UNITED KINGDOM 2010 TRIP
Introduction:
We went to the UK, from June 29 to July 13, 2010. Our trajectory was London to Dover to Cardiff to Lake District to Edinburgh to Sea Houses to York to London. We were going to 'see a lot'. This included numerous historical places, places of natural beauty and, of course, places with some birds. While we did see a number of birds, we saw a lot, period. The history and scenery well outdid our expectations.
Travel books used:
Rick Steve's Great Britain 2010, Lonely Planet Great Britain 2009 (my favorite), Frommer's London 2009 (my least favorite). We also received a copy of Back Roads Great Britain from some friends. Though covering a number of great drives, none fit into our plans so we left it at home.
Bird resources used:
Birds of Europe, 2nd Edition, Lars Svensson; Where To Watch Birds: Britain, by Simon Harrap and Nigel Redman, 2003; British Bird Sounds on CD, The British Library; Birdwatch magazine: had a 1 year subscription; and a glance at some reports on line.
Places stayed at:
Appear in the text below, with links.
Car Rental and Insurance:
From Rick Steves' UK book we learned about Travel Guard car insurance as an alternative to getting insurance from the rental agency. Often times it works out to be cheaper. It is done via the web and we got collision insurance for the duration of our car rental for $102.00. As Travel Guard informs, the rental agency will probably tell you that you need their insurance, to which you should say no thanks I have my own. This happened to us.
As for the car we rented from Auto Europe, at the price of $271.46 for the 11 days; Auto Europe appears to be the lesser known name for Euoprcar/Alamo,National. We were given a Ford Mondeo. When we got the car the rental agreement had an estimate of 154.42 GBP and this is what we were charged when we returned the car. My credit card statement after the trip verified my charges were for $271.46 for 11 days; quite cheap!
The surprise was when we returned home we received a letter from Europcar notifying us of a fine for driving on London Road on July 9, 2010 at 14:03. We had heard that there were rules that limited the driving of cars in London to help control congestion but weren't aware that it applied to rental cars. The charge was 60 GBP for the congestion charge and Europcar charged a 27 GBP fee and also there was a VAT added at 4.73 GBP.
Arrival:
Arrived very tired to Heathrow at about 11:45 am on Tuesday, June 29. Picked up the car and heeded towards Leeds Castle. Got to the castle a couple hours before closing and had a great time going in and around the castle! Then we drove on to Dover.
South East England
Arrived at Dover and stayed two nights at Maison Deux, for 87 GBP per night, breakfast included. We enjoyed our stayed at this B&B very much, and the hosts were very accommodating.
On Wednesday, June 30, went to Dover Castle and had a splendid time among the Roman, Saxon and Norman components and a great tour through the tunnels which played a role in WWI and a very large role in WWII. Had some lunch and stopped at the parking and walking area above the cliffs of Dover and had wonderful views of the cliffs and harbor below, as well as France across the channel. Drove to Canterbury and parked at a park and ride to take a bus to downtown. We were a little late to tour the cathedral so attended Evensong instead. Afterwords, we went over to Stodmarsh to do some birdwatching. It was quite a little trip, our first encounter with roads that are 1/2 the width of the narrowest we'd driven in the US; at least the sides were bush and tree only and not rocks as in the Lake District. The marsh was quite quiet and full of mosquitos.
Our first night in Dover we ate at Carpathian restaurant which was good. On Wednesday we ate lunch at Castle Fish & Chips, which we don't recommend, and had a late dinner at a kebab place in Canterbury.
South Central England
On Thursday, the 1st of July we had a rather ambitious schedule: Portsmouth to see Admiral Nelson's ship, Stonehenge and Bath, to see the Roman baths, and finally to Cardiff to sleep. We left a little late after a great breakfast and headed up to the M25 and then started heading back down to get to Portsmouth. We realized we were tight on time and started heading towards Stonehenge, deciding to skip Portsmouth. We saw signs for The Hawk Conservancy Trust, in Andover and decided to stop. Saw numerous beautiful raptors and owls, primarily from Europe and Africa and were treated to a tremendous show at the 'Valley of the Eagles Display'; really spectacular show! Then made our way to Stonehenge for a fabulous time and afterwards to a park and ride outside Bath where we took a bus to the Roman baths, which were open til 9pm. After Bath we finally made it to Cardiff, ready to get some rest.
