Date: August 29th, 2009
Distance: None
Country: England
Woke up this morning and went to St. Paul's. That is really a beautiful cathedral. Mr. Wren, excellent work. I was just walking around outside though because they wanted £11 to get in. I really just don't have that kind of money. Just the outside was amazing. One more thing to see if you get here.
After that I went to meet up with some of Dasha's friends. They were out on a London Monopoly pub crawl. Nick had even printed up programs and score cards. What a hoot. They had started at 10:30AM, so when I got there about 4:00PM it was about half over. It was a lot of fun to hang it with a bunch of English guys. They had also timed in a break for the Manchester-Arsenal game. Seeing a football game in a pub in England is something I can check off my list.
Met up with Dasha, Natalya and Rachel as well. They were going to follow along, but only go to the pubs that were nice. Which was probably a good idea. The guys and been drinking all day and by the end of the night were pretty inebriated. There was some confusion when one of the bars on the list was closed. But they pulled it off in good form. After that a big group of us, and the girls, went out dancing. Again, I can't, but no one else was really in a state to notice. So it was fun to be out with a bunch of new friends and dance like an epileptic gerbil.
From there it was back to Dasha's place who very kindly let me stay on her couch. Thanks Dasha.
-Dravis
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
London - Day 10
Date: August 28th, 2009
Distance: None
Country: England
Went out to the British Museum today. I spent basically all day here. It was fascinating. It would be boring and futile to list off everything they had. I really enjoyed the Assyrian artifacts. Saw the famous (and controversial) Elgin Marbles. Plus it was free, which I appreciate (though I did give them a donation). It was nice to be able to come and go. I stayed all morning, then went out for lunch, came back and picked it up again. If you come to London you can't miss it.
After that it was over to Dasha's place. She was going to take me out to meet some friends and get some dinner. We went to a pub out in North Greenwich with her friend Natalya. Then it was off to the city for some dancing with some of her other mates. I can safely say that I am still an awful dancer. It was a great time tough. I was talking with a couple of her friends, Jay and James. Jay was really interested in coming along on the trip up north. James' brother just completed a bike trip from Istanbul to France. So I think I may wait a couple days for them to get ready. Plus London is a fun town, and I don't have a schedule.
-Dravis
Distance: None
Country: England
Went out to the British Museum today. I spent basically all day here. It was fascinating. It would be boring and futile to list off everything they had. I really enjoyed the Assyrian artifacts. Saw the famous (and controversial) Elgin Marbles. Plus it was free, which I appreciate (though I did give them a donation). It was nice to be able to come and go. I stayed all morning, then went out for lunch, came back and picked it up again. If you come to London you can't miss it.
After that it was over to Dasha's place. She was going to take me out to meet some friends and get some dinner. We went to a pub out in North Greenwich with her friend Natalya. Then it was off to the city for some dancing with some of her other mates. I can safely say that I am still an awful dancer. It was a great time tough. I was talking with a couple of her friends, Jay and James. Jay was really interested in coming along on the trip up north. James' brother just completed a bike trip from Istanbul to France. So I think I may wait a couple days for them to get ready. Plus London is a fun town, and I don't have a schedule.
-Dravis
London - Day 9
Date: August 27th, 2009
Distance: None
Country: England
Song of the Day: The Scene's Out of Sight - Actionslacks
London. Where to begin. First off, Wren and Hooke were right. They should have made a grid of the city after the great fire. It is actually strange to be in a city where an event from almost 350 years ago still have relevance. The people here seem to take that in stride when you drop "the great fire" into a conversation. As history tells us, a new grid of streets did not replace the old carriage lanes here. So getting around the city is a bit confusing. You can't actually go straight anywhere. Instead you zig-zag around. It is like sailing into the wind. You have to keep tacking to get to where you want to go. In addition the streets end quite frequently. Sometimes it is just a curve in the road. More often it is a round about or interchange. Then you have five or six roads to choose from, and none of them are marked very well. So you guess and hope you are going the right way. Frankly, it gets annoying after a while. Maybe if you live here long enough you just get used to it.
It does have a good feel to it though. The love the brick buildings around. Very pretty. It doesn't feel as tall as Manhattan or Chicago. Yes, there are tall buildings here, but mostly it sticks to four stories or less though. Holdovers from the age before steel. It is like miles on miles of wonderful eccentric old buildings.
