, there are still places to see, like Scotland or Wales and there will be definitely a time for travelling again.
But for now, I’ll enjoy my extended stay in Austria. Goodbye.

Endlessly long queues at Stansted Airport

...and strict security measures. In this glass box sharp items that former air passengers had to leave behind are displayed

Finally boarding the plane...

...taking off...

...crossing the borders of Britain...

...soaring above the clouds...

...and arriving in Austria two hours later...

...then a 45mins drive...

...and here we are. Home sweet home.

Travel Diary Britain ’06 – 9th entry – 25th July 2006

This morning I was woken up by the sound of Charlie knocking on the door of the guest bedroom and telling me that the bathroom was now free. So I crawled out from beneath the very soft and nice sheets and went to the bathroom for my personal hygiene. Then I went downstairs where Charlie and I had breakfast – I had some of her dad’s home-baked bread which tasted really nice and after having another go at the Sudoku we’d started yesterday we got into my car and set off for Cambridge. Sudoku is something is something I’d only learned yesterday, it’s a kind of numeric puzzle involving a lot of logical thinking and the harder ones apparently can really make you rack your brains but it’s definitely addictive. And I suppose it’s also good as a kind of balancing counterweight for someone who normally deals with languages only. At around nine then we reached Cambridge. I parked the car at the park & ride parking lot and then we took the bus into the city centre. Despite the early time it was already ridiculously hot inside the bus and I was really glad when we got out at the Grafton shopping centre. Being one of the biggest shopping centres in the wider area it’s kinda well known, Charlie told me, and we walked through it for some window shopping. She also bought a banana-caramel milkshake and let me have a taste of it and I found that it tasted really good. As we got out at the other end of the shopping centre we soon got to the market place in the middle of Cambridge, an accumulation of stalls selling mostly a rich selection of fresh fruit and other foodstuff.
Nearby, there was also the Great St. Mary’s Church which we entered and admired the interior and we were also quite lucky – I found at least – because soon after we’d entered an organist started to practice and played some really beautiful melodies which I enjoyed a lot. After having seen enough of the church we crossed over to King’s College, part of the prestigious Cambridge University. First we entered the chapel building with the elaborate wooden organ and despite photography being prohibited inside the chapel I couldn’t resist and took a few shots. That’s me for you, haha… Then we saw a small exhibition with a number of old documents, amongst others the will of King Henry VI., which was really fascinating to read or, to be more precise, to try to read as ye olde English was a bit challenging after all and the writing on the parchment was pretty faded too. Having seen these interesting pieces we stepped out into the campus courtyard and strolled about, talking about how strange it felt to be walking here where the students of Cambridge Uni would be walking too, during term time. We soon reached the banks of the River Cam, a small and very calm river on which people are poling their punts admiring the campuses from the river. We crossed a bridge over the Cam and I asked a German couple – in German- if they’d be so nice to take a photo of me and Charlie and that they did and after some more strolling on the grounds we left the campus area. We then headed back into the town centre for some more window-shopping, went into a book shop and then Charlie saw a Pocky – handbag which she almost bought. Being not much of a shopping person myself I still hadn’t gone into some of the shops before and some I didn’t even know – like Lush, a shop that specialises in soaps. They’ve got all sorts of soap there: fruity soap, fragrant soap, honey soap, soap that looks like cake and even ‘shower jelly’… walking into shops like these was like looking at the world through different eyes – a truly interesting and eye-opening experience…
After that we went to a pub to grab some grub – I had sausages with gravy and mash which was quite good. Then, after finishing our meals and talking for a while, Charlie told me that we’d pretty much seen everything of interest in Cambridge and that she was going home and so we were saying our goodbyes, until September, and then I went back to my car and drove to the nearby town of Ely where I saw the pretty impressive cathedral and spent most of the evening walking around. A pretty relaxed last day of sightseeing and that’s just the right thing, I think, I’m really glad that Charlie had had time these two days and tomorrow I’ll go to Stansted, return my car and then go on my next journey – the one to Austria.

Marketplace in the centre of Cambridge

Great St. Mary's Church

Chapel of King's College

King's College

Punting

Me, Charlie and the River Cam

'Charlie in Wonderland'

Bicycle city Cambridge

The sausages I ate...

