Buxton

Buxton actually has an Opera House

We were staying in Buxton when visiting the Peak District, it's only 45kms from Manchester, we went out via Stockport, which perhaps wasn't the best way to go. It's kind of depressing driving through there. It's just closed down businesses and eternal traffic lights. We were glad when we were out of the town and into the countryside.

Buxton is a pretty town, probably because of the geothermal spring which has made it a popular spa getaway since the 1700s. We didn't actually try the water from the spring, or go to a spa, since we were mainly here for walking.

We did manage to stop in at Lyme park on the way back to Manchester. Definitely recommend a visit here. It was the exterior for Pemberley in the classic BBC Pride and Prejudice series. And the location of the famous pond scene with Colin Firth. There was a little blurb about this scene on the information boards. And Colin Firth never dived into the lake. They had to use a stuntman. They were too worried that he would catch some disease from the algae or rats. Kind of changes the feeling around that scene.

The famous pond and Pemberley.

We didn't have a heap of time to look around, plus it was raining pretty hard, which was a shame. But you could easily spend a day at this place, the grounds are huge!

Seven Sisters

First view of the cliffs

One of the more popular day walks from London is the Seven Sisters, in Sussex, starting in Seaford and ending in Eastbourne. It's a longish day, about 20km with some up and down as you go over the sisters. It's a great view of the white cliffs, probably better than from Dover. If the weather is nice, this is a really great day out, though there aren't many opportunities to go for a swim. To be honest the cliffs are much nicer than the beaches. The beaches all seem to be covered in pebbles and moss, not what I look for in a beach. Eastbourne, where you finish, has a massive beach, still covered in pebbles. But it's nice sitting on the beach having a well-earned drink at the end.  The seven sisters are the seven cliff peaks from Cuckmere River to Birling Gap. And when you see shots of the cliffs of Dover in TV and films you are generally seeing these cliffs instead.

The beautiful English beach

Looking back along the cliffs and the National Trust lunch spot.

There is a bit of a slog out of Seaford, and before you get to the actual cliffs you have to ford a river. The council must have changed this part of the route, because in the past I think it was a couple of kilometres detour to walk up the river to a bridge. The river was definitely passable for us though, I'm not sure if that was because the tide was low. It was soooo cold, definitely halted any thoughts of a swim.

Lighthouse view 

I would definitely recommend this walk, I can see why it's so popular, it's a bit of a trip from London though, being 90 minutes on a train. The line is also Southern, which is a total pain, since there are just constant cancellations, strikes and delays on that train line at the moment.

Anyway, the Seven Sisters is a classic English walk, good views, gentle, rolling hills and not too strenuous. With ample chances for tea and scones.

Dolomites

Our awesome home for the week

We spent almost a week in the Dolomites over summer. I had never thought to really go to the Dolomites, but I'm so glad I did. They were so great, warm everyday, great walks and fantastic views. It was quieter than I would expect for somewhere with such great views, and weather. For some reason I would have thought the walking trails would have been a lot busier, but we kind of had them to ourselves.

We hired a house just outside Cortina D'Ampezzo, which had the most stunning view. Looking out across a meadow and Cortina proper to massive mountain peaks. It turns out that Cortina is actually where all the ultra-fashionable Italians go. So it was a bit funny for us to pop into the supermarket in town in our normal clothes only to see everyone super polished walking up and down the mall. I had to buy a whole new set of clothes there so I could go out to dinner. I had only packed hiking gear, which wasn't going to make the grade in Cortina.

The view from our balcony

There was a really good mix of forest and mountain walking here. Plus there are cable cars running, so no need to slog up and down the steep hills. We were thinking it would be a bit chilly, given Cortina is at 1200m elevation, but nope, lovely and warm the whole time. The Dolomites are super close to the Austrian border, in fact I think Austria used to control this area, so there is quite a German influence in the house design. And yet still Italian in other ways, you could always get a pizza and nice cheeses.

So many mountains

Village of Cortina - surrounded by mountains

We did some nice easy walks too, almost directly from the house. There was a good forest walk through a mountain meadow and then an isolated farmhouse for lunch. With a good selection of animals to play with.