Biking around in the city is actually pretty fun as well. Usually the traffic is moving slow enough that you get around much faster than the cars do. You can't be squeamish about riding with other cars and buses about, though. It is pretty cool to be biking along next to a bus at eye level with all the passengers.
Went to the Tower of London today. I had really wanted to go since reading The Baroque Cycle, which has a large part of the second book set there. It is an amazing place. You can practically eat the history with a spoon. The original tower was started by William the Conqueror. After that it was expanded by Henry III and Edward I and made into a concentric castle. It is still just called "The Tower" even though it is actually a castle. Just amazing to walk though a thousand years of history. I won't try to recount everything, but I will say I spent a very enjoyable day here. It was pretty expensive (£16), but well worth it I think.
After that it was back into town for a curry dinner and some mango lassie. I was also able to get in touch with Dasha, one of Badger's friends. We are going to try and meet up tomorrow.
-Dravis
Distance: None
Country: England
Song of the Day: The Scene's Out of Sight - Actionslacks
London. Where to begin. First off, Wren and Hooke were right. They should have made a grid of the city after the great fire. It is actually strange to be in a city where an event from almost 350 years ago still have relevance. The people here seem to take that in stride when you drop "the great fire" into a conversation. As history tells us, a new grid of streets did not replace the old carriage lanes here. So getting around the city is a bit confusing. You can't actually go straight anywhere. Instead you zig-zag around. It is like sailing into the wind. You have to keep tacking to get to where you want to go. In addition the streets end quite frequently. Sometimes it is just a curve in the road. More often it is a round about or interchange. Then you have five or six roads to choose from, and none of them are marked very well. So you guess and hope you are going the right way. Frankly, it gets annoying after a while. Maybe if you live here long enough you just get used to it.
It does have a good feel to it though. The love the brick buildings around. Very pretty. It doesn't feel as tall as Manhattan or Chicago. Yes, there are tall buildings here, but mostly it sticks to four stories or less though. Holdovers from the age before steel. It is like miles on miles of wonderful eccentric old buildings.
Biking around in the city is actually pretty fun as well. Usually the traffic is moving slow enough that you get around much faster than the cars do. You can't be squeamish about riding with other cars and buses about, though. It is pretty cool to be biking along next to a bus at eye level with all the passengers.
Went to the Tower of London today. I had really wanted to go since reading The Baroque Cycle, which has a large part of the second book set there. It is an amazing place. You can practically eat the history with a spoon. The original tower was started by William the Conqueror. After that it was expanded by Henry III and Edward I and made into a concentric castle. It is still just called "The Tower" even though it is actually a castle. Just amazing to walk though a thousand years of history. I won't try to recount everything, but I will say I spent a very enjoyable day here. It was pretty expensive (£16), but well worth it I think.
After that it was back into town for a curry dinner and some mango lassie. I was also able to get in touch with Dasha, one of Badger's friends. We are going to try and meet up tomorrow.
-Dravis
Thursday, August 27, 2009
London - Day 8
Date: August 26th, 2009
Distance: 16 miles
Country: England
Nothing really interesting happened today. I didn't do anything cool.
I rode from the motel outside of Heathrow, to downtown London. This was about 16 miles. Once I got there, I still hadn't a clue what I was doing. First thing was to get a phone. I hate to say it, but they are really nice to have. Plus the payphones are expensive and unreliable. I was just going to get a SIM card for my old phone. It was unlocked and everything. The only problem was that it apparently didn't have the right frequency bands. So I had to get another one. I wanted just a cheap used one. After shopping (and haggling) I was able to get one for about $50 with SIM card. Now I had a phone.
The next step was to find a place to stay. I camped out in a park and got some wi-fi to find a hostel. I ended up getting a place near the British Museum. That was about $20 a night for a room with (up to) 21 others. The beds were stacked three high, but was kind of a nice place. After that it was off to Leicester Square to find some food. While there I was again on the wi-fi, so that is where the rash of posts came from.
Then it was back to the hostel. Ended up watching TV and talking religion with a couple of the kids at the hostel and a guy in training to be a minister. The minister in training and his girlfriend had apparently taken their undergrad work at TCU. Which is where my uncle teaches. Small world. Anyway, it was fun talking about the bible and the history of the bible with people who were actually interested.
