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

Dear Steve
Any town in England with a name ending in something like Caistor means it was once a Roman camp. So you can plot a smashing railway journey through Winchester,Bicester, Chester, Manchester, Lancaster, Worcester etc . You'll need a Railpass which will be much cheaper bought outside England. Maybe you'd like to go as far north as the Scottish border where the Emperor Hadrian caused a wall to be built to try and keep the Scots out. If you get to Lincoln (where they have much more modern stuff like a copy of the Magna Carta and one of the best whisky shops in the world) I'd be delighted to take the Greek out of eastern England and put the Roman in for you. I can also bore you with the whole of Chesterton's poem with which I won a poetry-speaking competition at scho

Chedworth Roman Villa is also worth a visit. The nearest station is Cheltenham, which is 9 miles away. (Cheltenham is the other side of England from London. Don't know how long the train journey would take, or which line it's on.) Don't know how you get to the villa from there, though; Richard and I usually drive down. Have you considered hiring a car, or is that too expensive?

If I come up with any other Roman places of interest I'll let you know. Other than Hadrian's Wall, which actually consists of a number of forts linked by the wall. It's way up North, and the train journey would take most of the day, so you would probably need to spend several days on this one.

I am learning UK history at a remarkable rate .

OK, Railpass, last trip we had a visitor's travel pass, which DID have to be purchased outside the UK, but it only went to "Zone 5" around London tube, rail, bus). Sounds like our next trip ought to take a wider perspective.

Hadrian's Wall: We bought a CD-ROM called "Virtual London", the company had an office in Florida. The man who took the phone order was funny, he said he was Scottish. So I tried to show my knowledge of Scotland (which is basically none), and said, "Oh, the other side of Hadrian's Wall?" To which he instantly replied, "Yes, the side that was winning!" Great response, I learned more from that comment than from any lecture on Scotland.

Many thanks to Wandrin' Star for the offer to take the Greek out of Eastern England, I may take you up on it. How long does the poem performance take?

[Just a side note, its amazing how the distances compare between the UK and the USA. I live in east Texas, Houston on the Gulf Coast. Most people in the US are amazed that El Paso, Texas, on the West tip, is closer to Los Angeles than it is to Houston. I do not drive across the USA any more, when airline tickets are about $100.]

And per Cheerful D., I've added Chedworth/Cheltanham to the list. Hiring a car (this is like renting? Meaning I drive?) is probably within the budget, but I am very nervous about driving in the UK, on the left and all. I made the mistake of mentioning to the ("Black Cab"? Meaning the "real" cabs) cab driver in London (we took one cab ride at my wife's insistence) that he was driving on the "wrong" side of the road. He responded that a similar comment had been made recently, to which he replied "We've been doing it since 900 A.D.". Very cool, especially since he referred to a previous response. He was great, very funny.

I take your point about distances. It is theoretically possible to walk from Lincoln to York (that's what the Romans did) Caistor was established as a day's march with full baggage from either..
Glad you enjoyed your taxi ride. Did you know they are built that shape so that you can get in and out wearing a top hat without needing to take it off? They also have a very small turning circle. A millionaire named Gulbenkian used to have one because "They can turn on a sixpence, whatever that is."

Yes, hiring a car means you drive, but personally I wouldn't do this in London. Traffic is hell, and if you're not confident to begin with it would make matters worse. I'll drive pretty much anywhere in the UK except London and Birmingham because the traffic in both cities scares the hell out of me. Why not stay somewhere other than London? Roman sites are dotted all over the country, so you could spend a few days in each place, or pick somewhere as a base for a few days before moving on. We do have more than one airport (Birmingham, Manchester, ...).

Don't worry about driving over here. Get yourself a copy of the Highway Code (about £1.00 from most bookshops); this will give you most of the rules of the road (although most British drivers haven't read it since they passed their test). I've known a few Americans who have come over on business and they've soon got the hang of driving on the 'wrong'. As one of them said, 'British drivers are more restrained than American drivers, but they do some amazing things that would get them shot in the States.'

As for which side we drive on, I understand that it dates from medieval times when knights would ride on the left of the road so that their left side was protected by the hedge or wall and their right arm was free to use a sword. People in Europe drive on the right because it was better when driving a coach or wagon. People in the States probably swapped sides 'cos they didn't like the British after the War of Independence.

Wandrin'star -

Funny stuff, I love that kind of info. Why do the Brits get all the good punch lines? "Right, but I'll be sober in the morning." Churchill, of course. But there's Monty Python, and the folks in "The Full Monty", and Victor Mollo ... I think clever is the word I'm looking for. The French love (loved?) the American Jerry Lewis, a great (IMHO) physical humorist (clown). I enjoyed some of his movies, he could be very funny. But not clever. About the best we could do there is George Carlin - pretty good, BTW. And a few others ...

Right, watching the London traffic from the sidewalk (where pedestrians walk, probably the wrong term) was ... uhhh ... sobering. A huge number of small vehicles maneuvering within inches on narrow roads at medium speeds and all stopping on a "sixpence" (whatever that is Like synchronized swimming, except with no water, and WAY faster.

