White-throated Sparrow
Greenwood, DE

You cannot beat seeing this species in its breeding plumage.

01 Jan 2018

Dunlin
Huntington Beach SP, SC
Nov. 2017

Dunlin in winter plumage. Observed on the jetty at the North Beach of Huntington Beach State Park, Murrells Inlet, SC. Several were stealing fisherman’s bait.

To read Part 1: Logistics click here.

Castle Howard
After a week of nothing but rain, I got a small reprieve. At least the overcast clouds made for dramatic photos.

I identified seven bases for my summer travels to England: London, Oxford, Hadrian’s Wall, Lake District, York, the Norfolk Coast, and Bath. Due to transportation and lodging difficulties, I would also spend a day and a half each in Carlisle and Cambridge. Once the logistical plans were complete, major travel and lodging booked, I could sit down and make daily itineraries.

Daily Itineraries

Setting daily itineraries that account for every minute of every day are not my thing. Instead, I allow for flexibility by identifying high priority locations and selecting a few nearby places to complement them. After identifying the bases from my Google Map I began to delete locations more than 1-2 hours from each base. I was still left with many more locations than I could visit in five weeks! Narrowing the list down was a difficult and arduous process. Several key questions and criteria helped me narrow down the choices:

• Did the travel time to and from a location, along with its opening and closing times, restrict my daily schedule?
• If I could only visit one location in a day, was there enough to do to keep me occupied?
• Are the locations that appear close on the map actually that close? Would it take more than an hour to get there by walking or public transit?
• Did public transit timetables affect the time I could spend in a place? (Ex. The first bus of the day arrives at 10 am but the last pickup is at 1 pm.)
• 

  Blenheim Palace has some restrictions on photography inside the house. There are still plenty of places to photograph around the property.

  Did the location allow photography? While I visited locations that didn’t allow photography (ex.: British Library exhibitions), this was a careful consideration when selecting sites.

• Budget: My ultimate goal was to maximize the amount of time spent overseas. Regularly going to expensive attractions would be counterproductive. Now that doesn’t mean I dismissed any attraction above an arbitrary threshold, I was just more selective. Most of the places I visited charged a fee around £5. Some charged up to £20-30, which equated to $26-40. Accommodating more expensive admission fees required sacrifices. This meant eliminating something else in my budget, pursuing discounts or committing to discounted advanced tickets and hoping the weather agreed.

Opening and Closing Times

Opening and closing times are perhaps the most frustrating part of travel, in my opinion. Most attractions I came across in England are open from 1000-1700. This is quite a narrow band if you like to visit more than two places in a day. Especially if they require travel time or if you want to take time out for lunch.

However, some attractions may extend their hours on a particular day of the week or time of the year. For example, the Roman Baths extend their hours to 2200 during the summer months and many museums in London open late one day of the week. For example, the British Museum opens late on Fridays. Looking for extended hours and incorporating them into the itinerary meant losing some flexibility. Luckily, many of these activities were indoors and would not need a backup in the event of inclement weather. Other time considerations included taking advantage of guided tours at different museums and attractions.

The Roman Baths, open until 2200 in the summer months, are lit by torches in the late evening.

Travel Times

Transportation was a complicated and tricky factor to consider throughout planning each section of my trip. Travel prices greatly vary depending on the mode and time of day. Thus, transportation played a large impact on developing my itineraries.

Planning to take my time on the trails means I’m in no hurry to get anywhere.

An important consideration when visiting an attraction, particularly those out-of-town, must come down travel time. Are you spending more time getting to a location than you might spend there? This effectively eliminated many of the excursions on my short-lists. The notion of spending two hours on a bus to spend three hours at a location didn’t make economic sense. As a result, I removed locations like Stonehenge from my list. This didn’t completely discourage me from taking day trips, but if the destinations didn’t offset the cost and time of transportation I couldn’t justify going.

Walking time also had to be a consideration. While Google Maps helps calculate and give options for walking times, it was important to consider my personal walking time. This was where training for my trip came in handy! Google Maps generally calculates walking times around 3 mph, or 20-minute miles. Nowhere in my vacation did I even consider a walking speed of 3 mph! Unless the distance covered less than half a mile I generally rounded half an hour into each mile for hiking distances and 15 minutes to a city mile. At least if I ended up walking faster it gave me more time to explore a destination.

Avoid the Crowds

I hate crowds! Personal space is something to be respected! I don’t like wading through crowds of people or standing in obscenely long lines. Crowds of people in my photos are also something I like to avoid. As a result, I effectively took places like Westminster Abbey off my list.

While crowding is usually a given in most city sightseeing areas, there are usually tips provided by attraction websites or on sites like TripAdvisor on how to avoid it. When conducting research for destinations like Blenheim Palace I was able to identify when the tour buses arrive or leave. This allowed me to plan a little smarter.

Being one of the first people in the building has its perks!