Wales
Slept great at the Annedd Lon in Cardiff, paying 80 GBP for bed and breakfast. We went over to the National Museum of Cardiff to see some fantastic displays, including dinosaurs, and some paintings. Then off to the Cardiff Castle for a visit along with lunch and back on the road. We drove up to Hawkshead in the Lake District which was our longest drive of our trip. Luckily traffic was reasonably light as we skirted around some of the larger cities en route. We got the sense the traffic could get quite bad in this route.
The Lake District
We stayed from the night of Friday, July 2, to the morning of Sunday, July 4, in Hawkshead atAnn Tysons B&B at 85 GBP per night for bed and breakfast. On the 3rd we went to the Beatrix Potter Gallery in Hawkshead, then to The World of Beatrix Potter in Bowness-on-Windermere and finally to Hill Top, Beatrix Potter's House, in Hawkshead. The roads in the lake district can be nerve rackingly narrow and the sides more often than not have rock walls.
Edinburgh
Our next destination was to Edinburgh. We planned to detour and get some bird watching in if possible. We headed toward Barnard Castle and the rain really was coming down. When we arrive to the castle the rain stopped and we walked the grounds. We started to walk along the River Tees and the rain started up again so we headed out and headed towards the High Force waterfall. The waterfall was spectacular. We then headed back towards the main highway heading north. The stretch of road from the High Force to the highway was great. Wide open views of the countryside, plenty of space to pull over and hardly any other cars: the only road like this that we encountered our whole trip. It was on this road we saw the lapwing, oystercatcher and red grouse. The red grouse, a mother and children, were walking across the road and we stopped and watched these lovely birds.
We made our way up to Edinburgh, where we stayed from Sunday, July 4
to Tuesday, July 6. We stayed at the Apex Waterloo Place Hotel, which
was nice at 90 GBP plus 10 GBP for breakfast for adults with kids eating all meals for free. We took a bus tour, using the bus line that has real narrative as opposed to audio recordings, and spent most of the 5th at the castle and the Holyrood Palace. I took a liking for the Irn Bru soft drink.
North East England - Sea Houses
On the 6th we made our way to Sea Houses, driving a little past the city to stop at Alnwick Castle, the site of Hogwart's in the Harry Potter movies and the current home of the royal family of Northumbria; great castle. We got to our hotel in Sea Houses, the Bamburgh Castle Inn, at 100 GBP with breakfast. We walked a little along the coast and then made our way to our room to catch some sleep, with views over the ocean. On the 7th we learned that the all day trip, involving going to two islands, was cancelled due to an inability to land at one of the islands, so we took the one island trip to the Inner Farnes Island. This was fantastic, allowing over an hour of walking around huge breeding bird colonies; just incredible. We went with the operation run by Billy Shiel, having learned of the operation from Where To Watch Birds: Britain.
York
After the boating, we headed off to York, where we stayed from Wednesday, the 7th of July, to Friday, the 9th of July. We stayed at the Acer Guest House, which was quite nice and convenient, with on street parking and a short walk to the walls of the city. On the 8th we toured the fantastic York Minster, the cheesy Jorvik, and 1/2 of the superb York Castle Museum, where we had lunch.
London
On the 9th we headed to London and crept in to check in to our hotel and then dropped the car at the airport and take the tube back. We stayed from the 9th to the 11th at the Crowne Plaza near Blackfriar Bridge, for 154 GBP per night, without breakfast. Very nice accomodations but we never ate there as the food was pricey; we did get all the free movies and internet we wanted. The 11th to 13th we spent at The Arran House Hotel, at 132 GBP per night with a nice breakfast included.
On the 10th we went to St. Paul's Cathedral, the Tower of London and the Tate Modern. A real mindfiller of a day. On the 11th we transferred over to our new and last B&B. Then headed out to the amazing British Museum, passed through the packed Picadilly Circus, through Trafalgar Square and crossed the Thames to take a turn on The Eye. Incredible day, as others were. On the 12th we went to the National Gallery, chock full of art, and then made our way to Westminster Abbey. In passing St. James park we noticed some apparently wild birds in the waters there and in another part of the park some obviously tame birds. Our pause caused us to be late for getting in the abbey and so we opted for attending Evensong later and spent time around the Parliament buildings and Big Ben.
