This is going to be a long one, folks. Before the break, I have a couple of more convenient link/note dumps.
Photo Albums
NOTE: There are more photos in these albums than are included in the post.
- England
- Wales
- Ireland
- Going home
Related Posts
- On the Way to the British Isles: The first leg of this trip.
- The Way Home: The return trip.
Travel Notes
- People here tend to avoid each other less than in Seattle, but I was primarily in the English countryside.
- Pubs are common in rural England similar to how fast food eateries are common in rural America.
- The roads here are rather narrow and often without markings. Passing spots are frequent. People park on the sides of roads and effectively take up travel lanes.
- On that note: the knee-jerk reaction to travel isn't the car; people consider walking and other forms of transport seriously. 'Normal' people cycle on the side of major routes in some areas.
- Mixer taps aren't very common, especially in older houses and buildings.
- England looks small on maps, but it is still quite a long ways via ground transport.
- Small shops (corner stores, butcher shops) are quite common here.
- Brick houses are everywhere.
- Pretty much no mobile phone reception in many areas. 3G is like finding gold. It's difficult to use a lot of data without being able to ever get a significant amount of instantaneous bandwidth.
- Public transport (trains) is regarded as terrible by residents, but they haven't seen how bad it is in Seattle.
- (Unpaved) byways and bridleways crisscross the landscape.
- Traffic signals indicate when they are about to go from red to green.
- Both beans and potatoes are popular here. Yum.
- Baguettes seem to be a bit more common in the UK and Ireland than the US.
- Doors often open with the keys alone, rather than being unlocked then opened with a knob or handle.
- There are a lot of sheep in Wales.
- Drivers in Ireland are scary.
- It's very windy in Wales and Ireland.
- Dublin is a lovely city.
- Waiting staff don't get tips, but get better wages. Service standards are a bit lower.
- People tend to have electric kettles rather than coffee makers, even if they drink coffee.
- Tea is more often offered there than in the US (where coffee is king), but there is typically a very limited variety of tea (almost always black teabags).
- The general attitude is that of begrudging acceptance rather than forcing things to change to one's liking.
- Throughout my trip, my 'universal' AC travel adapter hadn't been working very well: I had to wiggle it to get it to work when in the UK, and it wouldn't work at all in Ireland, despite them sharing outlets. I'll have to get a UK→US adapter for when I travel to the British Isles again.
- The UK keyboard layout is a bit different, and the double-quote is further away from the home row than the @ symbol.
- HORSE MEAT SCANDAL EVERYWHERE.
My original intent for this trip was to hike The Ridgeway, but that ended up being a very minor part of the trip.