Smaller Considerations

• It is also worth noting that you cannot visit most museums in just a few hours and do them justice! I researched and identified a few key galleries that I did not wish to miss and visited those first. If I had additional time, I would wander. Most people don’t enjoy spending all day in a museum, so it is best to go with a game plan.
• Sunrise & Sunset Times: As a photographer, this is something that I think about, but it is not important to all travelers. England, in the north, experiences longer days than my home. For my visit, civil twilight in London extended from 0400-2200, while in the north civil twilight extends from 0330-2300. I did research 1-2 places for city and/or landscape views at sunrise or sunset for each base of my trip. Since taking sunrise or sunset pictures would not interfere with my sightseeing times and only my sleep I wanted to attempt one sunrise or sunset shoot at each base, weather permitting. In reality, it didn’t happen. When considering architectural photography I took into account the direction of lighting at the beginning and end of the day. Directional lighting in a cathedral is more photogenic than harsh overhead light in the middle of the day. This meant looking at maps and determining the orientation of buildings to determine which cardinal direction they faced. I was able to do this with the help of Google Maps.
• Weather Back-ups. There is a phrase that rings true no matter where you visit: “there is no bad weather, only incorrect clothing.” While I don’t know who to attribute the quote, the saying is very much true. No one likes bad weather to ruin their holiday, but I think I managed to stave off most disappointment. Flexibility is the key when planning, but creating interchangeable itinerary days helps immensely when faced with unexpected weather. I grouped indoor and outdoor items together in the itinerary such as a morning outdoors and evening indoors. I also scheduled either a half or full-day free at each base. This allows for some movement of individual items or whole days in the itinerary when necessary.Unfortunately, while point-to-point hiking at Hadrian’s Wall this was not an option. Setting up time along the trail where I returned to the same lodging location enabled me to choose to take a day off if necessary.
• The last day of my trip was left totally open to allow me some freedom. I could revisit a place, visit what I missed, or do a last-minute splurge to an attraction.
• Special Events, Concerts, Tours & Exhibitions: This particular category caused my plans the most grief. Many attractions do not list complete lists of concerts, talks, and exhibitions until one or two months out. I knew I wanted to attend several particular events. I had to wait, agonizingly, until late spring to view the events calendars. Having set my itinerary early using all of the tips above, this proved to the
  

  Last minute add-in event: Turma! Roman calvary event in Carlisle. Definitely worth the inconvenience of shifting my itinerary last-minute.

  hardest consideration to accommodate. Last minute additions to my itinerary had to be carefully evaluated as to how they would interfere with my plans. Would it move another item, decrease valuable transportation time or require that another item be completely removed? Case in point, the addition of the Turma! between my bases at Hadrian’s Wall and the Lake District created a headache that was well worth the effort. Adding in the two-hour event in Carlisle meant rearranging important transportation transfers in both Carlisle and the transfer in Penrith. This meant taking the last bus from Penrith to Patterdale, which to me was risky. Other special events included concerts such as the lunchtime concerts at St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London, evensong and classical performances at Cathedrals and Churches, talks and lectures at various museums.

In the end, whatever I missed only gives me the excuse to visit again.

When, is the only question!

Blog posts on my summer trip to England are long overdue! While I’m sure most of my readers are more interested in the pictures and itineraries, I feel that it is also important to explain how I planned for a 5-week solo trip overseas.

Tower Bridge
Taken from the Thames, about the Thames Clipper service

Logistics of a Long Trip

I spent the better part of 8 months planning, booking and building an itinerary for a 35-day trip to England. The majority of this time was spent on overall logistics and building itineraries.

My Planning Style

Rain, Rain…go away!
@ Vindolanda
The paving stones meant to allow you to cross the stream to the temple are completely flooded thanks to non-stop rain for most of my trip at Hadrian’s Wall.

I cannot bring myself to go on a vacation without a plan; whether it is for a day or a week. For me, this does not mean planning every minute of every day. Simply put, the task of creating and using a daily itinerary gives me a piece of mind. It allows me to enjoy myself more than if I were to wing it and feel like I missed something. My itineraries usually allow for flexibility and include research for back-ups when weather and transportation snafus require detours. In my previous travels, I have dealt with these occasions resourcefully and with a care-free attitude. English weather made sure that my planning was tested this time around as well.

Setting up a Structure

The prospect of moving my luggage to a new lodging every day or two was unappealing. For this reason, I decided to create “bases” from which I could explore an area for 3-5 days. The most daunting part of planning a trip of this magnitude was to identify where to visit and how long to stay.

Choosing my Bases

Weeding out my impossibly large bucket list was a grueling task.

Screen Shot of Google Maps for Base: London
Amazingly I did more than half of the items marked on this map! (In 9 days, of course.)

I used Google Maps to add possible attractions I was interested in. Useful sites for research included the National Trust, English Heritage, and the Historic Houses Association. After adding the possibilities to the map, then began the weeding process. My first criteria for culling was simple: which places could I visit by public transit without walking more than 1 mile. If I had to walk more than that, was the location somewhere I could spend all day (ex. Blenheim Palace)? I also compared and eliminated similar sites. For example, how many museums on Roman history did I really need to go to? This managed to narrow down my sites into reasonable geographical pockets to make bases.

