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.
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
2017-08-11 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:
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
π
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:
π
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:
π
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 :)
π
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: