After the loss of Ruby Skye, it was great to have another venue along with Verso (and 1015). It's conveniently located close to the freeway and plenty of street parking.
The venue was also very laid back, which was duly appreciated.
The main room is not huge, but of reasonable size. The top floor room is much smaller though. I'm also afraid that many people may not have noticed the stairs to it, in the back.
The decors have potential, they put work into them, but I think they'll have to put more work into driving them during the performances (lights and lasers were present, but didn't feel used too much). The good news is that, it'll be easily fixed :)
The lineup was solid:
Taj
Orkidea
Ferry Tayle
Jordan Suckley
Airwave
Gene Xander
Alastair james
Jonn Connor
Christopher Terrance
Oscow
Martin Cisco
I was only able to stay awake long enough to stay until 03:00, and here are some pictures below:
Orkidea
Ferry Tayle
Jordan Suckley
Airwave
40mn summary of most of the night (22:00 to 03:00):
On the way back from the Madras Eclipse, Lava Beds NP, and Klamatah Falls, we flew down to Chester-Rogers Airport, and got our rental car there. It's kind of funny since he flown just past Lassen on the way down, as well as the visitor center, but obvioulsy were not able to land, so we had to fly further south, and drive back up (about 1H).
that's the peak we climbed
Since we got unexpectedly stuck in Klamath Falls the previous day, we got up around 05:30, were at the airport by 06:30, and in the air just before 07:00. This allowed us to land before 08:00 and start driving up to Lassen in time for the visitor center opening at 09:00.
we got a escort through a one way section of the road up
we arrived by the visitor center smack when it opened (09:00).
we didn't get lucky enough to see a pika this time
the park also has a Cinder Cone crater, which I failed to fly by
We then started driving up, with a quick stop at Sulphur Works:
pretty active pool
Next, we opted to climb Lassen peak while the weather was good:
people studying snow
We then went to Bumpass Hell, which isn't much compared to yellowstone, but still worth seeing:
this big rock was moved by glaciers
My next plan worked out great, we hitchhiked to Devastated Area to view the displays, and from there we walked back down the road 10mn to hat creek trailhead. The plan was to hike back up to our car on the south side of the trail.
it's full of big rocks that got brought by glaciers
We then hiked Hat Creek to Paradise Meadows and back to our car (with a quick stop at terrace lake and shadow lake because they were close enough. By then, Jennifer who was almost running in front of me, had run out of steam, so it was good that we got back to our car by 19:00, just in time to drive back to the airport and take off by 20:00 as the sun was setting:
After flying from Madras to Klamath falls right after the total solar eclipse was over, we picked up a rental car waiting for us, and arrived at Lava Beds a mere 3h after having left Madras, while most everyone was probably still trying ot get out of the traffic jams. As a result the park was pretty much empty all afternoon, so we had a good 6H of visiting time until we watched sunset and went back to our campsite for the night.
Lava Beds NP is full of caves and lava tubes
The rangers in the visitor center were quite helpful at suggesting extra places to visit, and we started by doing a few caves on Cave Loop:
caves were dark, even when some light came in, this is without firesword
and lit with firesword, 4000 lumens
actually I had 2 fireswords, one set on low (1000 lumens), and one set on high (4000 lumens)
some lava tubes were quite big
sometimes the cave split up, more than once even
at times, it really looked like a tube
other times, it was triangular
Nice ceiling formations:
Some caves required a bit of hiking:
We then did a hike to and around Mammoth Crater. It wasn't the best lighting, but still nice crater to hike around:
path around the crater
We still had a bit of time, so we went to check out skull cave. a huge cave opening with ice at the bottom floor:
it was quite hot outside, and yet cool enough for ice at the bottom
We used to the rest of the time to hike up Schonchin Butte Cinder Cone for sunset views, an easy 25mn hike up:
nice plaques explaining the views
We then went back to our campsite for dinner and stargazing:
we had a nice roomy tent
We started the 2nd day with what we should have done the first day: the beginner intro mushpot cave, all lit up and full of signs, including an interpretative walk, there:
Next, we went to check out Valentine Cave, a pretty huge and interesting cave:
the roof got low eventually, Jennifer went to check it out (my light)
that was Jennifer coming back with only her light on
We then hiked to symbol bridge and big painted cave, which had indian cave pictographs:
I found a hole at the end of the cave and was able to descend to a smaller cave with ice
Jennifer was a bit worried, the path in looked like it could collapse, but she came to check it out too
more ice
the pictographs by the entrance were hard to find, but Jennifer found them
By then, we were pretty much done, so on the way out, we stopped by the Black Crater lava flow:
One the way back to Klamath Falls, we stopped by Captains Jacks Stronghold, where he basically fought and chased off the native americans who were happily there. To be honest, the trail wasn't that interesting or really worth the time:
the native americans lived in small cool caves like this one
the battle was fought here apparently
Lava Beds National Park was actually very nice. I had never heard about it, and that was a mistake. Thanks go to Arturo for recommending the place, we got to see more lava tubes than we had seen anywhere, including Hawaii. The only thing Hawaii has that Lava Beds doesn't, is fresh lava, and freshly cooled lava. Apart from that, this national park has a great variety of things to see and learn from.
