Posted by Peter Ceresole on June 14, 2004 at 15:04:27 from 80.177.22.49 user PeterC.
In Reply to: Re: The Wade posted by Ross Cossar on June 14, 2004 at 13:02:40:
How long is that trip? From my map I see it as about 200km or two hours from the center of London. From my Canadian outlook, thats nothing.
Starting from anywhere except the East end of London, 200kms is a *lot* more than two hours. Just getting out of London is a major schlepp. To give you an idea, my regular trip from home, in South West London, to the Channel Tunnel shuttle terminal, which is about 120 kms, takes about two hours. And I don't have to cross much of London to do this, and once out the whole distance is by motorway/freeway.
Getting to the Mere would involve smaller roads at the end, quite apart from the grotty business of getting through or round London. We're talking about something like 3 hours in total, I suppose, from where I live. Too much for a casual look.
It's not so much the distance as the balance. Going to the Lake District is a heck of a lot further- Kendal is 430kms- but was worth it for a two day stay. However those days didn't include the travel, which took the best part of 6 1/2 hours, effectively a day each way. Fortunately it was easy in that most of it was by motorway although both ends were spectacularly slow, and we listened to the Beeb's Radio 4 all the way there and all the way back and that radio station is one of the gems of world culture- quite seriously.
For what it's worth, when I do hundreds of miles on US freeways, even in a fat car with cruise control I find them just as boring and unpleasant as motorwaya here; it really is a cultural thing.
Actually US Freeways are often worse- narrow and badly laid out, and I have never seen anything as aggressive and unpleasant as the trucks in Kentucky. I presume Canadians would be more laid back.