Boston, England

I am priviledged to live next door to the Peak District.
I have walked there numerous times and will purposely
reroute my trips to take me through the area. I did not
have to divert my course today because it took me
through the northern part of the district on the way out
and the southern part of the district on the way back.
The wildflowers and heather are both in bloom. It makes
for a great drive wherever you are going.

Today, I was headed for Boston, but got sidetracked in
Lincoln, which is not far from Newark. You think I am
making this up, but I am not. I also passed close to
Sherwood Forest and Nottingham, but did not have
time to visit either on this trip.

I headed out this morning with the intention of
spending the majority of the day in Boston
(Yes, that is where Boston, MA got its name.),
which is on the eastern sea coast. I planned to stop
in Lincoln along the way to see their famous castle
and cathedral. After being in Lincoln for five hours,
I realized that I was not going to make it to Boston.

The Queen currently on the throne is from a long
line extending back to William the Conqueror who
came over from Normandy and united or conquered
a lot of the local tribes and unified much of the country
under one rule. This happened around 1066. The castle
and cathedral were built shortly after this time (1090's).
They are both still standing and both still in use.

Before the Normans got there, the Romans were there.
I do not recall the exact dates, but they were all through
the area for the first couple of hundred years AD.
There are Roman ruins excavated everywhere on the
main hill of the city. The city is on a hill and the
cathedral is visible for miles around. I met two
gentlemen from Houston, Texas (Bill and Hugh)
that did not plan on stopping in Lincoln, but saw the
church from several miles away as they were driving by
and decided to divert their plans.

I will be with two of my favorite females from 8/1 to 8/10.
Michelle and Melissa will be here for a tour of Ireland.
It should be a great trip. The ladies will arrive in Dublin
by air next Friday morning. Maggie, the car, and I will be
taking the ferry from Holyhead, Wales to a little city south
of Dublin next Friday afternoon. We will rendevous at a
great hotel in downtown Dublin. Michelle has planned
this one and all I have to do is show up and drive.

I hope this finds all well on your end.

DWR

Oh, Maggie! Who needs her?

I had it all planned out....up at 0500 Sunday morning
....hit the road at 0600....arrive in Liverpool by 0700
....beat the crowds down to the downtown dock side....
have the Class B and C tall ships all to myself for at
least an hour.  About the time the crowds started
arriving around 0900....take the shuttle over to the
big beautiful Class A ships farther north along the
Mersey River (yes, The Mersey River)....complete my
review of all the tall ships around noon.  The shuttle
would then deposit me back close enough to walk to my
car....grab lunch....hit the road the twenty miles
north up to the Royal Birkdale golf club arriving in
time to see the last few twosomes tee off.....
spend the rest of the day walking the course
and enjoying the great golf....leave around 1930
....home around 2100 (accounting for traffic).

I came close, but things began to go amiss soon
after I left the garage.  I programmed Maggie to
take me to the Liverpool city center.  This is
very simple and literally idiot proof.  Maggie
started giving me directions and we were off
and running.  An hour later (usual travel time),
I am sitting in beautiful downtown Liversedge
and I am pissed....not at Maggie (yet), but at
myself for not paying at least a little attention
to where I was going.  I was too busy thinking
about the wonderful day I was going to have and
all the stuff I was going to see and do to
pay attention.  I did not think it was
Maggie's fault (yet).

I carefully programmed Maggie to take me to
downtown Liverpool again.  This time I confirmed
it a couple of times to make sure there was no
operator error.  I was one hour away.  I started
driving and making adjustments to my plans....
Class B and C boats in the AM....Royal Birkdale
until 1900 and Class A boats until 2100....home at 2200.
I arrived around 0815 and still beat the crowds
to the Class B and C ships and was hitting the
road toward the Royal Birkdale around 1030 when
Maggie tried to slip a fast one by me again.
I had programmed in the Ainsdale city center,
which is a village close to the golf course and
a likely spot for lunch.  When I punched the
screen to select Ainsdale, a different city's
name suddenly appeared in its place and the
SATNAV determined the course to it.  I caught
her this time though, and after several choice
words, I got her to comply with my wishes.  I
made it to the golf course and walked around
from 1200 to 1830.  The last shot I saw was
Greg Norman sinking a long putt on number 14.
I was then out of the gate and on my way back
to Liverpool.

Unfortunately, thats when my luck ran out.
The park and ride buses were stopping service
just as I got there and there was no place close
enough to park and walk from
(at least that I knew about).
So, I headed home without seeing the Class A boats
....but what a day!  If this is bad luck,
I want all of it I can get.

I hope this finds all well on your end.