There were some walks from the top of cable cars, with fantastic views out to the mountain ranges around us. It was up there that you could see how far the mountains went for. There was some good history around too, because this region was part of Austria until after World War I. So there was some fighting in the mountains surrounded Cortina. That would have been hard-core, fighting battles in those mountains.

View from the cable car stop above Cortina

It was a really relaxing holiday, because we were staying just out of Cortina it was nice and quiet. But only a 5 minute drive into the village. And with great views and perfect weather. Italy really does deliver on the weather front. I think if I was to go back to Cortina I would fly into the cheap Venice airport, and then it's almost directly north from there. So actually pretty easy to get to from London.

Fancy lunch venue - who's view we ruined by eating lunch on the other side

Kinder Scout

Me looking prepared at the start

As well as doing the lovely, relaxed, easy walk of the Great Ridge, we had to do something on Kinder Scout, this is an area that has such history in the UK. It was here that saw the mass trespassing that ensured we still have access to these great wild areas of the country. The UK is really a nation of ramblers and this trespass ensured we still have places to ramble. This walk was held in much more miserable conditions than the one on the great ridge, even taking into account the hail storms. It was meant to be only 14km, but through poor weather, poor paths and a lack of compass it ended up being a bit longer, about 4kms longer.

It was here that I actually got a bit nervous for the first time in the UK. If we were less fit, or less prepared, things could have gone a bit bad. It seems that the Mountain Rescue team do a lot of callouts for lost walkers on the plateau. And having been up there in really bad weather, I can certainly see how easy that would be. If you want tricky navigation, the Kinder Scout plateau is definitely a good challenge. And it's only 630m high or so, goes to show you that it's not necessarily elevation that causes issues. I would definitely go back to this place, but with a compass next time, it was so incredibly wild, and with a tinge of danger, and only 2 hours from London. That's pretty awesome!

The threatening skies - this was when we could still see.

If you like a good bog too, this is the place to go. It was quite incredible, pulling yourself up onto the peat blobs. I don't even know how to describe them, but these tussocks would be almost as high as me, and you would have to pull yourself onto them, there was no way around. And just so much mud. I was kind of expecting a path, across the plateau, but once you leave the edges there really is nothing, no people, no paths, no view. I don't really have many photos from the second part of the walk, since once we left the edge it became a bit more strenuous and I got a bit tired.

The sheep, safe in their fields

Our walk took us up Jacobs Ladder, so you start off wandering through fields with little lambs, and it's all quite pleasant. And then you get to the top and the cloud is super low, there is snow everywhere and the wind is really quite strong. On this first part of the walk there were quite a few people around, I guess because the paths were so good at this point. So we are still feeling pretty comfortable and relaxed. We were thinking we were going to be finished this walk in no time!

There are also all these great rock formations along the edge of the escarpment, they really look kind of mystical, as if giants had something to do with them. All around is just this boggy heather stuff, and then every now and again there are these massive rock piles. The route I had originally planned meant we would avoid most of the big rock piles, but luckily, with our lack of compass we got to do them as well. We carried on around the edge of the plateau until we got to Kinder Downfall, it's a waterfall, the names are really weird in this part. But the wind was so strong a lot of the water was actually blowing upwards. That was pretty cool.

Some of the weird rock formations in the distance

Kinder Downfall, with the water flowing up

This was when it then got a bit dodgy, the map I had suggested there was a path across the plateau to complete the loop where we started. We had also got a bit complacent with the great paths we have seen before in the UK, so hadn't bothered with a compass. Big mistake. The path was almost entirely non-existent, you were just searching for foot prints really. We were following a water course, so perhaps the water was higher than usual and had covered what path there normally is. Or perhaps it's so boggy up there, that paths just don't last. We were always going to be ok though, we had the map and knew so long as we veered more one direction than the other we would eventually hit the escarpment edge again. You didn't want to veer the other way, as you would have ended up parallel to the edge, and that would not have been good. The weather had really deteriorated at this point too, so we could barely see 50m ahead. All rather fun.

We managed to see some of the rocks in the distance eventually, then it was back along the edge on the other side of Edale. I definitely want to get back there, to explore more of this plateau. Hopefully in better weather.