ILike many other people, Jennifer and I went to Madras to go see the total solar eclipse, but thankfully we didn't have to drive. It was a slightly less than 4H flight thanks to a tailwind (I was afraid it would be more in a slow C172, the best plane I could get for that day since most planes were of course booked for that time.
I had planned to take off before 07:00, but my fuel order the previous day, was not filled, and I was forced to wait until the competing fuel company opened up and could fuel us up. We eventually took off a bit after 07:20. Better than nothing.
plane was pretty packed with 2 bikes and all our hiking and camping stuff
I flew by Mt Shasta on the way up:
Sadly California had multiple fires, which made visibility often bad, especially by noon or so. On the way up, it wasn't too bad though and we got to see Crater Lake which was totally smoked in later on, on most days. We had actually planned to go to crater lake, but I cancelled that part of our trip once I saw how bad the visibility was on most days:
I think that's the hike down to the ferry that goes around the lake
We eventually got to Madras, which had nice scenery:
After watching the eclipse, we flew to Klamath Falls, with its big lakes:
once on the ground, we drove to that bridge to see the lake from both sides, you can see the falls aren't that big afterall :)
big runway, hard to miss (I was asked to land long)
there is an air force training base onsite
We first landed in Klamath Falls to see Lava Beds National Park, and then on the way back, we had a look at the town.
We were supposed to fly out the day after, but when we arrived, there was a line of thunderstorms around the airport and another one around Lassen where we were going, so I opted for us to stay the night in Klamath and fly down to Lassen early the next morning just after sunrise:
got lots of pictures from Lassen on the way
and finally landed at Chester/Rogers airport, from where we had a rental car waiting, and we drove back up (1h) to Lassen
After a full day in Lassen, we flew back at sunset (20:00) and got home in Palo Alto just before 22:00, tired, but happy from all the nice sightseeing
π
2017-08-20 01:01
in Flying, Nflying, Ntrips, Trips
After a longish flight from Palo Alto in a slow C172, we arrived at Madras Airport, smack in the middle of the path of totality for the eclipse, the first total eclipse in the US since the 1970's. Needless to say that everything on the path of the eclipse, was packed, and so was the airport, as well as camping sites nearby.
Solartown, north of the airport
the rest of the year, Madras has a small racetrack and drag racing strip
when we landed on sunday morning, a few planes were there already, but many more arrived
I was able to negotiate a parking spot closer to the exit for the next morning, and we setup our camp
some amount of vendors at the airport
We then took our foldable bikes and biked to Solarfest, a few miles south:
Madras was ready for visitors
and their money :)
Nasa had a display room, but hard to get into due to crowds
lots of vendors
I then went to Solartown to meet Arturo and Louis at their RV:
It was then time to get back to the airport for sunset pictures:
We then tried to sleep in our tent, and I very much appreciated the jet that landed at 05:02 and stayed idling close to our tent for a good 5mn :)
people getting ready early
I packed up our camp and turned the plane around in the direction of 'get the f out of here' :)
I was one plane away from the last taxiway to the runway
Tim, one of my many coworkers who went to the event
In case the sun disappearance brought a big flood, some were ready :)
And then, it started:
this lucky guy landed 1mn before the runway closed
getting closer
that little sun left, is still very bright
without a filter, it was still super bright
almost there, but still way too bright to look with naked eyes
and finally!
the corona of hot plasma around the sun, only visible during an eclipse
mercury became visible
So, it's hard to explain, but it does get quite dark, and cold. The cold was really noticeable, which is surprising how quickly it changed in just a portion of a minute:
and then, after barely 2mn, it was over
Just to give a feel for what it looked like, here are 4mn starting just before totality:
Those 2mn were as cool as they went by quickly. As soon as totality was over, we rushed to the plane, and went in line for the runway, got the first spot and I was the first person to take off when the runway re-opened. While waiting over 30mn, I took a few more pictures from inside the plane before finally being able to take off:
in the 40mn I waited before taking off, the roads were filled up already
jets were the only ones allowed to take off for about 1h after I left
solarfest
a long road home
And one last shot of the partial eclipse still going on while we were flying to Klammath Falls:
We had a great time, definitely an at least once in a lifetime experience.
