h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, that patch of decent health didn't last very long. Fever and chills last night, another efflorescence of cellulitis this morning, another round of keflex starting this evening. Excuse me while I go off and feel sorry for myself.

Sweet Asters, I do wish you could get really well, get some sunshine, some joy.

At the risk of being accused of spamming let me repeat this post here, as may of the solinistas are not subscribed to the London Meet thread.

As most of you know, I am planning a great adventure. I have several points planned;
Friday probably the hop on hop off tour followed by a brief nap and Pendrel's Oak for the evening.
Saturday the IWM at noon and Shakespeare's head for the meet.
Sunday Service at Westminster Abby and a walk through the park including the Changing of the Guard, hopefully with Sol and her family.
Monday will be centered on the Tower and maybe a trip to the South Bank
Tuesday will include my trip to Pompey
Wednesday will be the Historic Dockyard, Victory, Mary Rose and Warrior.
Thursday may still be open
Friday travel to Stanwell (just South of Heathrow)
Noon Sat depart for the US.

My question is what would the other researchers recommend for Thursday?
Looking at options;
I could take a day trip to Paris would the language barrier be a problem?
The Channel Islands are also a possibility.
I could even spend a few hours on the Island of Wight.
Or would anyone care to recommend a small town or village?
I may not get to go over again - What place would you put on your 'Must See' list?


F S

I just really wish I was able to make it and meet you

As it is, I'll be in New Zealand.

If you're relying on public transport to get around, I wouldn't plan on going too far in one day.

If it were me, I'd pick a random smallish town outside London, use public transport to get there, and rely on local advice - asking people on the street - for where to spend some time, have lunch, have a coffee break and so on. Soft plans, bit of adventure but nothing dangerous

[Bagpuss]

If you are starting in Portsmouth on Thursday, the Isle of Wight may be your best bet - it's quick to get to, and has excellent public transport once you're there.

A day trip to Paris from Portsmouth would be a challenge - look into it by all means but I think you would either have to go via London, or take a very long ferry trip to the wrong bit of France.

You are reasonably close to Stonehenge so could follow in Obama's footsteps - not via helicopter, obviously, but by train to Salisbury (don't miss the cathedral) and from there you should be able to pick up a trip to Stonehenge (but check first). Have to say, though, that Stonehenge is not as impressive as you think it's going to be, because visitors (those who aren't presidents, that is) are kept well away from the actual stones.

Winchester is also reasonably close - Cathedral, Jane Austen connection, and I thought there were Roman antiquities there but maybe not, they aren't showing up on the city's website. Winchester is a very small, very English city.

Oxford is further away but do-able, I think, and worth a visit if you like old and impressive buildings.

Exciting

Lil ... big

Mol

A hovercraft trip to the Isle of Wight would be lots of fun – but most of the best bits aren't accessible by train, and the buses will be on their winter timetable. If you're on the Island I'd recommend Carisbrooke Castle, Osborne House and the Isle of Wight Steam Railway, oh and Blackgang Chine. Though half the fun of Blackgang Chine (a theme park that opened in 1843, built in one of the most badly affected by coastal erosion locations in Europe) is looking round and thinking 'Jungleland's gone, Adventureland's gone, Smugglerland, the Model Village and Fountains Garden are gone, the Frontier Fort's gone, only four original dinosaurs are left, Mission Control is dangling off the cliff, I remember when this narrow clifftop walkway was all a huge playing area the size of several football pitches stretching out to the horizon and yikes, who put this giant chasm here...?' If you've not been to Blackgang Chine as a child, you miss the whole effect.

Winchester is a good option if you want somewhere that has lots to see in one location. Two castles (though neither is as good or impressive as Carisbrooke and both suffered heavily in various wars) and the Round Table, the Cathedral and a short distance outside there's the Science Museum and a bit further out the Watercress Line Mid Hants Railway.

Stonehenge is a good visit, but personally I prefer Avebury, but that's a bit further out from Portsmouth and I'm not sure what public transport there is there. Salisbury is a lovely city too.

<BB<

What about Windsor? It's easily accessible by train from London and it's got a castle and the river.

First let me thank you all for your fine suggestions
I will probably let circumstances and funds determine my last few adventures;
My room in Pompey is only a few minutes from the Wightlink ferries, so I am seriously considering a trip, unless I want another day at the Dockyard.
How hard is it to get to Carisbrooke Castle? it looks to me like it is almost in the centre of the island.
I have been intrigued by it since reading 'Moonfleet' when I was about 14 and read about descending the well powered by a mule.
I might also go for the Steam Railway, but I might be a bit tired of trains by then
I also thought about finding the little girl in Bembridge, but that is probably a bit too far afield.

I see Windsor is only a half hour or so by bus from Heathrow Terminal 5, and my Friday hotel is only a mile or so away from the terminal.

I will put together my final journey for a week or so after my return.

F S

Pastey,

Let me say that I wish we could meet as well, Having programmed in the dark old days of DOS I would really enjoy talking with you.

I sure you will be having as much fun and adventure in NZ and Oz as I will, if not more.

F S

The Wightlink catamaran isn't as much fun as a trip on the hovercraft – afterall, it is the only hovercraft passenger route left in Europe, and the hovercraft was invented on the Island, but will get you to Ryde Pier, where you can catch a train to Ryde Esplanade (which is next to the hovercraft terminal). The Isle of Wight's modern train's most recent carriage was built in 1938 (while the majority of the Isle of Wight Steam Railway is Victorian and Edwardian). Go on – catch the train from the Pier Head to Ryde Esplanade, then you can say you've had a ticket to Ryde (a place that Paul and John once hitchhiked to in 1960, in order to stay for a summer with Paul's cousin Elizabeth and her husband Mike, then publicans of the Bow Bars in Union Street.)

From Ryde Esplanade you can catch a bus to pretty much anywhere on the Island, including Bembridge if you wish to (though there are fewer buses back) or Carisbrooke and/or Newport. Newport is the Island's capital and Carisbrooke Castle is within walking distance, about a mile and a half away from the main bus station. There is still the donkey-powered well there (though they don't let people in the bucket), and a new statue that I want to see soon as I'm writing a couple of related entries at the moment. As Ryde is the Island's largest town and Newport is the Island's capital, there are always plenty of buses between the two.

<BB<

"the hovercraft was invented on the Island"

Mrs. D's grandad came up with an early concept for a hovercraft but didn't do any follow up work on it.

<BB<
When I was a youngster Most of Blackgang was still at the bottom of the cliff (mid 60's).
I'd certainly recommend a day on the island but don't plan to go too far as travel on the island is slow.

It took Sir Christopher Cockerell years and years of persistence when no-one was interested in his hovercraft design, especially the RAF, who said it was a boat, the Navy, who said it was a plane and the army, who couldn't be bothered to say anything, before he found anyone interested in developing it commercially.

Nowadays everything at the bottom of the cliff at Blackgang has gone, and they don't let you wander down pleasant meandering paths to the bottom or the beach anymore, only the very top of the cliff isn't fenced off or a gaping chasm. The rest has just slid away.

<BB<

Well, either slid away or had the cliff behind it fall on top of it all..

Apparently our 7-storey building's sole lift is now past its last legs and is unsafe to use. The uni hopes to have a new lift by Christmas, but at the moment the lift is out of order and will be kept disconnected to prevent it from being used. Should any wheelchair user want to use the lift or access any other than the ground floor, they have to give half an hour's notice in order to allow our Estates team to come over, reconnect the lift in order to allow it to take the person concerned to the floor of their choice and then they'll disconnect the lift again to prevent its use until the person wants to come back down (giving half an hour's notice). Only one floor in our very 1970s building has a disabled loo.

The good news is that in 2016 the building they're building adjacent to ours will (possibly) be finished, and there will be lifts in that one.

<BB<

Of course, now I'm wondering if the disabled loo is on the ground floor... Or if you have any coworkers that need the lift to get to their jobs.

(tod)

One gets the impression from the way things have unfolded this summer, Bluebottle, that this project has consisted entirely of spur-of-the-moment decisions...

FS, I hope you have a great time on your travels! Wherever you go outside Lunnin.

It's all part of the joys of working for a University that has evolved out of Southampton's workhouse...

It's a yes to both questions – there are people who need the lift to get to their top-floor offices, and the loo is on the ground floor. Of course, as we're admin staff we're unimportant. Students, they're worth £8,000 a year so you can't upset them or they complain and the Uni does poorly in the League Tables, or quit (which means the Uni loses money). As for admin staff, we cost the Uni money. If we get upset and quit, the Uni doesn't lose anything.

Working for a Uni involves lots of contradictory decisions, such as a couple of years ago when they announced that they wanted all the admin people in our faculty work in one large, open plan office. They then said that the method by which everyone would work in one large open plan office would be by splitting us into smaller teams, scattered across Southampton. These teams would be based closer to our academic staff and, as a trial, they moved us in the opposite direction as far from our academics as they could into the basement, only to, 2 years later, move us back where we were to start with.

But the building we work in is very old and worn out, and it would be cheaper to demolish and rebuild it than try to bring it up to modern standards. Instead of doing this, the budget's been spent on building the new building next door and an eye-catching lecture theatre pod, and so instead of making this building habitable they plan to hide it – they plan to build a giant glass wall in front of it so that from the outside it looks all modern and trendy.

<BB<