...at this pub

The cathedral of Ely with its nicely painted ceiling

and an impressive front

Travel Diary Britain ’06 – 8th entry – 24th July 2006

Quite tired and with a slight headache I got up this morning. I actually felt like sleeping until noon but I wanted to get to Canterbury as soon as possible so after some splashes of cold water into my face I pulled myself together, hopped into the car and hit the road. I think I reached the city of one of the Archbishops of England at around ten, although I’m not quite sure of the time anymore and made my way straight to the cathedral which I reached after a short and refreshing walk through the city centre. The city centre is nothing much special but the cathedral is a real gem and so I paid and entered the abbey grounds. After walking around the cathedral once and taking photos from several angles I walked in through the main entrance and here my tripod really proved its worth: never before have I been able to take such clear pictures of the interior of a church. And it was definitely worth photographing, especially the stained glass windows… Now, many people find churches in general quite boring and think that they all look alike but there are those little differences. How ornate is the interior? What motives are shown on the paintings displayed? Who is buried there and what do the inscriptions on their remembrance stones say? And so on.
Anyway, I surely spent two hours having a good look at everything and then I went back out of the city centre when I got a text from Charlie, saying that she was going to Bury and that she’d have time to meet up. Great! So of course I lose no time, get to the car and drive up to Bury St. Edmunds where I arrived some time in the afternoon. I went to the place where we’d agreed to meet and soon we were walking through the centre of Bury. Charlie definitely had some experience at showing people around there and made a really good guide – we walked through the abbey gardens, visited the cathedral of Bury, went to a little corner shop selling a great variety of British jams (I bought some, of course…) and saw the smallest pub in Britain – just big enough to fit some five people in…
After some more walking and chatting we then went to my car and set off for Thurston, to her parents’ house.
Well, that house got me really impressed: it’s a residency built in the early 19^th century, pretty much restored to its original state and absolutely huge! So, we went in and I met Charlie’s mum, we chatted about my road trip, the places I’d been to so far, the places where she’ d lived before and I got an invitation to stay over night! Fantastic, isn’t it? So, while Charlie’s mum went to prepare supper, Charlie showed me around in the house and I met her cat Ugli, her budgie and her sister’s lizard Lizzie. We sat down on the couch to talk and watch telly and Ugli joined us too and time went by really quickly and soon her mum called for supper. In the meantime her dad had gotten home as well and so the four of us settled down at the dinner table and had some really nice pasta and pie. Charlie’s dad and I also had some red wine and well talked about student life in Liverpool, England, Austria, skiing, in other words anything and everything. Later in the evening Charlie took me for a walk around Thurston, we saw her school and the post office which forms pretty much the centre of the place. So it’s a proper small village, not unlike Pfarrkirchen in Austria. After returning from this walk we spent the rest of the evening watching Rain Man in their movie watching room (!) and now I’m in the guest bedroom, about to go to bed. And tomorrow we shall se Cambridge!

The cathedral of Canterbury, inside...

...and outside

Here, almost every single Archbishop of Canterbury got a memorial

I like photographing stained glass windows because they work out so nice on photos

Ruins at the Abbey Gardens in Bury St. Edmunds - the left one's shaped like a chicken and the right one like a tea kettle...