After that it was bed time for me. Sadly the dorm was really hot. So I lay on the bunk for a long time trying to get to sleep.
-Dravis
Distance: 16 miles
Country: England
Nothing really interesting happened today. I didn't do anything cool.
I rode from the motel outside of Heathrow, to downtown London. This was about 16 miles. Once I got there, I still hadn't a clue what I was doing. First thing was to get a phone. I hate to say it, but they are really nice to have. Plus the payphones are expensive and unreliable. I was just going to get a SIM card for my old phone. It was unlocked and everything. The only problem was that it apparently didn't have the right frequency bands. So I had to get another one. I wanted just a cheap used one. After shopping (and haggling) I was able to get one for about $50 with SIM card. Now I had a phone.
The next step was to find a place to stay. I camped out in a park and got some wi-fi to find a hostel. I ended up getting a place near the British Museum. That was about $20 a night for a room with (up to) 21 others. The beds were stacked three high, but was kind of a nice place. After that it was off to Leicester Square to find some food. While there I was again on the wi-fi, so that is where the rash of posts came from.
Then it was back to the hostel. Ended up watching TV and talking religion with a couple of the kids at the hostel and a guy in training to be a minister. The minister in training and his girlfriend had apparently taken their undergrad work at TCU. Which is where my uncle teaches. Small world. Anyway, it was fun talking about the bible and the history of the bible with people who were actually interested.
After that it was bed time for me. Sadly the dorm was really hot. So I lay on the bunk for a long time trying to get to sleep.
-Dravis
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Keflavik to London - Day 7
Date: August 25th, 2009
Distance: 33km
Country: England
Song of the Day: Half a Person - The Smiths
Woke up this morning around 3:00 because the tent was blowing down again. I had place the tent with the small end facing the wind the night before, but it had shifted. More correctly the wind was now coming from two different directions. Only in Iceland. Oh, and it was raining too. I really didn't want to get out of my nice warm sleeping bag, but I was more afraid of the tent coming down. So I went out (shirtless, because I didn't want to get my one clean sleeping shirt wet) and turned the tent 90 degrees. I actually felt really good about that. It probably doesn't seem like anything, but it made me feel like I could conquer the world.
After that I had to get up at 7:30 to ride (33 klicks) back to Reykjavik. I was going to talk to the custom's agent. Three hours. Three damn hours it took with a headwind and rain. When I got there, the customs person had been through already. He opened the box and decided it was all personal, so there were no taxes. The guy from FedEx, Hannes, was even going deliver it to me in Keflavik. Damn, I could have stayed in bed. At least they were nice enough to give me a ride back to Keflavik.
From there I did the mad dash, pack-bike-pull-down-tent-shower-pack-clothes-get-on-bus. Then I was at the airport and through security with time to spare. Whew. I actually like airports. I had a couple hours of calm there before my flight. Spent the last of my Icelandic money on a sandwich (not worth it) and got on the plane. Nice simple 2 1/2 hour flight.
Once we landed in London, I got a bit worried. I still didn't have a place to stay for the night. I didn't have a ticket out either. (I had looked up ferries, and will probably be taking one from Portsmouth to Cherbourg in a couple of weeks.) The guy at immigration was really nice though. He seemed to understand what was going on, and gave me tips for going through immigration in other countries (France).
After that, grabbed my bags. I tried to call the girl I was hoping to stay with here. She is a friend of Badger's. But the number wasn't working. I got online again and was looking for a place to stay. I found one, not too expensive near the airport. But the cab drivers wouldn't take my bike in the box. So I just put it together next to the cab stand. It was kind of funny because all the bored cabbies would come over and watch me put it together. I came together alright and I tossed the box.
My first experience with English roads was interesting. You can really tell that London has 2000 years of history because the roads don't make any sense. There is no real pattern. Things just change randomly. I got a bit to eat at the local McDonalds. (Lame I know, but they were open and I was hungry.) Then found the motel and went to bed. It was the first bed I slept in in a week.