Statue of Liberty

Classic view

 When you are in New York there is one thing you can't miss, and that's the Statue of Liberty (even though I did miss it last time I was there). This was probably the most touristy thing we did, I doubt you can get more touristy than that. If you are organised you could get tickets to visit either the pedestal or the crown, but it seemed like you needed to be 6 months organised to go up the crown. So we did neither of those things, you can still visit the island though and wander around, which is good in it's own right. Definitely go early, you want to be on one of the first boats, it does take a surprisingly long time to see everything.

It's really massive

There is a bit of history on the island, and it's quite large, so it never feels that crowded. At one point it looked likely that it might not even be erected on the island. The US was in charge of financing the pedestal, while the French would pay for the actual statue. The French were going great guns, with the statue being easily paid for, whilst the US was lagging far behind. The government was refusing to pay anything for it, other cities started to offer to pay in return for the statue being moved to their location. It wasn't until Joseph Pulitzer got involved and said he would publish the names of everyone who contributed in his newspaper that the donations started to flow.

The statue is quite interesting in itself. It was designed by a French sculptor, Bartholdi, but he didn't really know how to erect it. Gustave Eiffel got involved, so the statue is actually a massive tower, with the copper skin just wrapped around it. It was one of the first instances of a structure where the outer walls are not load bearing, which is how a lot of skyscrapers are built nowadays. He actually built the statue before he did the Eiffel Tower. He really got into the tower building.

Getting to and from the island is a real experience in tourist herding, and since everyone has such practise in it, it's pretty smooth. There is a bit of waiting around, and you may think, as you are standing in this massive crush of people, that there is no way you are all going to fit on the boat. But then you all fit, there are never people left behind waiting for the next boat. It's this massive empty shell of a boat, designed for maximum people carrying.

When you buy a ticket to the statue, you get a ticket to the Ellis Island Immigration museum at the same time. This was kind of interesting, I wouldn't spend too long here, but it did have some interesting stuff. It kind of got smashed in hurricane Sandy, and is still recovering, apparently the whole island was submerged. You could tell that a bit from the exhibits, there were a few that were closed and some of it still seemed a bit half-done.

It was here though that I learned that the US was getting on average 1 million immigrants between 1905 and 1914, which is a crazy amount of people arriving. I get why the statue is such a symbol now, there must have been so many people coming past it hoping for a better life. The immigrants arriving in New York would have to first be inspected on Ellis Island, the government wanted to make sure they could support themselves, though only 2% of people arriving were refused entry. Which sounds pretty low, it feels like we allow in many fewer than 98% of people who apply for visas to immigrate nowadays.

As well as the immigration stuff, which was pretty interesting, there was also a bit on the history of the US as a whole. This was about the only museum we found in the whole time we were in New York which actually dealt with the history of the country. There is one thing I remember about this part of the museum, perhaps because it was so harrowing. I had never heard about the Trail of Tears before visiting this place. There was a bit of hoopla in the US lately because they wanted to put Harriet Tubman on the $20 note, replacing Andrew Jackson, and there seemed to be some opposition to this.

Which is incredible when you learn about this Andrew Jackson guy. Apparently he owned 100s of slaves and was the main advocate of the forced relocation policy for the American Indians. It was this policy which led to the Trail of Tears, and we learned about the Cherokee removal in particular. This seemed especially sad, as they were actually using the institutions of the US to protect their land and rights. The supreme court had even agreed with them, saying the individual states couldn't infringe on their rights, but this Andrew Jackson refused to uphold the Supreme Court's ruling and allowed the Cherokee to be forcibly removed. This ended up being something of a death march, with thousands of people dying.

Once I learned this it was very weird to hear so many people defending his position on the note, especially since Harriet Tubman seemed such a hero in comparison.

Universities

Columbia - main square

We visited a few universities whilst in New York, there is Columbia, which I never realised was actually in New York. And we also went to Princeton, not technically in New York, but New Jersey. So ticked off another state, that must be seven by now. Columbia is an amazing university, it's a completely different style to the universities I am used to. The ones in Australia are characterised by massive amounts of space, and the ones in the UK have their age. Whereas Columbia was tightly packed, with these winding passageways between different buildings, crossing roads and surrounded by an impassable fence. You were kind of trapped on the campus, since all the gates were shut, perhaps it wasn't term time or something.