Food in London was very expensive and most of eating was accomplished by buying packaged food (sandwiches, etc) and eating in our room or outside on a bench along the Thames or in a park. The following three food stores were particularly convenient and had decent standards: Tesco Express, Pret A Manger, Marks & Spencer (M&S); the later is a department store but they do have grocery stores.
Departure:
On the 13th, the day of our departure, we took it easy and a little before noon took a hired car, arranged by Arran House, to Heathrow and headed back home.
Birds Seen by Location:
Leeds: Tame black swan, whooping swans and barnacle geese. Wild: greylag goose, canada goose, shelduck, mallard, tufted duck, great crested grebe, coot, moorhen, black headed gull, herring gull, pigeon, wood pigeon, collared dove, swift, pied wagtail, black bird, blue tit, magpie, jackdaw, rook, starling, goldfinch, chiffchaff. Rooks were on nearby roads.
Dover Castle: kestrel, dunnock, pigeon, wood pigeon, chaffinch.
Dover Cliffs: fulmar, lesser black-backed gull, and a falcon which was either peregrine falcon or hobby.
Stodmarsh: great crested grebe, moorhen, blackbird, cetti's warbler (heard loud and clear), jay, magpie, wren, blue tit, chiffchaff, chaffinch, jackdaw, blackcap, possibly a cormorant, some distant geese and ducks, one of the reed warbler-like warblers was heard. (32 so far)
The Hawk Conservancy Trust: a wild kestrel and pheasant joined in the show and a grey heron was visible off in the distance.
Stonehenge: skylark, pied wagtail.
Cardiff: song thrush, peregrine falcon on a tower of the museum, moorhen, lesser black-backed gull, mallard, mute swan, long-tailed tit. (39 so far)
Hawkshead: house martin, house sparrow, goldcrest, dunnock, barn swallow, robin. (44)
Barnard Castle and High Force: barn swallow, chaffinch, pied wagtail, spotted flycatcher, red grouse, lapwing, oystercatcher. (48)
Sea Houses Coast: oystercatcher, rock pipit, grey heron, herring gull, lesser black-backed gull, black-headed gull, house sparrow, eider, ruddy turnstone, redshank, curlew, kestrel, starling, sand martin, swift.
Inner Farnes Island: eider, gannet (over the water), ringed plover, black-headed gull, herring gull, lesser black-backed gull, kittiwake, cormorant, shag, pied wagtail, guillemot, puffin, arctic tern, common tern, sandwich tern; fairly sure saw a great black-backed gull. (64)
York: greylag goose, canada goose
London: tame: barnacle goose, red-breasted goose, bar-headed goose, possibly ferruginous duck, pelican. Wild: pochard, red-crested pochard, ruddy duck, grey heron, moorhen, coot
Final List
67 species
11 lifers
| mute swan |
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| greylag goose |
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| canada goose |
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| shelduck |
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| mallard |
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| pochard |
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| red-crested pochard |
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| tufted duck |
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| eider |
|
| ruddy duck |
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| red grouse |
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| pheasant |
|
| great crested grebe |
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| fulmar |
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| gannet |
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| cormorant |
|
| shag |
|
| grey heron |
|
| kestrel |
|
| peregrine falcon |
|
| moorhen |
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| coot |
|
| oystercatcher |
|
| ringed plover |
|
| lapwing |
|
| turnstone |
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| redshank |
|
| curlew |
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| black headed gull |
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| herring gull |
|
| lesser black-backed gull |
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| kittiwake |
|
| sandwich tern |
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| common tern |
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| arctic tern |
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| puffin |
|
| guillemot |
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| pigeon |
|
| woodpigeon |
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| collared dove |
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| swift |
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| skylark |
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| sand martin |
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| barn swallow |
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| house martin |
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| rock pipit |
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| pied wagtail |
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| dunnock |
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| robin |
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| song thrush |
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| black bird |
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| blackcap |
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| cetti's warbler |
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| chiffchaff |
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| goldcrest |
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| wren |
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| spotted flycatcher |
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| blue tit |
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| long-tailed tit |
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| magpie |
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| jay |
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| jackdaw |
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| rook |
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| starling |
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| house sparrow |
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| chaffinch |
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| goldfinch |
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