-Dravis
Distance: 33km
Country: England
Song of the Day: Half a Person - The Smiths
Woke up this morning around 3:00 because the tent was blowing down again. I had place the tent with the small end facing the wind the night before, but it had shifted. More correctly the wind was now coming from two different directions. Only in Iceland. Oh, and it was raining too. I really didn't want to get out of my nice warm sleeping bag, but I was more afraid of the tent coming down. So I went out (shirtless, because I didn't want to get my one clean sleeping shirt wet) and turned the tent 90 degrees. I actually felt really good about that. It probably doesn't seem like anything, but it made me feel like I could conquer the world.
After that I had to get up at 7:30 to ride (33 klicks) back to Reykjavik. I was going to talk to the custom's agent. Three hours. Three damn hours it took with a headwind and rain. When I got there, the customs person had been through already. He opened the box and decided it was all personal, so there were no taxes. The guy from FedEx, Hannes, was even going deliver it to me in Keflavik. Damn, I could have stayed in bed. At least they were nice enough to give me a ride back to Keflavik.
From there I did the mad dash, pack-bike-pull-down-tent-shower-pack-clothes-get-on-bus. Then I was at the airport and through security with time to spare. Whew. I actually like airports. I had a couple hours of calm there before my flight. Spent the last of my Icelandic money on a sandwich (not worth it) and got on the plane. Nice simple 2 1/2 hour flight.
Once we landed in London, I got a bit worried. I still didn't have a place to stay for the night. I didn't have a ticket out either. (I had looked up ferries, and will probably be taking one from Portsmouth to Cherbourg in a couple of weeks.) The guy at immigration was really nice though. He seemed to understand what was going on, and gave me tips for going through immigration in other countries (France).
After that, grabbed my bags. I tried to call the girl I was hoping to stay with here. She is a friend of Badger's. But the number wasn't working. I got online again and was looking for a place to stay. I found one, not too expensive near the airport. But the cab drivers wouldn't take my bike in the box. So I just put it together next to the cab stand. It was kind of funny because all the bored cabbies would come over and watch me put it together. I came together alright and I tossed the box.
My first experience with English roads was interesting. You can really tell that London has 2000 years of history because the roads don't make any sense. There is no real pattern. Things just change randomly. I got a bit to eat at the local McDonalds. (Lame I know, but they were open and I was hungry.) Then found the motel and went to bed. It was the first bed I slept in in a week.
-Dravis
Reykjavik to Keflavik- Day 6
Date: August 24th, 2009
Distance: 51km
Country: Iceland
Song of the Day: Burn to Shine - Ben Lee
Woke up to go to the Icelandic National Museum. It was very nice. It is like a museum of Icelandic history in chronological order from the settlement to the modern day. They had a number of artifacts from the last thousand years of history. I spent a couple of hours poking around there.
After that it was off to fight my way back out of the city. Again, what a pain. Little paths that come and go. Stupid paths. I was able to avoid most of the freeways. But I was happy to get out of town and get back on the highways. The shoulder out to Keflavik was actually very wide and felt pretty safe. I was worried about my tires though. There is broken glass all over the shoulder. But so far, no popped tires.
Oh, and I had to pick up my credit cards (and a few other things) from FedEx. It was on the outskirts of Reykjavik. When I got there, the package had arrived, yay! There was a tax on it though. I thought the guy had said it was 523isk. This is about five bucks. I told him that the stuff was mine, and there really shouldn't be taxes on it. It was leaving the next day anyway. But this was the person from FedEx. The person from customs had gone home, and I could explain it tomorrow. I was going to just pay the taxes and be done with it, when it turns out the actual amount was 5023isk. So about 50 bucks. There was no way I was going pay that. I would have to come back tomorrow. So I left that night without my stuff. Lame.
Went to the camping in Keflavik and met a nice girl from Switzerland. I guess she had spent the last two months biking around the island by herself. Way to go! We talked for a bit about the best places to see in Iceland. Oh, and the weather. It is better to come in June or July, apparently. It was fun to meet another solo bike tourer.
After that it was time for dinner. Nice restaurant in town. I was hoping for something with local color, but it was filled with foreigners. Oh well. After traveling to lots of different countries, I think most of the local people eat at pizza joints. I haven't been to any country that doesn't have them.
After that it was onto the Internet for a bit. It has been days since I checked my e-mail. I also wanted to find out if I had a place to stay in London. Finally I tried to book travel out of England. Talking with a few people along the way I am now thinking that having a reservation out of the country makes customs happy. I don't want to get stopped because they think I am trying to stay. I looked it up, but I wasn't going to put my credit card information into a public terminal. After that, just went to bed.