π
2017-08-16 00:00
in Greatbritain2017, Ntrips, Trips
Just like our Taiwan, Germany and France trips, Jennifer spent a great amount of time planning this. Despite help from the Rick Steve's book, it was still a lot of effort.
A lot of the UK is not that easily accessible by public transport (unlike let's say Japan), so we made good use of our car. We drove 1300 miles (all the way to Edinburgh), and then were able to take trains to York and London for the way back. We lucked out with the rental car by getting a Vauxhall Astra turbo 1.4l, which had 150HP, making it quite swift when I had to pass (it wasn't mclaren fast of course, but for a rental car, it did well).
Here's a map that what we covered:
So, here are some random thoughts:
Driving
It starts with Motorways, the good roads. Sadly not nearly enough of them. Then, it goes to A roads, the more digits they have, the worse they get on average. A1 = good, A2345 = bad. And then it goes to B roads. By the time you're on B369, you are totally screwed :)
I realize we did go in the countryside to see some small villages, but England definitely had more crappy roads that often weren't wide enough for 2 cars and where I'd worry about scrapping the car on the left, or getting my right mirror taken out by an oncoming car every time one showed up
Roundabouts everywhere: those did not bother me, they are known to increase traffic flow. It's a shame the US doesn't use them (they did freak Jennifer out a little bit, they take some getting used to when they're 2-3 lanes wide and have 5 or more entrances and exits).
speed limits: they were not unreasonably slow, actually some country roads took rally driving skills to drive at their posted limit, especially in the rain, of which we got plenty.
there were plenty of radars that picture your plate and send you a ticket if you speed. I used android apps to get warnings of where most of them were, but they also put signs to tell you about them. However, there are also plenty of fake signs that warn you of radars that don't exist
People
overall people were nice, if not a bit rigid at times, which was not a surprise since I was ready for it. It's also worth noting that there is an incredible amount of variety in people and customs within GB, especially if you consider that Wales, Scotland and Ireland are virtually different countries within GB.
While we saw a comic who made fun of Americans for being fat, we felt that many british were not really in a position to make fun.
Could that be the reason that they still use stones as a unit of weight, something I thought they had gotten rid of. Dear brits, if you think it's cute, it's not, it really feels dumb, sorry.
As a cross between people and cars: let's talk about walking on sideways. What the hell is going on here? You drive left, most people seem to agree with that, which is good for overall life expectancy of motorists, but once you get on a sidewalk, it becomes a total clusterfuck. Most brits actually seem to walk on the right for no good reason that I could find. Some subways even tell you to do so. But in other places, they walk left, just so that you have on idea what's going to happen in a given city or location, and you'll end up being wrong most of the time. Seriously people, fix this.
Weather
it sucked about as much as I was ready for. We got rain every day (although thankfully not all day every day) of our first 14 consecutive days. It was just a question of how much and what time.
we did often get 3 seasons' worth of weather in a single day, thankfully no snow in August, but it was damn cold on many days
only by the time we got back to london was I able to stop carrying a wind/cold/rain jacket with me
Food
I was kind of prepared for the worst, but it was actually ok. Breakfast was pretty much the same eggs, tomato, beans, bacon that isn't US like, and sausage which was to be avoided in many places. It wasn't bad, but after 21 days of mostly the same thing, it got old.
Dinner were actually ok, but we carefully avoided fish and chips and pubs (setting the bar at gastro-pubs).
Like other trips, no time for lunch, that gets in the way of visiting stuff, and with the limited opening hours, we used every one of them.
Train
After doing trains in Japan, nothing really compares. The signaling in Japan is big and colorful, and trains run on time. In the UK neither was true, but oh well we got to our destinations anyway.
Our 2nd train left and arrived on time, but the carriage numbers written outside did not match the markings on the floor, and worse, once we got in, the number inside did not match the one marked outside, so we had to walk the entire train inside with our luggage, along with everyone else who also ended up in the wrong carriages. And just to make things more "fun", the numbers are not consecutive either, so you don't even know if you're walking in the right direction.
On the plus side, they at least had power for laptops once inside.
I feel that French and even Italian trains were better, but we got to where we needed to go, which is what matters ultimately
The subways in London definitely look dated by now, but on the plus side they run with a very high frequency
The one thing with the london subways is that they ring a tone to tell you the doors are closing at the same time. What's the point of that? I literally got in a train and heard the sound while I was going through the door that closed on my bag, trying to crush it, and leaving Jennifer stuck on the platform. This is just stupid, every other subway system I know rings a tone first, gives you a few seconds and then closes the door.
Another minus is while in Japan or Paris you have cell phone signal throughout the subway system (which is no small feat), in London, you do not. You might get signal here and there if you're lucky, but it's very inconsistent. This is mostly an issue if you're using data to look up destinations or even doing routing with google maps.