DWR

More Images from all day hike

The Hike From Hell has a great view

English Understatement

The English have a tendency to understate things.  If an
Englishman tells you that he's had a bit of a cold, he has
probably had double pneumonia and just gotten out of the
hospital.  So when my walking club decided to take a bit
of a hike, I should have asked more questions.
I didn't.....I will in the future.
Our typical walks are between 8 and 15 miles with strenuous
ups and downs, some rock hopping, and an occassional scree
slope thrown in to add spice.  They are physically demanding,
but not exhausting.  The views are always worth the climb.
Yesterday, we took a bit of a hike.  It was 23 miles long
over a remote set of ridgelines
(think no roads go through the area).  The length was the
easy part.  The views were better than I can describe and
better than my pictures will portray.  We had the Irish sea
on one side and a large lake on the other side of the ridge.
The hike was a map and compass hike with bushwacking through
immense stands of flowering heather, through ankle deep bogs,
and up and down scree sloped at 60 to 70 degrees.  To sweeten
the hike, throw in several hundred tons of sheep poop
(yes, I used the word poop).  In order to walk around all of
that poop would have lengthened the hike several miles,
so we walked through a lot of it.  Luckily, the bogs removed
the poop and replaced it with mud.  Then the 3 mile road walk
at the end of the hike removed the majority of the mud, at
least from the boots. We left the Lion Hotel in downtown
Barmouth, Wales around 0540 yesterday morning and were on
the trail around 0615.  From the road where we parked,
it was a 4 mile climb up to the high plateau that we would
stay on for almost all of the hike.  Once we arrived on top
of the plateau, out came the compass and map and for the next
four hours we slogged through bogs and heather while climbing
up and down ridges.  We did not go around the ridges because
they were perpendicular to our path, as were all the ridges we
crossed yesterday.  We then reached the set of ridgelines that
sent one of our four intrepid hikers back to Barmouth early.
We hit the first and smallest of the larger ridges aroung 1100
and we were on the other side at 1215.  At this point, Dave
(not this Dave, the smarter one) decided that he would not
continue because he was concerned that he would slow us down
climbing the next three ridges
(the "Big Ridges" as he called them).  I should have listened
more closely to him because he had hiked them before.
Anyway, he said goodbye and started walking towards
the closest road to meet some friends hiking in the
area who would carry him back to the hotel.
As he walked away, he called back to us that
he would meet us at the hotel around 2100.
I thought he was kidding......he wasn't.
The next three ridge lines ranged from 500 to 1100 feet in
height above the plateau.  When we were not on scree slopes,
we were following sheep trails through stands of heather and
gorse.  You became a quadraped when ascending or descending
the slopes.  While going up was tough, going down was tougher.
My hands were raw from grabbing rocks and bushes to pull
myself up the slope or to keep me from falling down the slope.
By the time we reached the top of the last and highest ridge,
my legs refused to move any further.  It was here that I
learned that we had "broken the back of the hike" and could
look forward to easier conditions for the remaining 10 miles.
It was 1745..... The remaining miles were easier.
The ridges were long, grassy slopes decorated with grazing
sheep and divided by 300 year old rock walls.  We put
ourselves on cruise control, covered the remaining 10
miles, and descended the last ridge at 2115.  From there,
it was a 45 minute walk into town along a beautiful country
lane (1 car wide).  We arrived back at the hotel at 2200 sharp.
The weather on top of the ridges included high winds, sideways
rain, fog in which you could not see more than 50 feet, and
temperatures cold enough to allow you to see your breath.
There were no views from the tops of the ridges.  However,
as you made your way across the tops of them,
you would stumble upon alpine lakes hidden among the rocks.
The opposite was true for the troughs (think glacial action)
between the ridges.  The wind was cut off, there was no rain,
and while the clouds were still above you, one could see for
miles out over the sea where the sunlight shone though broken
clouds and reflected off of the water.
As we turned off of the main road and entered the hotel's
courtyard, one of my English companions turned to me and
said, "Well, wasn't that an interesting walk."
For an Englishman, I thought he was a bit over the top.

Next week is back to Liverpool to see the tall sailing ships
(not the racing yachts) that will arrive from around the world
and to paddle my kayak in the Irish Sea.

I hope this finds all well on your end.

DWR


   

Liverpool Today

This week was Liverpool. It is only an hour drive from
my place to downtown Liverpool, but this was my first
visit.  It is a European Union City of Culture for 2008.
This city has had its ups and downs over the past 800
years or so. The last down started after WWII and they
are still trying to recover from it.  The drive in went
by a lot of boarded up houses and buildings.  The city
has painted the plywood to make it look better,
but it is very noticeable.  Downtown seems to be on the
upswing with a lot of new construction and some restoration
work going on. The heart of the town is the water front.
I spent most of the day around Albert Dock.  Once used
for shipping, this area is now restaurants, shops, museums,
and marina.  I visited the Beatles museum (had to) and
the maritime museum.  Afterwards, I had a
beer and sandwich in an Irish-American pub on the waterfront.
The Beatles museum was what I expected and they got 12.50
($25) out of me.  The maritime museum was free and I spent the
better part of two hours there.  They had several sections,
but the ones I enjoyed the most concerned the White Star Line
(think Titanic) and the RBN in WWII. To top off the morning,
racing yachts from around the world were in port.  These are
identical sailboats with volunteer crews (novices they train
to sail).  There were about 10 of them tied up right there
in Albert Dock. After lunch, I wandered through the pedestrian
part of downtown.  It is a big area (many square blocks)
with no motor vehicle traffic.  I ended up the day at the
World Museum.  This received a really good write up in the
book I use, but it was a little bit of a let down.  It was
not wasted time, just not up to the write up. I drove home
and spent the rest of the day and night watching the
Wimbelton men's finals.  What a match!  Next week will find
me once again in northern Wales.  I will be doing a 23 mile
day hike on Saturday with a group of friends.  We will end
the day in a great town called Barmouth.  Michelle and I
really enjoyed our visit there last February.

I hope this finds all well where your are.

DWR