My final itinerary focused on 7 regional or city bases. Off the bat, several bases were non-optional: Hadrian’s Wall, London, and York. Of the remaining areas I used several criteria to narrow down my bases:

1. Transportation options to get to and from the chosen base.
2. Available transportation options to the attractions near that base.
3. Available budget accommodation.
4. Enough attractions or things to do to fill several days.

Despite missing a few items on my must-see list, the additional bases I settled on were Oxford, the Lake District, Bath, and the Norfolk Coast. I ended up spending only one night each in both Carlisle and Cambridge due to breaks in transportation between bases. I also split my time in London to spend time at the beginning and end of my trip there.

Travel Between Bases

The next big decision to make was what order to move from base to base, what time of the day to travel and what mode of transportation to take.

A circular route would be more favorable, both due to cost and to reduce travel time between bases. However, some of the bases I chose were centered around specific events which complicated the order. I was also constrained by the availability of lodging due to some festivals. Not to mention, the Lake District can book up months in advance, something I did not plan for (surprisingly).

An important consideration was what time of the day to travel. My preference is to travel in the early morning or late evening to maximize sightseeing hours during times that many attractions are open: 1000-1700.

While train travel is faster, it is also more costly. I compared the cost, timetables of available routes and length of travel time using the research tools of Rail Journey Planner (train), Megabus and National Express (both coach bus). I created a plan utilizing both rail and bus routes between bases. Some transfers were a combination of both because rail travel can’t get you everywhere! With the exception of one transfer that involved an overnight bus, none of the base transfer legs took more than three hours, and most were less than two.

Lodging Reservations

YHA London St Pancras
View from the room at the hostel. Not a bad view for the start of my trip.

Lodging was by far the most complicated and stressful part of the planning process due to my budget.  The majority of lodgings available to me would be hostels, bunkhouses or cheaper B&Bs. The majority of my bookings were made through the YHA Hostels.

I did utilize TripAdvisor to check reviews, however, I always take these with a grain of salt and try to read a lot of current reviews to get a feel for the places. Many people have a varying degree of tolerance for certain features of a place and I don’t tend to be picky at all. I certainly don’t care if the cafe is awful at a place if I don’t plan to eat there. I purchased a membership with Hostelling International which entitled me to a discount when I checked in to the YHA hostels.

Not everything goes according to plan…

Unfortunately, this process did not go without a hitch. When I began to make my reservations, about five months prior to leaving, I came to realize that some of my chosen accommodations were already booked or were booking up fast! This caused a cascade of revisions to several parts of my trip:

• Apparently, lodging along Hadrian’s Wall is scarce and gets booked up fast! Even the back-ups I had identified were booked! I had to resort to booking two nights at a mid-range B&B rather than the bunkhouses I originally planned on. On the plus side, I got my own room and bathroom for two nights. Oh, and the hot breakfast was nice too! (More about this place later!)
• Budget lodging in the Lake District also books up early! I emailed a few places in hopes that I could find an opening even though they showed no vacancy online. No luck. Unfortunately, I had to cut my time short in the Lake District, spend a night in Carlisle and add a day to my base in York. I think I would like to revisit this area when I return to visit Scotland or Wales.
• Many hostels are closed on weekdays during term times (when schools are in session) or off-peak times. For my June and early July bases, some of the hostels had limited dates and/or availability. This complicated my stay in Cambridge and in York. In Cambridge, I had to shorten my stay to one night and push two nights to the Norfolk leg of my trip. (Not a loss!) This also required me to seek more expensive lodging in York for three of the five nights at that base. But again, this meant I got my own room for a few nights, so it was not a loss either.

Luggage Storage

This was the first extended trip I planned without access to a car. My goal was to keep the total weight of my bags under 30 lbs/14 kg. (I did this!) For a few days along Hadrian’s Wall I would have to carry all of my items for several miles. This goal also allowed me to bring back souvenirs and stay under the airline baggage weight limit.

Part of my planning process required researching options for luggage storage. Left luggage facilities are becoming extinct. Heightened security has seen many of these services become discontinued. Most rail stations do not offer self-service lockers anymore (do any of them?). I had to choose hostels or B&Bs that provided some form of luggage storage before and after check-out. In the case of the hostels, this required renting a locker or paying a fee. It was helpful to search the reviews on TripAdvisor for more information and read the experiences of other travelers on this matter.

On most days I stored my backpack at my accommodation and carried my day bag around town. When selecting a day bag, I chose one that could easily fit inside of the larger backpack on the days that required me to carry all of my things. This also meant leaving enough space in my backpack to accommodate all of my things!

Along Hadrian’s Wall I utilized a baggage transfer service that moved my luggage between accommodations so I was able to carry less while hiking long distances. These services are common along the long-distance trails in the UK.

Up Next…Part 2: Building my Itineraries

The school year is well under way and I’m already feeling overwhelmed. I have not been able to go out birdwatching since August! However, this has not kept me from keeping my eyes on the horizon. Plans are developing for a 10-day trip to Texas for Spring Migration in April. I am working on a slew of posts about my trip to England. I can’t wait to share many of the thousands of pictures I took and my many experiences. Most importantly, I can’t wait to do it again!

For now, I’ll leave a map preview of my April plans:

Birding Hotspots for Texas 2018 trip

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