Misc
London has a mix of world class free museums that worked on donations, and other locations that were very overpriced (like the churches that effectively charge a hefty admission price of more than $30 per person), or the tower of london. It evened out in the end, the contrast was weird.
Jennifer had a sample of Georgian and Victonrian houses to visit. Honestly, maybe seeing one is worth it, at best.
All in all, we got quite lucky with avoiding long lines in London (although it wasn't luck, we planned for that, but we're lucky it worked out).
Locations
We could have spent more time in Liverpool and Edinburgh
Some of the Cotswold was skipable for someone with more limited time
Wales was nice though, especially its castles (which unfortunately were actually built by the british to control the local population)
I also quite enjoyed seeing about and visiting the Hadrian Wall
York was also worth a stop at least for the very good city museum and learning about how the Vikings invaded, but was worth 1.5 days, not 2.
Last Impressions, Conclusions
While there were some neat things to see, and London alone is a reason to go to great britain, I wouldn't put it ahead of France, Germany, or Italy (in random order). They did have some very impressive cathedrals size-wise, not as well decorated as in Italy or Germany.
As for the british people, I actually learned that they did have a republic for a short while (10-ish years) after killing their Monarch, ahead of the French doing the same later, but they somehow asked that dead monarch's son to rule the country again, which seemed like a mistake to me :)
π
2017-08-15 01:01
in Flying, Greatbritain2017, Nflying
Usually I would only feature an airplane museum in the flying section, but the London Science Museum's section of airplanes is big enough that it deserves its own mention. Later, I went to see a few more, to total:
a good reminder that the first aircraft that was heavier than air was French, even if it didn't fly far
very bird-like aircraft
of course the wright brothers are mentioned, along with their patents and thirst for money that caused the US to slip back decades while France quickly took over the world of flying machines
one impressive thing on the wright brothers' airplane was the engine: light and efficient
lots of early french planes
While most people know about the French Mongolfier brothers and their hot air balloon, few know about all the dirigeables that many countries experimented with, including England:
The section on VTOL aircraft was very nice. I didn't know about the pre-harrier prototypes:
VTOL thrust vectoring prototype
Short SC-1, first UK VTOL aircraft
and harrier
Other random planes:
first german jet aircraft
early airplane with inefficient propeller
So again, while it was not an aviation museum, it sure had a worthwhile collection to check out.
π
2017-08-15 01:01
in Greatbritain2017, Sciencemuseums
I had planned to spend 2-3H in London's Science Museum, and ended up spending 4H+ until they closed and kicked me out :)
It definitely had interesting and unusal exhibits (at least for adults) and I smiled when I saw reviews that they didn't have enough basic things for small kids to bang violently on until they broke :)
The aviation part of that museum itself was quite impressive and I put it in its own page
nice to see a streetview bike
I got to learn how multicord encoding worked at the time
kind of sad when I know some historical communication devices :)
nice to see more silicon lingots in museums, that's where all our chips come from
the UK has several crappy 3 wheeled cars because taxes/insurance for them was cheaper
gotta love old commercials
even a section on genetics, including this 7 toed cat.
or less fun, but good to mention, this euthanasia machine
π
2017-08-14 01:01
in Google, Greatbritain2017, Uk
My coworkers were complaining that their office wasn't much to look at, they are waiting to move into a new uber office that will be awesome, but unfortunately the foundations were just being laid, so it's going to be a little while before it's ready. Still, got a few pictures:
One nice feature was all the post it ASCII art :)
bubble bobble!
Nice views from the cafe terrace:
got to see my school friend Jerome, who works from that office
The london war museum was another place that was worth the time. It is in an inconvenient place away from town center, but has 5 floors of displays on multiple war periods, including recent wars, and even a section on the whole recent mess in Syria.
nice V2 rocket
human guided torpedo
They had a nice display about Mi6, the secret intelligence (as opposed to the MI5 james bond agents). Several of them infiltrated France during WWII and helped the French resistance to fight the germans:
Originally, Jennifer had the British Museum slotted between two other things in our of our days in London. I stepped in an said "I don't really care what else there is, that museum is going to be a full day". Sadly, it opens late (10:00) and closes early (17:30 although it was posted as 17:00). While 10:00 is actually late for an opening, because I had gone to the ministry of sound night club the previous night/morning and had gone to bed quite late, I showed up there with little sleep, but was there on time :)
security line
Once inside, it was a race to see everything in just 7H. While it's not as big as the Louvre in Paris, it's still huge if you have a decent look at displays, and 2 days or more if you look at everything carefully. The aramaic and egyptian collections were nothing but impressive:
silly me thought that the rosetta stone was at the Louvre, but Paris only has a copy since the British re-stole the original from the French :)
cat mummies
egyptian game
The other collections were good too:
The greek temple bits were good too (some original, some copies):
And I literally finished within minutes of the museum closing, and really had to go at a good pace. It's definitely a great museum, glad I went.
