So the economic downturn continues to bite my company. There was talk of some school and museum work in for my company in the UK; but that's on hold so the remaining ongoing work that I have can be done from anywhere with an internet connection and a 'phone.
Have motor car, have laptop (it is an ungrateful, rude and annoying beast........I've only ever been kind to it; but it is only ever ungrateful and despondent with me) and I have mobile 'phone. So on good Friday, I packed my car, nursed my hangover and pointed the yellow bubble towards Dover, Kent, England. Much of my route follows that of the east coast mainline railway. So you may be interested to read my blog derived from a similar trip from Edinburgh to London on the train.
But there is an important difference. The first leg of the trip is from Edinburgh to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. This is an oft discussed navigational topic. Many people that I know prefer to drive from Edinburgh to N-U-T along the coast road. But if you look at the map it is a long way around. It is quicker to go cross country (A68 and then A697 (check)) if you're heading that way and you are an enthusiastic driver.
There was a mass exit from Edinburgh (and who could blame them) as I left , so I queued for ten minutes at the end of my street and the Edinburgh city bypass was busy. Then out through Dalkeith and we're off. Soon you're out into the Scottish Borders. This is nice scenery. Whilst it does not quite have the drama of the Highlands, it is a pleasure to travel through. I have many happy memories of cycling around the borders in years past.
The road gets more twisty as you approach the English border and then immediately beforehand there are some hairpin bends. And into England, from where you can reach N-U-T quite quickly after passing through the affluent town of Ponteland (where all the footballers live). My brother is fortunate enough to live in N-U-T, so I had lunch with him.
I was planning to stay with a relative who lives in a Nottinghamshire village, and the vast majority of the rest of the way is very familiar to me. I worked in nearby Newark-on-Trent for a few years not long ago, so I travelled a very similar route quite regularly. I am very fond of the North East of England, and then Yorkshire and beyond, but you are on dual (or more) carriageways for the rest of the journey, so you do not see too much from the road.
The evening was good fun (rural Nottinghamshire pubs usually are, but then, I am biased). After a nice chat with some family members in the morning, it was time to continue to Dover. Again, the route is quite familiar due to a former family connection in the county (region) of Kent (The South East corner of England, just south of London), so the route passed quickly. I always feel that I am not too far away when I cross the river Thames at Dartford.
Dover is an interesting place. My grandparents who lived in Kent used to holiday in France and so Dover was a familiar place to them. They used to enjoy going to a nature reserve above the legendary white cliffs, and watching the ferries comings, goings and manouvreings. So I have fond memories of that as I killed an hour or so at Dover port.
Dover has the oft discussed 'air of fading grandeur', shared by many former seaside (resort) towns in the UK. Some of the newer buildings look horrible and some of the lovely older buildings are boarded up. I suppose with the advent of cheap international flights and the Eurotunnel, people often pass through Dover and it's ilk without stopping. I guess that I only stopped because I was early.
How do we make these places appealing again. A triennial arts festival, has been tried in other places. Perhaps it will be possible to take a view in twenty years. I always enjoy ferry trips and this was no different. But soon it was time to alight in Calais. I had not been able to find any hostels in Calais, so I checked into the cheapest hotel that an internet trawl yielded. Thanks to a kind french lady for some navigational assistance.
I was up early, because I was headed some way into Germany to meet with my travelling companion near Hanover. The weather was cloudy as I left Calais and into Belgium there was heavy rain. All of which got me down a little bit. The weather was just as rubbish as the UK, and also the rain and spray made driving conditions difficult. But around the time that I crossed the Dutch border, things looked up.
I like Holland. Holland is not a very wide country at the point where I crossed it so it wasn't long before I entered the Bundesrepublik. By then the weather was good. The sun was shining and it was warm. So I followed the Autobahn to Essen and within a few hours I had joined my companion near Hanover.
We spent some time in the charming little town of Goslar and then drove to Gottingen. German youth hostels are often something to write home about, and this one fared well. After quite a lot of travelling over a three day period (at least by European standards), it was nice to be where we meant to be.
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