Cliffs of Dover & Seven Sisters

This weekend we walked. A lot. Our best guess is somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 miles over the two days, and I would say that probably about 15 of those miles were in rain of varying degrees of tenacity.

Our Saturday walk began in Dover, home of some of the most famous cliffs in the world, but also a location doing a lot of trans-channel traffic.

This was a very nice walk, although there was a mild rain throughout. From Dover, we made our way up to the top of the cliffs, and then walked along stony trails for the majority of the day. However, the position of the trails didn't allow us the best views of the cliffs, and we got better views when we made our way back down to sea-level, and the weather did not allow us to get a glimpse of France, just 22 miles away.

We also got to pass Ian Fleming's former residence, where the Eton man wrote some of his James Bond novels, which was a nice little highlight.

The white house was once occupied by Ian Fleming

Following a brief bathroom stop, we climbed our way back up the trail to the top of the cliffs, and continued on eastward. After about 9 miles total, we stopped at a cozy pub for lunch, home of a wandering black lab. From here, it was about another 2 miles into the Deal train station.

While this was definitely a nice walk with a relatively low difficulty level, there was not much opportunity to get the dramatic views that one pictures when thinking of the cliffs of Dover, although I may have had a different opinion had we been walking in fairer weather. However, the drizzling rain did add an element of atmosphere to our day, and it was never raining hard enough to be particularly unpleasant.

Once we arrived at the train station, our day got quite a bit more complicated. First, we found that our train was cancelled, replaced by a train over an hour late due to a suicide further down the tracks. Once we got on, we only made it a few stops before being held again due to a broken down train further up the tracks. At this point, the three of us who were not going back to London swapped trains for one that was going back the way we came, but would eventually bring us to the station where we needed to switch trains for on going to the beginning of our next day's walk. We finally reached this station, got our tickets, and boarded the train, only to be joined in our carriage by a man with an acoustic guitar who thought it appropriate to serenade us all with his original songs, and a group of young men drinking Rum and Coke from the bottles, and loudly intimidating anyone on the train who looked at them wrong. Needless to say, we were extremely happy to reach our final destination after about 3 hours of travel, and exhausted enough by the day's events to choose McDonald's for our evening meal. I have never eaten a 'Big Mac' before in my life, so it was a very strange experience to have one in a small seaside town on the south coast of England. After our meal, we made our way to our hotel and reveled in the fact that we actually had a TV for the first time in almost 2 months before passing out.

The next morning, we got an early start. Up for breakfast provided by our B&B, and out the door by 8:45 to begin our trek across the Seven Sisters. The day started about as well as we could've hoped. We weren't sore, we had slept well, and we had a good meal to start the day. To top it all off, the weather in Eastbourne was outstanding, with clear, sunny skies and only a light headwind. We had to walk for about a mile before picking up the trail we would follow for the rest of the day, but it was well worth it, as we had beautiful views and the sound of the surf against the stony beach as companions.

As we made our way up onto our trail, we were greeted with spectacular panoramic views of the town of Eastboure, the sea, and the chalk cliffs that lay ahead.

We had to struggle our way up to the top of Beachy Head, but other than that, the combination of great weather and breathtaking views made this one of my favorite days so far. For the majority of the walk, our path ran no more than 15 yards from the cliff edge, and with no fence, we were able to find some wonderful view points.

Evidence of just how quickly these cliffs erode, the old lighthouse
foundation is visible to the right

After just over an hour of walking, we got our first views of the Seven Sisters, a series of hills along the cliffside.

We made our way down to the base of the first one for a quick restroom break, and then continued on across. For the most part, this was not too challenging of a walk, but we were walking close to the cliff edge, so we did have to go up and back down all seven hills, which was pretty tiring work. However, the payoff was worth it as we got some amazing views of the sea and the cliffs. I took an obscene amount of photos, but the majority of them don't do the views justice and instead just look a bit repetitive.

After about 2.5 hours, we had reached the summit of the final hill, and were greeted with many messages made of chalk fragments, so we decided to leave our own as well.

From here, we made our way down to sea level, and walked about a mile up river to find a bridge and get some lunch. What we found was a perfect British pub that felt much more like home than like a restaurant. There was a wood fire burning, the staff was friendly, and both beer and food were delicious. It was the icing on the cake of a wonderful day to sit by the fire and enjoy a Sunday Roast beef with all the fixings. Personally, I could have spent the rest of the day there curled up in a corner taking a nap. Alas, we had to carry on.

We made our way back to the sea, now on the west side of the river, where the weather was starting to become a bit more unfriendly, and the waves were really crashing.

We climbed over one more hill, and then back down to sea level where we found a secluded beach littered with chunks of chalk that were being slowly worn smooth and dissolving back into the ocean, as well as a wonderful view of what we had just walked. The lighthouse was on the hill furthest to the right (not part of the Seven Sisters).