While randomly looking at Google Maps on my phone for an upcoming trip to London, I got a reminder to go check out Ministry of Sound, a legendary club for anyone who's been listening to essential mix back to the early 2000's when many trance mixes were played, and some came from that club.
The small problem, was that going to a club all night between a 12h+ day of sightseeing and 4 more such days right after that, was not the best timing ever, but at the same time, it was not an opportunity I wanted to miss. So, after leaving the V&A Museum when it closed at 22:00, I went straight to Ministry of Sound which was opening at 22:30, and only got back to bed around 03:00 or so. I was not in good shape the next day, but so be it :)
Ministry of Sound is an interesting club, it's not huge, but has 4 different rooms, with the main room being totally packed when Andrew was playing. Sadly, as a state of affairs in London, and the radical inclusion, they end up having to search everyone everywhere to pretty severe extremes. They had TSA style gates with full searches, making getting in a lot less fun...
Anyway, once in, I had a good time, and glad I went despite what it cost me in lost sleep :)
The V&A Museum is another huge London museum of almost everything. It's a very nice set of buildings and rooms connected together on multiple floors with a nice courtyard in the middle:
I was a bit annoyed the first day we went since we went during their extended hours (once a week 17:00 to 22:00), but turns out more than half the rooms were actually closed. In the end, however, whatever was left was enough to fill the 4H+ I had there that first time, and I just went back another time for another 4H-ish. This is another way to say that it's a full day museum (and more if you're thorough).
The breath of collections there is also awesome, without abusing the word. The building itself has lots of art on the walls and ceilings:
interesting modern and less modern art:
religious art:
Some parts of V&A felt like they just didn't fit in the British Museum:
great room with marble and statues:
Some rooms had what looked like rooms from Versailles, and other big castles and mansions:
The included a really cool collection of locks and keys:
Other rooms had cultural art:
I'm still a sucker for fine Japanese clothing
Another section was on musicals, which London is known for:
and of course, arts of all kinds:
I need one of those in my living room :)
This doesn't even count other random stuff, like 3D printing and a copy of this first 3D printed gun:
π
2017-08-11 01:01
in Greatbritain2017, Ntrips, Trips, Uk
Our last destination in Great Britain was London. I knew before we even arrived in Great Britain, that 4.5 days wasn't quite enough to visit London properly, but we made our best of it and did a reasonable job, considering: we probably did in 4.5 days what other people do in 6 or 7 :)
Day 1 (half day)
We started early in York with a direct train to London:
Haha, no offence, but English trains are so far from matching Japanese trains
case in point...
After arriving in London we dropped our luggage and went directly to Westminster Abbey. Very nice Abbey, but not only quite expensive to get in, and then to thank you for the good money you just spent, no pictures allowed inside (they used to be allowed apparently). Needless to say that, that didn't stop me, especially with the hefty entrance fee:
We then headed to the parliament for self guided tour:
Next was the Churchill war rooms, a complex of underground rooms where most of the british high command, including Churchill, were bunkered during the war. Outside of the war, they had lots of information on Churchill's life:
Given the Tate Modern wasn't that good, I had just enough time to go to the theatre district and go catch a Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. I had mixed feelings about it. It was interesting in some ways, but boring and too long in others:
theatre seats were also most small and uncomfortable
Jennifer spent the day with her friend Anna who came from nearby, given that they hadn't seen one another and she had already been to the british museum anyway.
Day 3
We started from our hotel and took a quick bus ride to the Sherlock Holmes museum. Honestly, we went because it was in the list of recommended things, but it was a waste for us since we haven't read the books:
people send him letters from around the world
Next door, beatles store:
We then walked to the free Wallace Collection, a very nice building with a great collection:
After a good tour of the Wallace Collection, we headed to London War Museum, which took much longer than I had planned, it's quite out of the way, but worth it for sure.
Once done, we headed back to the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery. Barely had over an hour for both, but turned out to be just enough for me :)
Once we got kicked out at 18:00, we had just enough time to walk to Rodizio to get BBQ meats served at our table, and walk to our theatre for our evening show. That show was the play that goes wrong, a nice idea, but the theatre staff was a bunch of dicks and totally ruined our experience before we even got in, by trying to steal all the food we had in our backpacks, claiming we could not carry it in, or check the bags in, we just had to throw it out (which is actually not written anywhere in their terms and conditions):
Day 4
The next morning, went to St Paul's Cathedral, because it opens early (08:30) while everyone else seems lazy in England/London and opens at 10:00 (a bit earlier if you're lucky). Very nice cathedral, interesting crypt with famous people burried there, and a cool climb to the top. For some reason another place that thought it would make sense to disallow pictures, sigh...