Now that's a library - Columbia University

Of course it's the Philosophy department

The buildings were amazing, par for the course I guess in New York. It definitely felt like a rich campus, but then at $65,000/year I guess that's to be expected. It's kind of weird, because the campus is almost in Harlem, but none of the people who live in Harlem go to this university. We only went to Columbia because we were taking a look at this massive church around the corner, the Cathedral of St John the Divine. Along the wall outside this church had a photography exhibition of poverty in America. So to see all that and then walk almost around the corner to Columbia was a bit of a juxtaposition.

We also went out to Princeton for a night, we weren't planning on spending the night, but then it was just so peaceful there, we thought why not. It was a really pleasant break from New York.

This is another insane campus, it's definitely levels above Columbia. What makes Princeton feel even more crazy, is the journey to get there. There is a train from Penn Station in New York, now that is a depressing train station. You come out of the pee-scented metro, into what really feels like a prison. The ceiling is really low, it's super dark, there's just hordes of homeless people wandering around. And the journey through New Jersey is another level of dystopian future. Imagine massive factories, industrial wasteland, polluted streams and lakes, massive parking lots full of cars, and you are probably still picturing something nicer than what New Jersey actually is. The next stop on from Princeton is Trenton, which is in the top ten of murder cities in America. So yeah, it's a nice train ride.

But then you get off at Princeton, and there is a little tiny train that takes you all the way into the campus. It's only 5 minutes, and the train will wait for everyone getting off the one from New York. Princeton university actually got the train station moved 200 metres so they could build a new arts centre, now that is power.

Don't even know what this department is - but that's an awesome door topper

Princeton is a lovely little town, totally a bubble, it's completely different from everything around it. It's got this little village square surrounded by cute little shops, it's got nice restaurants, it's really clean. And oh so quiet. A couple of illustrations as to how rich this place is, they have these alumni weeks, where the different years try to out-compete with how much money they donate. One year built a lake once, and not just a little lake, but a massive rowing lake. It's so they could be like Cambridge I think. They have an art gallery on campus, free entry, and it's full of Turner's and Monet's, Warhol. It's crazy, and there's hardly anyone in there, for such great art. And it's all been donated by various alumni. It really is a different place. I can't even imagine what it's like to go to undergraduate there.

The Peak District

Looking along the great ridge

We haven't been to the peak district in an awfully long time. It was one of the first national parks we visited when arriving in the UK, and it was probably time to return. Last time we tried for a walk around Edale, which ended early when I upended myself into a freezing stream. That wasn't going to happen this time.

I was keen to do some good walks here, it was too early for the Lake district, so I was hoping the Peaks delivered. This time we were firmly in the dark peak district, the region around Kinder Scout, we had done a bit in the white peaks, which is more rolling hills and farmland, so I was hoping it was going to be a bit wilder. It certainly didn't disappoint, I had my first slightly nervous moments in England during this weekend.

Weird sinkholes in the dark peaks

Looking across to Kinder Scout

I had forgotten how easy it is to get to the peaks from London, a 2 hour train trip on Friday, up to Manchester, then an hours drive to get to Edale, the heart of the peaks. We started the weekend with a nice easy ridge walk. This has to be a classic peak district walk, it's along the great ridge, over Mam Tor, with a view over Kinder Scout rising up on the other side of Edale. This is a really easy walk too, with easy exit points, and a great path the whole way. Definitely one of the first to do I think. You can always extend and make a loop if you want as well, there are so many paths and ways around that you could walk for as long as you like really.

A great view at any angle

Looking towards Back Tor

There was still a surprising amount of snow around. I was thinking since we were much further south, that most of it would have melted. But even walking we still had hail storms to contend with, luckily the stones weren't too big. This walk had a lot of people that looked completely unprepared, I'm talking jeans and no rain gear. There were even people in t-shirts, and it was freezing. They sure breed them tough up north.

I took an awful lot of photos, but the view was pretty stunning. Kinder Scout was covered in snow, and there kept being these breaks in the wind.

Kinder Scout - covered in snow

Last one of this view