Right as we were leaving this beach, the rain began to fall. We only had about a mile and a half to the next town where we would catch the train, but it was probably the most challenging as the rain fell heavily from all angles as the wind really picked up. By the time we reached town, my jeans were plastered to my legs and I had pledged to obtain some waterproof pants for future hikes.

Finally, we made our way down into town and found our way along the streets/rivers to the train station. Not only were we wet and uncomfortable, but we had to deal with a few more obnoxious passengers before finally arriving back in London for a warm shower, a warm meal, and a warm bed.

Disregarding the last portion of our walk, the walk from Eastbourne to Seaford provided some of the most beautiful views I have ever seen in my life. If you ever come to England and have just one day to walk, I would strongly suggest doing this walk, rather than Dover to Deal as we had done the previous day. While it was cool to see Dover, and the walk was less strenuous, the views that our Sunday walk provided were completely unmatched by anything I've done so far. And while Helvellyn might have been the most physically challenging thing I've ever done, the combination of the views and the food made this my favorite day in England yet!

Conquering Helvellyn

I finally climbed my first mountain! Although a baby compared to the 6,288 foot Mt. Washington, Helvellyn still packed a punch at 3,115 ft.

The beginning of our journey was a steep climb for about the first 1500 vertical feet, although this offered some amazing views of the valleys below, as well as some of the surrounding ridges.

We finally got to the top of the first ridge after about an hour and a half, and stopped to refuel and layer back up, because we started to hit some winds.

Once everyone was situated, we continued on up towards the clouds. Right about as we hit the bottom of the cloud layer, we came upon a pretty idyllic mountain lake, with some tents set up along side, just to the right of what I captured in the frame.

Just after this, we hit the Striding Edge. It was far too cloudy to get a good shot of our surroundings, but I've borrowed from the internet so you can have an idea of what we were dealing with. This picture is looking back along the edge from the summit. The terrain is difficult to make out here, but our entire way was difficult, rocky, and windy with about 700 foot drops on either side of us, and we had to use our hands almost constantly to keep close to the rock face.

http://www.stridingedge.net/lake%20district%20features/striding%20edge.htm

The outcrop in the center of that picture is called "The Chimney." While most of our group took the path alongside the side that you can make out in the picture, my roommate Paul, two of our guides, and I clambered our way over and down the other side, where we had to use foothold and handholds to make our way down, all with a precarious drop on either side that looked to us like a sea of white fog, since we never made it above the cloud layer.

http://www.stridingedge.net/lake%20district%20features/striding%20edge.htm

The people you can see in this picture are making their way down, this picture was taken from farther up the path. It's a shame that it was so cloudy so we couldn't get any landscape pictures, but I did get some good ones of people in action!

Finally, after about 3 hours, we reached the summit! It was below freezing and incredibly windy, but we stopped for a little while to refuel and rehydrate before making our way back down the other side of the mountain.

Descending was no easier at first, as we came down Swirral Edge, which was more climbing with 80 degree slopes on either side of us, although we clearly had fun!

We finally hit a some less strenuous surface after a steep descent, and from then on it was just a winding trail down out of the clouds and along a winding river, made up of hundreds of little streams that crossed over our path. Although we were going downhill, this was probably the most difficult part. Not only were we mentally checked out, but the downhill terrain was playing havoc on our feet and knees. We finally got down, had a drink at a local pub while we waited for everyone to catch up, and then made our way to the hostel. After we got a little settled, we had dinner, and some people moved on to another pub for a nightcap, but I was asleep by about 8:30.

Sunday morning, we got up, ate breakfast, and went on about a two-hour walk along the edge of the valley opposite our starting point, and got some pretty good views of the lower areas that we had walked, although we couldn't see the top of the mountain because of the low cloud layer.

We also found a pretty nice cave that we were able to climb down into. It didn't go back too far, but it would've been a nice place to camp if you needed to get out of the elements for the night.

It also had a second entrance through a much narrower tunnel, but I didn't manage to get a picture of that. It was a nice walk in some cool fall air, and once we got back, we piled into our cars and made our way home.

I've been asked what my favorite place to visit so far has been, and I would have to say that this was it. It was an awesome experience to walk and climb along ridges where all you could see on either side was the white of clouds. London offers an incredibly wide range of experiences, but this was something that was definitely worth the 5 hour drive each way, and I can't wait to explore the walks around New England once I get home.

Cambridge

To round out my weekend of travel, we visited Cambridge on Sunday, home to Cambridge University. Cambridge falls at number 7 in the World University Rankings, below Oxford which sits at number 3. The number 1 university is the California Institute of Technology, the setting of "The Big Bang Theory." Statistics aside, Cambridge seemed to have a warmer, more welcoming feel than did Oxford. The buildings were a bit more modern, and the actual town was much more so. There was even a decent sized shopping mall. First order of business was to eat lunch, for which we joined our colleagues from the University of Virginia, who have a program similar to our own (although obviously ours is better). However, what I was most excited about was that we ate at "The Eagle," which was the pub from which Watson and Crick first announced their Nobel Prize winning discovery, DNA.