Next, we walked to the Tower of London, which thankfully was not too busy on a monday (some other days have stupid lines to get in). Interesting castle to visit, many displays:
got to see the other crown jewels
multiple tours and performances
they had beafeaters giving tours of the monument
Great views of the London Bridge from there:
Next, we went to the monument of the great london fire, lots of steps, but nice views from the top:
The museum of london was not far nearby, so we went there:
My plan was next to go to the British Library, which had extended opening hours on mondays, but just to screw with us, that did not include the famous room with all the manuscripts that we specifically went there to see. In other words, we went there for absolutely nothing, grr...
The science museum actually took the rest of my day, and I never made it to the nearby natural science museum, which had a stupid 1H+ line outside every time I looked at it. I guess it'll be for another time (and my understanding is that it take a full day to visit anyway). I just had enough time to meet Jennifer at the theatre where we went to see Matilda, a nice musical:
City Views
Since I have a fair amount of city view shots from bridges and higher buildings, I thought I'd put them all together, here:
City Views from bridges:
From higher up:
St Paul's
Day 6, trip home
Our last day was just a trip to the airport, and enjoy the indeed worth to visit Virgin Lounge, which had food, cocktails and smoothies to order of course, but also a hairdresser, pool table, terrace with view, and more. The lounge was much better than the plane, which while not uncomfortable, was dated:
π
2017-08-10 01:01
in Flying, Greatbritain2017, Nflying
York didn't require as much time to visit as originally planned, so I had 3.5H to spare, and figured I would visit the nearby Yorkshire Air Museum. There are only 2 busses a day that go there and I had already missed the 2nd one, but uber got me there.
At the entrance, I was told that 3H would be barely enough, so I rushed a bit, but in the end, 2.5H ended up being enough to see the whole thing. Thankfully I got a ride back from a nice museum visitor. While it's not a huge museum, and not the best one in the UK, it has some interesting and a few rare planes:
love the windshield wipers :)
Mirage III
Mirage IV nuclear bomber, the only one outside of France
this one got me excited, the electric lightening, one of the highest flying jet planes outside of the US
a 5000 ton bomb, to penetrate tunnels and caves
an early glider prototype
GB put effort into big airships too, but they prooved too problematic and dangerous in the end
They had a control tower, and copy of the french pilots quarters
While I kind of regret not having had the chance to see bigger aviation museums while in the UK, but this one at least gave me a taste :)
π
2017-08-09 01:01
in Greatbritain2017, Sciencemuseums
While I'm not a huge train nerd, I do enjoy train technology, so it was nice to see the York National Railway Museum. While it doesn't match the best train museumf I've seen in the world, namely Nagoya's SCMAGLEV and Railway Park, it was a good one too, and worth a 2H+ visit:
the mail train allowed agents to sort the mail while it was transiting to its destination
the eurostar that takes you from Paris to London, based on the TGV
they had an original japanese bullet train
that original train was very spacious inside, probably too much so for real speed
nice diesel engine
nice cutout of a steam engine
I had no idea it went through a bunch of tubes like this
Mallard, fastest steam train in the world at the time
The back had a shop where they work on old trains:
not a super bad ass looking train, but it got us there
After the train museum, we went to York Minster, the local cathedral:
It was a bit of a mess getting tickets for it, but we did the climb to the top, which was fun and had good views:
We got a few views of town:
Pictures from inside:
During the day, we went to the museum by St Mary's Abbey:
We then had an early dinner and went for the evening walking tour through town (2H):
The next morning, we went early for the Jorvik Viking Center, which has nice exhibits and a nice tour/ride, but ridiculous lines, which thankfully I was able to get through with a fasttrack ticket:
Last, but not least, the poorly named "York Castle Wall", which is actually a fairly large museum of lots of things, including an old town recreation, and much more:
And it's also a bit of a museum of everything:
Once I was done with York, we could/should have just left early and gone to London, but we had a prebooked night in the B&B plus a prebooked train, so since we had time left in York one way or another, I took an uber to the nearby Yorkshire Air Museum
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2017-08-07 01:01
in Greatbritain2017, Sciencemuseums
Edinburgh's National Museum of Scotland is a almost a museum of everything, well not quite, but it's 5 museums in one:
history museum of scotland (all the way back to prehistoric)
museum of natural history
science museum
how scotland used to be part of the tech industry
art museum
I naively thought 4H woudl do it, but honestly not quite. Had I known I'd have started a bit more quickly than I actually did.
I probably spent a bit too long in the prehistoric section, which was nice:
A good section of the people who used to live in Scotland, all the way back to the Romans and Vikings:
how scotland was fighting england
coins for all occasions
cigarette for soldiers in hospitals, brilliant!