Bury Cathedral

The smallest pub in Britain - only five people can stand inside

Sweets shop in Bury

This is where I stayed over night

Travel Diary Britain ’06 – 7th entry – 23rd July 2006

What awaited me this morning was the long drive from Torquay to Brighton. I had a slight headache and didn’t find the prospect all to nice anyway but when it then started to rain as I drove off I was proper pissed off to say the very least.
‘There goes my day on the beach in Brighton’, I thought, wondering what was there to do in Brighton on a rainy day but by the time I reached the city some of the clouds had dispersed and even the sun came peeping through. As we say in Austria, ‘When angels decide to go on an outing the sun will shine and the clouds go pouting’… I was delighted.
So, first thing I do is get rid of the car and take a nice walk around the city centre. Now, Brighton’s definitely a larger city again. I felt this when I walked through the streets which were mostly congested and couldn’t exude the same homey feeling that the street of Newquay had done but then again the city was also richer in sights. After some twenty minutes I reached the park surrounding the Royal Pavilion, a small palace built by King George IV. In the years before his regency in the intriguing ‘Hindoo’ style, a free interpretation of Indian and generally oriental architecture.
The whole thing looks as if it had been taken straight out of one of the fairy tales in 1001 nights… Anyway, a rather rare specimen of this style in Britain, I think. Of course I took my time admiring the building and taking a fair number of photos. When my appetite for rare architectural styles was then satisfied I moved on to the Brighton Marina, the true attraction of Brighton. For two miles or more the beach stretches here and unlike at the beach in Newquay, here the waters were pretty calm and people could be seen everywhere going into the water and so I followed their example and finally went for my long swim in the Atlantic Ocean I’d been yearning for.
I was happy beyond imagination! In fact I liked it so much that I neglected my original plans to see the interior of the Royal Pavilion and stayed at the beach for several hours, going for a swim, drying in the sun and repeating the whole procedure over and over again...
At around four I decided that I’d enjoyed the sea enough and that it was time for a stroll along the promenade. To me it is the beach promenade that provides most of the holiday feeling there. It’s just like an ongoing fun fair and there are carousels and other rides, arcades and food stalls – just the right thing for a decent spending spree! This is the reward for being diligent throughout the year and living a truly economical lifestyle!! It does pay off!
After a while I got hungry and decided to have some seafood and of course there was much on offer. In the en I settled for a pot of jellied eel and for a dessert I had some Belgian chocolate waffles, hmm…
Then I wanted to buy some souvenirs, I saw a hand-painted model of a ship and one of a lighthouse which I really liked but I had to go find a cash machine and as I came back the store had closed! Curses! Well, anyway, I continued my stroll to the Brighton Pier and back and after getting rid of some excess baggage I went to the nearby Odeon and bought a ticket for the 9pm screening of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest’ and spent the next two hours in the invitingly cool inside of the cinema. And now I’ll get changed and walk off in search of a disco!

Brighton Palace

This beach is highly recommendable for basking in the sun

Brighton Pier

...where I had jellied eel

...and Belgian chocolate waffels. Yummy!

Some blokes doing Capoeira at the seaside

Dusk in Brighton

Travel Diary Britain ’06 – 6th entry – 22nd July 2006

This morning I woke up in Torquay on the English Riviera and after a good breakfast I started exploring the town on foot. The first thing I noticed was, that the architecture of the buildings was quite a bit different from houses in the average northern English city. Unlike in those cities, here plastered and painted facades dominated the appearance of the streets and plain brick-buildings were rather rare. I do like brick facades but I’m more a fan of plaster and stucco so I enjoyed the sight pretty much. Another thing that hit me soon afterwards was that there was no litter whatsoever lying around in the streets.
‘How do they do it?’, I wondered because despite the absence of ‘Littering will be punished’ – signs the streets were so immaculately clean. Perhaps it’s because of the lack of population there to litter the streets? Dunno.
Anyway, no matter how beautiful I might have found the town, it was still no match for the beauty of the seaside. From an elevated path running along the top of precipitously falling cliffs I enjoyed an absolutely stunning view of the sea – the best view of the sea I’d had in a long time! I mean, the beach in Crosby is sort of nice but it can’t be compared to this. After relishing this sight for a considerable time and thinking about the pure beauty of nature I returned to the town centre where I visited the tourist information to collect some pamphlets and incidentally learned that Torquay was the birthplace of Agatha Christie and has always been a great source of inspiration for her works. I’ve read some of her Miss Marple novels and seen some of the films so for me it was an interesting fact to know.
Next thing, I dragged myself up the steep hill to the outskirts of the town, leading to the library. Who in the world came up with that stupid cliché that Britain was a flat country? Bloody bullcrap!
Panting, I reached the place and managed to get myself 30 minutes of internet time and then I went to my car and headed off towards Newquay.
Actually I’d planned to arrive there at two in the afternoon which wouldn’t have been much of a problem if it hadn’t been for the road works and the queues caused by them. At one time I stood in place for half an hour and that in the sweltering heat of early afternoon! I really felt like starting a barbecue on one of the lanes and having a cold beer, hehe…
The heat of the asphalt would have certainly been enough to get some sausages done properly…
And after an hour of that queuing I finally found out that my car actually had air condition. Oh, sweet luxury!!
Of course I turned it up full power and by the time I reached Newquay I had almost forgotten that it was summer – partially because of the now chilly inside of my car and partially because of the clouds that had managed to cover up the sun just in time for my arrival at the beach. Unluckles. But it was still warm enough to walk around in nothing but shorts and so I spread my beach towel on the welcoming sand and soon I plunged into the crystal clear and quite cool sea water. The waves were really high so I couldn’t swim out and so I stayed standing in the shallow parts covered up to my chest in the water. It was so absolutely nice! Some time later I returned to the beach, rubbed myself down and then settled for a short nap – to wake up an hour later and notice that the water’s edge had been moving up all the time and had almost reached me…
At around six I showered and then left the beach to explore the town of Newquay – a town that’s definitely oriented towards accommodating people on holiday: internet cafes and arcades all the way. Really gets you into a proper holiday mood! Mightily hungry, I went to a takeaway and grabbed myself a yummy Doner and then I had a go on one of the arcade machines – the first time in ages! And now I’ll go party. Yeah!!