From here, we moved on to King's College, home of one of the most recognizable chapels in the world. The interior was cavernous, and the stained glass, which took 30 years to install, was flawless. It really hammered home that the purpose of churches in this time period were as much to inspire awe and emotion as they were to serve as locations for religious services, and they still accomplish that goal today. The logistics alone of how something like this is accomplished are enough to make my head spin.

From King's College, we split off for time to explore the town, although that I found that although I would probably rather attend Cambridge than Oxford, the town itself seemed to have less to offer, although maybe this was because the colleges of Cambridge are more spread out than they are at Oxford. However, it was definitely worth the trip for the chapel alone!

Greenwich and the Prime Meridian!

Since our supervisor/advisor/facilitator has been here, our trips have been a bit more frequent. On Friday, we took the short trip over to Greenwich on the tube. Greenwich is famous worldwide for being the site of the Royal Observatory, which played a major role in astronomy and navigation. It was here that the discovery of an accurate way for ships to determine their longitude was developed, and here that the Prime Meridian was placed as the 0 degrees longitude mark. This also means that it is from this point of Greenwich Mean Time that all of the world's time zones are in reference to (for instance, Eastern Standard Time is defined as being GMT+5).

Official 24 hour clock of GMT

Left: East Longitude, Right: West Longitude

Bronze line is the Prime Meridian!

Love that spans both hemispheres! (The bronze line is the Meridian)

However, it also plays home to the old Royal Naval College, one of the most modern works of architecture of it's time. Designed by Christopher Wren, it displays some of his trademark work, including the different styles of columns, the pediment over doorways, and the same style of dome as he used on St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Greenwich also plays home to one of the first homes in the style that would come to be known in the Americas as "Colonial" with a centered front door and symmetrical windows, a building that also housed England's first floating spiral staircase, the Tulip Stair.

Royal Naval College

Painted Hall at the Royal Naval College

Tulip Stair at the Queen's House

Greenwich is a very cool, very historic part of the city, and I was yet again impressed by the amount of history crammed into such a small geographic space. Not only were there the navigational achievements which made the British Empire possible (without the ability to calculate longitude, the British Empire would never have expanded as effectively as it did), but there were the architectural achievements which have shaped the design of buildings around the world. I would have loved to have gone into the Royal Observatory, but there wasn't enough time on this day, and it's an easy enough trip to make again. 

Windsor Castle & Eton College

Last Wednesday, we took a trip up to Windsor/Eton to visit Windsor Castle (home of the royal family) and Eton College (most prestigious secondary school in the country). The first thing we did upon arrival was to go straight to the Castle for a tour. Although this was the third royal residence I've visited, Buckingham Palace and the Royal Pavilion being the others, it was extra interesting because it was the first castle I've seen!

While the inside of the castle itself was pretty interesting, my favorite part was the chapel. Not only is it widely acknowledged to be one of the finest examples of gothic architecture in the world, the interior was packed with history, including the graves of many former royals. However, what impressed me the most was the pure skill that went into carving the stone for the statues. In one tomb, paying homage to a woman who died in childbirth, the robes on the mourners looked so realistic there were times when I wasn't sure that it was all stone. Unfortunately, pictures were not allowed inside the chapel.

After a nice walk, and a pub lunch (Shepard's Pie!), it was time to make our way across the Thames to visit Eton College. As a little background, Eton is one of the best known secondary schools in the world. It is the pinnacle of what every private school wishes to become, and their results are hard to argue with. They have educated 19 British Prime Ministers (including the current one, David Cameron), writers such as George Orwell (1984) and Ian Fleming (James Bond), and various other individuals highly successful in their fields (e.g. Bear Grylls). This being said, they also have a reputation for churning out boys who don't exactly have the widest of perspectives. The school demographic is extremely monochromatic, and not much can be said for any type of diversity. However, our tour guide gave us a good insight into the Etonian mind, which I do believe was eye-opening for many of us (he also brought us to the world's oldest continuous use classroom!).

Etonian Dining Hall

The day ended with an interesting discovery, two first edition Harry Potter books! Not first printings, but still pretty cool, although they mean that I've now bought nine books here, and I'm beginning to wonder how I'm going to get them home. But anyways, after a quick pint at a local pub, we headed back to London! I think that it was definitely an educational day, though I wouldn't mind going back to spend some more time in the chapel.

Side note: the train station in London that we left from and returned to was Paddington Station, famous for a certain bear. Also, once we got back to London, I experienced a revelation in food, the Salt Beef Bagel sandwich. It is amazing.

Paddington Bear!