A good portion of the museum was a nice natural history museum:
funny how that old dinosaur looks a lot like the pretended lock ness monster :)
nice collection of felines :)
did I mention felines? :)
The science museum section also had good displays:
dolly the sheep, the one that was cloned
printing press
Peter Higgs who theorized the Higgs boson over 50 years before Cern was finally able to confirm its existence
nice collection of computers, most european:
A floor showed how Scotland was very much involved in the tech industry, including semi conductors:
huge silicon lingo that wafers and chips are made from
A nice collection of art from around the world:
I so barely finished in 4H and had to rush some bits. Without a proper map and navigation it's a bit of a mess to visit though due to multiple kinds of museums all mixed into one. That said, well worth the visit, too bad it closes kind of early (17:00).
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2017-08-06 01:01
in Dining, Greatbritain2017, Ndining
While I was prepared for pretty bad food in the UK, it's actually plenty of decent to good restaurants, and we went to visit some of them.
Edinburgh (Scotland), has plenty of good restaurants, and we went to try 2 Michelin rated ones.
Number one had a tasting menu of 4, 7, or 10 courses. For that day, we figured the 7 course one would be enough. Jennifer got the premium wine pairing to go with it:
a few deserts to finish the meal :)
Two days later was our anniversary and Jennifer booked a dinner for us at The Kitchin (yes, it's spelled that way), another michelin rated restaurant. We took the premium tasting menu and Jennifer got the premium wine pairing:
Neither were amongst the top restaurants we've eaten at in Paris or California, but they were both a good dining experience, although not quite competitive in price with similarly good options in California (price was similar except it was UK pounds instead of dollars)
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2017-08-06 01:01
in Greatbritain2017, Ntrips, Trips, Uk
Days #12-14: more rain on and off. until finally, on the 14th day, UK-wide rain stopped.
We left Durham early in the morning and drove to Scotland:
We first headed out to the retired Royal Yacht Britannia, which you can enter from a shopping mall. It's the Yacht where the royal family would travel the world and "be royal" and go on vacation, with the UK taxpayer's money. Good scheme they have running... In some ways, it's not quite unlike airforce one, except much slower, and bigger of course:
onboard doctor
with so much uniform changing, because uniforms are important, a huge washing station
Nice machine room
After the boat, we drove to another Georgian House for a tour:
We then used our last few hours in the rental car and drove to Holyrood Park and hiked up to Arthur's Seat for an elevated view of the city:
the castle, and old town
never had the time to look that one up, maybe a ski slope in the winter?
We then went to drop off the car, and we walked to our B&B to drop off our luggage:
Sightseeing-wise, it was kind of a short day since we only arrived in Edinburgh a bit after noon due to the longish drive.
The next morning, we started with the Palace of Holyroodhouse, where the queen stays when she's around. Sadly, no pictures in the palace:
what's left of the chapel attached to the Palace
Next, we went to the Scottish Parliament Building for a guided tour. Yes, Scotland has its own Parliament as they are given some autonomy and self rule. You can tell the parliament is recent, it's extremely well designed and with a fair system that puts broken systems like the US one to shame (with stupid things like filibusturing):
each MP gets a small pod office where tthey can work in between sessions
the parliament building has a very nice architecture, but no pictures inside
From the parliament we walked up the royal mile:
we got stopped by this in the street
oink, why don't we have an oink where we live?
A few things on the way, several churches, a museum of Edinburgh which sadly we didn't have the time to see later, and a few more things:
St. Giles Cathedral was quite nice:
National Convenant
We then ended up at the museum of scotland, a museum of everything, and that sucked the rest of the time we had that day
Since sadly this was another museum that closed as dearly as 17:00, we had another 4H of daylight left. In July/August, the whole city has a big festival with hundreds of things happening every day. I got a ticket for a student designed video game room, and then a play for an incredibly cheap price (and yet it was well acted):
this game designed on a single neopixel strip was actually brilliant
We then went to check out Camera Obscura, which had decent surrounding views from its top, and some illusions on its floors below:
Last, but not least, we headed for our play, departure lounge, which had simplistic decors, but was well acted:
The next morning, we went first thing to the Edinburgh Castle and as soon as we got in, we made a beeline for the Scottish Crown Jewels, which quickly had a 30-45mn line soon after we went (we beat everyone there and got in with no line at all). I got tickets online which while print at home ended up working fine on my phone, they scanned us and we got straight in:
line starts early
crown jewels
Nice views from the castle:
Next, we went to the national gallery (I opted to skip the portrait gallery):
The had an annex with other art :)
We then walked around town a bit to hit some waypoints Jennifer set :)
million pounds
Next was another victorian house, which honestly was a full waste of time which would have been better spent at the Edinburgh museum or the dynamic earth. Oh well...