-Dravis
Distance: 51km
Country: Iceland
Song of the Day: Burn to Shine - Ben Lee
Woke up to go to the Icelandic National Museum. It was very nice. It is like a museum of Icelandic history in chronological order from the settlement to the modern day. They had a number of artifacts from the last thousand years of history. I spent a couple of hours poking around there.
After that it was off to fight my way back out of the city. Again, what a pain. Little paths that come and go. Stupid paths. I was able to avoid most of the freeways. But I was happy to get out of town and get back on the highways. The shoulder out to Keflavik was actually very wide and felt pretty safe. I was worried about my tires though. There is broken glass all over the shoulder. But so far, no popped tires.
Oh, and I had to pick up my credit cards (and a few other things) from FedEx. It was on the outskirts of Reykjavik. When I got there, the package had arrived, yay! There was a tax on it though. I thought the guy had said it was 523isk. This is about five bucks. I told him that the stuff was mine, and there really shouldn't be taxes on it. It was leaving the next day anyway. But this was the person from FedEx. The person from customs had gone home, and I could explain it tomorrow. I was going to just pay the taxes and be done with it, when it turns out the actual amount was 5023isk. So about 50 bucks. There was no way I was going pay that. I would have to come back tomorrow. So I left that night without my stuff. Lame.
Went to the camping in Keflavik and met a nice girl from Switzerland. I guess she had spent the last two months biking around the island by herself. Way to go! We talked for a bit about the best places to see in Iceland. Oh, and the weather. It is better to come in June or July, apparently. It was fun to meet another solo bike tourer.
After that it was time for dinner. Nice restaurant in town. I was hoping for something with local color, but it was filled with foreigners. Oh well. After traveling to lots of different countries, I think most of the local people eat at pizza joints. I haven't been to any country that doesn't have them.
After that it was onto the Internet for a bit. It has been days since I checked my e-mail. I also wanted to find out if I had a place to stay in London. Finally I tried to book travel out of England. Talking with a few people along the way I am now thinking that having a reservation out of the country makes customs happy. I don't want to get stopped because they think I am trying to stay. I looked it up, but I wasn't going to put my credit card information into a public terminal. After that, just went to bed.
-Dravis
Reykjavik - Day 5
Date: August 23rd, 2009
Distance: None
Country: Iceland
Woke up in the afternoon. The sun was shining and really heating up the tent. So it was time to be awake. I decided to spend the day being boring and doing laundry. There was a washer and a dryer at the hostel next to the camping. Turns out this was a bad idea. For some reason my clothes came out of the washer smelling like mildew. The dryer didn't work any better. I ran it twice with no noticeable change in dampness. I was going to hang them out to dry by the clouds had moved in and were threatening to rain. So I just placed the wet clothes as best I could around the tent.
I was hoping to meet up with Gunni again for some swing dancing. But we must have missed each other. Instead I just went out for a nice dinner at this awesome fish and chips place. The fish was lightly breaded and juicy. They also had a selection of sauces for it, but frankly, you didn't need them. The fish, with just a bit of salt, was perfect. Highly recommended.
After that it was back to the hostel to recharge some batteries (laptop & Zune) then off to bed.
-Dravis
Distance: None
Country: Iceland
Woke up in the afternoon. The sun was shining and really heating up the tent. So it was time to be awake. I decided to spend the day being boring and doing laundry. There was a washer and a dryer at the hostel next to the camping. Turns out this was a bad idea. For some reason my clothes came out of the washer smelling like mildew. The dryer didn't work any better. I ran it twice with no noticeable change in dampness. I was going to hang them out to dry by the clouds had moved in and were threatening to rain. So I just placed the wet clothes as best I could around the tent.
I was hoping to meet up with Gunni again for some swing dancing. But we must have missed each other. Instead I just went out for a nice dinner at this awesome fish and chips place. The fish was lightly breaded and juicy. They also had a selection of sauces for it, but frankly, you didn't need them. The fish, with just a bit of salt, was perfect. Highly recommended.
After that it was back to the hostel to recharge some batteries (laptop & Zune) then off to bed.
-Dravis
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