The houses you find here look quite different from those you find in the north of England

Torquay - looks well like a seaside resort town

Torquay harbor

Me standing in front of the sea

First glimpse of the sea in Newquay

Just look at these waves!

Bern Cam

Travel Diary Britain ’06 – 5th entry – 21st July 2006

After a good night’s sleep and some personal hygiene in the morning I hopped into my car and set off for Bath. About two hours and some congestion on the M5 I arrived at the city famous for its hot spring and excavations of a Roman bathhouse and followed my standard routine: park the car at a long stay car park and explore the place on foot. The first sight I came across was the Royal Crescent, a marvellous example of Georgian architecture and maybe one of the best-known in Britain. Unfortunately there were some repairs being carried out on some of the houses so some scaffolding slightly spoiled the sight but drenched in sunlight as it was, that half-circle of houses was still very nice to look at. Another example of Georgian housing, the Circus, is not far away and if you walk past it and continue walking straight ahead, you descend a steep hill and soon reach the city centre. There the main attraction of Bath, the Roman bathhouse, can be found. After strolling along the narrow streets that were at the time flooded with the music of some street musicians I took out some money at a cash machine and entered the bathhouse museum. An interesting fact about that hot spring that has been sacred to the Roman goddess Minerva, is that it is actually the only hot spring in Britain and so it has not only been enjoyed by the Romans but also by the British nobles in the Middle Ages and thereafter. The building itself reflects that, having been knocked down and rebuilt several times and showing evidence from the period of Roman occupation to the Victorian era. So, the remains of the original Roman bathhouse are some fifteen feet below today’s street level and the tour takes you through its rooms. Apparently the Romans really know how to enjoy themselves: they had had steam rooms, ice-cold pools to cool themselves off, under-floor heating and of course the big pool with the curative water and they could even combine a visit with their religious duty as a temple of Minerva was close by.

Anyway, I enjoyed the informative tour and at the end I bought a glass of the good spring water. It tasted slightly sulphuric but was quite okay to drink and, as it’s sacred to the Roman goddess of wisdom, who knows, maybe it does some good…
With that ‘drink of sagacity’ I then concluded my visit to Bath and moved on to the some twenty miles away Stonehenge. I reached the site in the late afternoon and after passing the ticket gates and getting my audio guide I climbed up the gentle slope to one of the most mysterious places in Europe. And a pretty impressive place too!
Richly illuminated by the bright sunlight it stood there, majestically and timelessly looming over the mortals surrounding it.
Just thinking of its sheer age fills me with awe, it’s been standing there in place for more than four thousand years! Although its purpose is still unknown it’s believed to have served as a kind of calendar to the people of that time, indicating summer and winter solstice and the months. Slightly stupefying by the way that the word ‘Stonehenge’ actually means something like ‘hanging stones’ which would suggest a stalactitic appearance, that Stonehenge of course doesn’t have. But that doesn’t matter, really. It’s just great!
Too bad I couldn’t see it at night with a full moon in the sky above it. That would be the photograph of my dreams!
After savouring the moments there, I went to the nearby Woodhenge (did you know that there was such a place?) where I was asked by two young lads for the next petrol station and from that some small talk quickly developed and I heard from them that they were two ongoing students and on a road trip as well! Now that’s what I really love about travelling: you always meet nice people on your way!
And who knows who I might meet tomorrow in Newquay? I shall be looking forward to it…

Queues on the way to Bath

The Royal Crescent

...and me in front of it

This house looks like it just came out of a German fairy tale...

The Circus

The cathedral of Bath, seen from the excavations of the Roman bathhouse

...the museum of which helps fire your imagination

Head of Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom

The oldest still intact part of the bathhouse - the spillway

Many people threw coins into this basin, and some even bills

Here you can taste some of the spring water

The world-famous Stonehenge

And the not so famous Woodhenge