Since everything useful was closing early again, Jennifer went to do some scotch tasting:
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2017-08-05 01:01
in Greatbritain2017, Ntrips, Trips, Uk
Day #11: heavy rain at times
After breakfast in our B&B, we were supposed to go for a scenic loop around the lake and the hills. As a reward for trying, we got pretty bad rain, so I drove the loop quickly and may have set a lap time record for wet conditions :)
'fantastic' views
The highlight was 'surprise view' up a crappy road. I still had to take these pictures under an umbrella:
Before leaving the area, we stopped by Castlerigg Stone Circle which is another version of stonehenge, just less famous and with smaller rocks:
We then drove to Hadrian's Wall. That was quite interesting, I didno't know the Romans had invaded England all the way to Scotland, and after dealing with the crazies of the north, they figured it was easier to build a very long wall across a narrow part of England, and hold their position. Most people don't know that there is a second wall higher north, Antonine Wall which was the 2nd line the Romans built as they proceeded further north, but eventually they gave up the fight, and retreated to the Handrian Wall.
After holding the line for a few hundred years, the romans eventually decided that England didn't really have much value and wasn't worth all the effort they put into keeping it, so they just let it go. In the meantime, Hadrian's Wall was a formidable construction at the time (likely only rivalled by the Great Wall of China). I think the only problem is that they built the wall, but they didn't get Scotland to pay for it :)
The Romans had impressive positions in England
Along the wall, they had forts, and I think with the crappy british weather and the mud, many artifacts were preserved in the mud and are now being unearthed, giving lots of valueable info on the Roman Empire:
Next door was Vindolanda, a big fort:
sadly the buildings didn't really survive the passage of time
Nearby you could hike next to remaining bits of the wall:
every roman mile, there was a small fort to keep the line
And we went to see Housesteads Roman Fort, where we got poured on by the end of our visit:
the wall keeps going but is missing most of its height
After we were done, we drove to Durham to see the cathedral and castle where we slept:
city tour under the rain
the cathedral got rebuilt in legos
The next morning, we had breakfast in the great hall:
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2017-08-04 01:01
in Greatbritain2017, Hiking, Ntrips, Trips, Uk
Day #10: very occasional light rain, aka a fine sunny day in Great Britain (good given the hours of hiking we did)
On the way to the lake district, we stopped by Dove Cottage/Wordsworth Museum, which while having some nice cottages, was kind of boring given that I had no idea who the former inhabitant (poet/writer) was
But this put us on the way to the hilly region around lakes, where we did a couple of hikes:
after parking our car, we took the boat across the lake
and we did that hike back (11km, 2h20-ish)
We then got back to our car, and we drove to the next lake by Keswick, and did the catbell hike to the local top. Thank god for long days, we were able to start late-ish in the afternoon when there was room in the 8 car only trailhead location. That hike was a lot more steep and gave better views:
then we hiked down around and back down to the lake
those were all over
And after close to 20km/4.5h of hiking, we drove to our gastro pub for well needed food :)
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2017-08-03 01:01
in Greatbritain2017, Ntrips, Trips, Uk
Day #9: light rain, some sun
We did a tour of Conwy in the evening and the next morning, including walking the medieval city walls which are in surprisingly good shape. Conwy castle was actually built by the British to rule the surrounding Welsh, and it was nice to visit:
only a few ways in the city
found during our walk of the city walls
Castle:
The bridge to the next town had an old bridge built to match the castle, a 2nd castle like bridge for the train, and then an uninspiring bridge for more cars:
Rest of the city:
you could play catch and release crab fishing
the seagulls didn't release as much the crabs they caught
not big indeed :)
Plas Mawr was another house from that time:
By then, it was noon-ish, so we left to go to Liverpool and started with the metropolitan cathedral, which was built recently and is definitely modern looking:
the crypt underneath is much older
We then moved our car next to our hotel and went to see the Museum of Liverpool as well as the Merseyside Maritime Museum, but sadly we had only 2 hours for both, which wasn't close to being enough:
examples of smuggling in the maritime museum
slavery section of the museum
By 18:00, we got kicked out, and we took an uber (or first one) back to the other cathedral in liverpool (the main one). It is absolutely huge
We then got tickets for a tour to the top:
And then we got to learn about the church bells and saw folks who were practising playing them. The impressive part was that they could ring the bells while having the bells not actually make sound, and then had a computer that would reproduce the exact sound the bells should make. This allowed them to practise playing without actually bothering everyone around in the city. Super nice!
We then finished the (long) day by walking to Chinatown, which outside of the big gate and a few Chinese restaurants, was not that impressive: