Gettin Around on a Crowded Island

We’ve been in the UK for a month now exploring the sites, museums, footpaths, parks, and a lot of pubs! Our first house sit in the Windsor area was for new friends that we met in Istanbul last year.

It was a great chance to catch up with them, as well as settle in, explore the area, and recoup a bit from our hectic 2023 to date*. We also got to meet up with a handful of other friends in the greater London area, as well as some fellow nomads through the GoWithLess Facebook group.

(*2023 Seattle, SF, Tapei, Bangkok, India, Sri Lanka, Japan, Korea, Colorado, SF, France, Switzerland, Germany, Czechia, Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands….whew!)

Windsor is of course dominated by the Windsor castle which seems to be in view no matter where you go. There it is again! Windsor itself gets a lot of tourists, but most are just there to tour the castle and grounds, so it’s easy to find peace and tranquility nearby, especially in the Windsor Great Park and the Thames path. We actually passed on the Castle tour in peak August, as it’s hefty admission price tag (almost $40!) seemed best reserved for a quieter off-season time.

It’s also been great to have our new touring bikes here to explore some of the local bike routes and countryside. Their sturdiness and 40mm tires are perfect for the rough roads and varied off-road surfaces of UK cycling.

So after our happy 3+weeks in the London area, we said goodbye to our friends and their lovable cat, and loaded up to ride 25 miles to catch a train in London. Our LNER train took us north to our next house sitting adventure in a small village on the river Tees near Darlington.

We met the very nice family briefly before they set off for a proper sun holiday with their kids in Spain. It’s a lovely house and garden, and they have two cats, a bunch of chickens, Guinea pigs, and some fish. It’s been fun to collect (and eat!) farm fresh eggs daily, and the village has a nice pub down the street, as did our previous house sit, and the sit before that… ok, so there is always a pub down the street in the UK!

As in all our transitions this summer, we built in an extra day to get from Windsor to Darlington, and spent the first night nearby at a nice and surprisingly good value historic hotel. Unfortunately, the constant strikes, partial shutdowns, and other uncertainties in the UK rail system can make certain travel days impossible, especially with the complication of transporting bikes on the trains, which always requires a precious bike reservation for long distances.

There were 5 strike days in July and another 3 in August, as well as an extended ban and dispute on OT work on 15 of 17 operating companies limiting schedule. Good fun for passengers who have little say in improving the workers wages and funding except through occasional voting. Oh, and yup, there are 17 major train operating companies, often overlapping in service along corridors. Sometimes your ticket can work on any carrier, sometimes it doesn’t.

The good news is that the system is pretty extensive, and a lot of upgrades have been made to stations, rolling stock and infrastructure recently. Much of the system is great and when there are not network or labor issue, it carries a ton of people at a very low carbon load. Raíl travel here is not cheap, but advance discounts are available, as well as rail cards. We generally travel off-peak and use a “Two together” railcard to knock 30% off most fares when we are indeed “two together” (which is almost always-:).

We loved our reliable Southwestern Railway service to London which took us from Datchet on a one seat ride to Waterloo Station for about $15 r/t each. The recently opened Elizabeth line (aka CrossRail) has also improved east-west connectivity across London and even allows bikes at most hours and stations!

But traveling to the less populated North has reminded us how darn crowded the greater London area is. In fact, Southeast England has about a third of the UK population, including the 10 Million in Metro London.

So trains are essential, and excessive car travel unsustainable. However, outside the London core, most infrastructure has been heavily engineered to move vehicles, at the great expense to those who want to walk or cycle to a destination. Or just want a peaceful town to walk about and exist.

Cycling conditions outside of the reimagined London cycle superhighways and traffic limited cores are dismal. Spending so much time on the continent the past 2 years, has made us realize that it could all be different with some strong leadership, pricing, and a common vision. It’s a stark contrast and feels like a overwhelming lift to change the status quo that has developed over the past 50-75 years.

Cars have the right of way almost everywhere except the somewhat rare zebra crossings. There are curb cuts and islands many places, but no right of way associated with them. And crossing a side street while walking along a Main Street still imparts limited rights. So car drivers often come flying out around corners with no expectation a pedestrian would dare cross (and most don’t) and are solely concerned with whether they can merge with other vehicles on the new road. So crossing the street is often a long wait, a dash, or a hopeful glance to a car for a pity stop along with a slight intent to cross. We do this a lot, and it often works, but most locals defer to cars and jut wait. And wait.

It makes us extremely sad to see walking reduced to a last priority, especially in a dense, compact place that was developed at its core to be walkable. People used to walk everywhere. Now people feel they need to drive short distances (to car parks) just to get a few groceries or take a walk with their kids or dogs in a safe place. Parents clutch their kids for dear life on narrow sidewalks next to high speed traffic often inches away. It’s a downward spiral.

We’ve also noticed the pedestrian conditions vary widely by area and city, but for the most part, the cars-first attitude permeates all public space behavior. So we do our best to assert our rights (some new from Feb 2022 law) and lead by example, and we have noticed strong resistance to some of the traffic sewer streets by protest notices in a few towns.

It’s not an easy fix, but if you start with making more pedestrian and bike routes and crossings, then people will have more options and a virtuous cycle can begin. No pain, no gain. I realize I made some similar observations in our 2022 summer stay here, but that’s because as avid walkers and former activists, it’s always a shock how discouraging the traffic system truly is.

But we love our housesitting adventures as each one is so different. New pets, new sights to see, and new pathways to explore. We can focus a bit more on history and background reading without the constant logistics of more mobile travel. Not to mention it gives me ample time to plan our next cycle touring adventures and fall travels.

But as we plan trips through the fall and back to the US, it also makes us miss our family and friends even more; despite frequent electronic contact. For me, this nomadic adventure is not just about travel, but about adjusting to a new reality of early retirement. I have somewhat adjusted, but we do both wonder what it will be like when we settle down again. Serious hobbies will need to be reactivated as well as local civic engagement. New friends and old. And of course, travel planning -;)

But the UK has been a perfect place to spend the summer as it’s been cool, a bit rainy, but generally just perfect for active walking and cycling. And so green and lush! We had our fill of heat this year in South Asia and cycle touring during a very warm June on the continent. (It was warmer here too in June.) However, after a month, I do understand why many British feel a strong need to get a sun holiday, even in August!

We have a few more days left in the North and then load up our bikes again to head south and west to another house sit in the former coal country of Wales. We’re always excited to explore a new area and we know the Welsh are so friendly, so it should be great. And so far the trains look to be on time.

Happy Travels!