In the US, at least in Texas, its a huge number of huge vehicles manuevering at high speeds within inches and not stopping if they can avoid it. The collisions are catastrophic - an eighteen wheel truck took an exit too fast, rolled over and killed a family in a small car. The judge learned the truck driver had been drinking, and "stacked" the four fifteen year sentences - meaning 60 years in jail. We've had a number of similar truck accidents recently.

So ... I don't like driving in the USA - I do of course, I have to - but in a different culture, no thanks.

And yes, even the cab driver described the knights thing, and said he went on vacation in France, the first time he picked up the right side driving and had no problem. And yup, the French had to help the USA way back, just to spite the UK. Is there a continent that England and France have NOT fought on? (Excluding Antarctica)

Have you heard the (old Cold War era) joke about the Russians and the Americans deciding to switch allies? The Americans are tired of all the bickering (Brits, French, Canadians ...), the Russians are tired of the Poles, the Czechs, etc. But it all broke down when nobody would take the French. (Credit to Mort Sahl, a "clever" American humorist) And I apoligize in advance for the imperialist American attitude. You take the world, please (credit Jack Benny, sort of)

Yes, maybe later we'll start flying to other UK airports, staying outside London. But for now, London is still a magical place. I hope you folks realize that just walking into the British Museum can be amazing to an American. Its ALL there. And the whole city is just as impressive.

I haven't read this thread in ages, so if anything here has been said.. oops!  but...

The size of a block depends, partially, on the size of the city or village where it lies. That's why when people want to say something's far away, they'll say, "...farther than a New York City block..." or "12 country blocks" or somesuch.

Then again, you could probably put the whole dang village I live closest to on one New York City block, so if someone was going to ignite the air "in an 8 block radius" you could probably walk to safety before the fuse burnt through.

Richard (my husband) and I went to London for a weekend a couple of years ago. We spent a day in the British Museum and a day in the Science Museum. BIG MISTAKE! My feet were killing me at the end of the first day, and it took me the best part of a week to recover from the whole weekend. And yes, I wore my most comfortable pair of shoes.

We haven't been down to London for a while, but intend to go down for the weekend of 5th - 6th February this year. It's the Chinese New Year that weekend and, as it's the year of the Dragon (my year ) I want to see the celebrations in China Town. It should be good.

PS We call sidewalks 'pavements', but the term sidewalk is familiar to a lot of British - I certainly knew what you meant. And don't judge British driving by what you saw in London. With the exception of Birmingham I can't think of anywhere else that's that bad (but I'm sure somebody will correct me on that score!).

Yes, well I agree about London being exciting ("The man who is tired of London is tired of life") but I am never going through Heathrow or Gatwick again For the past fifteen years I've been flying into Amsterdam and across the North Sea to Humberside (you won't find that on a map either; a lot of travel agents refuse to believe it exists.) And I like Birmingham airport , which would be a good centre for historical rambling even though CD thinks the traffic's awful, and you could get to London from there pretty cheaply by train or bus (Incidentally , note I've changed the title - you can't edit the post, but you can change the subject, so I took the N out of lifetinme for you as well)

If you're interested in Roman remains, there's a good Museum in a place called St. Albans (also found on the guide). It's about 30 minutes train journey north from Kings Cross St. Pancras and is based at one of the places that Boudicca sacked the Roman army. It's one of the closest places to London (that day's march). Handily if you're driving it's also 30 mins up the main north motorway (read freeway, but only overtaking on one side) M1 I think it's junction 6 or so. It also has a Cathedral.

In another direction are the Roman baths in, funnily enough, Bath. 2 hours by train from Paddington station and you're within 5 minutes walk of the baths. It's a world heritage city too if you're interested in 18th century architecture (being an engineer).

The only proplem with navigation by pubs it that, by the second or third corner you can't remember the route, except to the bar.

Many thanks for the input (and spelling corrections ) It sounds like finding Roman history in England is not too difficult.

I do like architecture, but the US architects would never admit to being engineers - they are artists. My company built refineries and chemical plants. We DID ensure they "looked good from the road" (even if they didn't always work right).

And this is a problem.................. How? *hic*

I can't believe all these English people are telling you to go anywhere by rail. Our railway system is a national disgrace and getting worse by the hour....if you _must_ go by train, go first class and take a good book...you will be delayed. The only exceptions to this are the trans-penine railway from Sheffield to Manchester because the scenery is gorgeous or the GNER mainline from London to Edinburgh as you have plenty of time to sleep on the way.

Traffic in London is awful, agreed. Birmingham isn't anywhere near as bad but you need a lot of confidence as navigation is dificult (see any entry on "Spaghetti Junction" for why)...but off-peak driving in the UK is not too bad.

Rail is the best way to go when you don't have a car, taxis are far too expensive for the distances we are talking about. Besides it is easier to navigate when you are on a mainline, you don't have to take loads of turnings to get to your destination getting lost through navigation mistakes.