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March 31, 2025 – “Think positive thoughts, think positive thoughts…” Which I will now try to do, by focusing on a pleasant, upcoming overseas trip – instead of the current sordid and polarized state of American politics. As noted in the last post, this coming August I’ll be doing another Camino – Hiking the Canterbury Trail in England. (And once again, I define a Camino hike as one where at the end of each day you look forward to a warm bed, hot shower and a cold beer.)

But before that I’ll do a little recon, going over for two weeks this coming mid-May.

And by the way, before you can get into Great Britain you have to get an “ETA,” an electronic travel authorisation. (I applied for and got mine last December.) And just to be safe I also got a set of buttons indicating who I didn’t vote for. (“Let the reader understand.”) I’ll let you know how that turns out, but I’m thinking maybe I’ll get some free drinks along the way?

Then there’s the question: “Why would you spend good money to visit England twice, same year, in the space of four months?” For one thing, ever since 1965 – when I first heard Ferry ‘Cross the Mersey, that “Pacemaker” song – I wanted to do just that: Take the ferry across the River Mersey in Liverpool. This year I wanted to do that by flying over early in August, then taking the train from London to Liverpool. But it turned out that plan just wasn’t feasible, joined as it would be with trying to hike the Canterbury Trail on the same trip. But as it also turned out, a dear friend – and future travel-but-not-hiking companion – has a friend who lives in Stratford-on-Avon. And Stratford – as it thirdly turns out – is halfway between London and Liverpool.

But first, some preliminary details. First, the plan: Fly to London – another red-eye from Atlanta – and arrive next morning, all jet-lagged. Then get a modest place for that night, and next day take the train from London to Liverpool’s Lime Street Station. (The same one Brian Epstein repeatedly left from and came back to in 1962, trying to get a record deal for the Beatles. “Time and again he boarded the London train from Lime Street station… And time and again he would return with bad news for the band. One record label after another turned the group down.”)

Anyway, the point is that through a confluence of circumstance – ones I couldn’t foresee when I made my plane reservations for August – I am now able to make this mid-May trip to England. In turn that means I can both do a little recon for the Canterbury hike, while also being able to cross off a number of other Bucket list items that have been hanging fire lo these many years. (Decades in fact.) So this post will look ahead to that mid-May trip: 1) as a “preview of coming attractions,*” 2) as a point of reference for when I get over there, and 3) for future reference, for when I get home and can compare how dreams and plans matched up with reality.

So, aside from visiting London – for a second time; I went over in 1979 – on this trip in May I hope to: 1) take that ferry across the River Mersey, 2) come through Lime Street Station, with its historic connection to Brian Epstein and the Beatles, 3) see other Beatles-connected sites in Liverpool, 4) visit Stratford-on-Avon, with its historic connection to William Shakespeare, 5) make a day trip  to Winchester (via BritRail), where my hiking companions and I will start out in August, and 6) make a similar day trip to Canterbury, where we’ll end our hike.

But back to Lime Street Station. We’ll arrive there – after three hours* on the train – just like Brian Epstein returning from London in 1962, with the great news that his then-unknown group (the Beatles) finally had a record contract. (Though perhaps not coming in as “majestically” as Paul McCartney once put it.) We’ll only have one night in Liverpool, but that’s okay because the next day we only have to travel half-way back to London, to arrive at Stratford-on-Avon. (Or maybe the Leamington Spa station, a 24-minute car ride from Stratford.) Meaning that while we’ll only have that one night in Liverpool, most of the things I want to see there are clustered around the same area. (Between Lime Street station and the River Mersey.)

For example, the dock at Pier Head (Mersey Ferries | Liverpool) is a mere 20-minute walk from Lime Street Station, and only two minutes further from the hotel I booked for our one-night stay. There’s a Beatles statue in the area, along with the British Music Experience museum, the Liverpool Beatles Museum and The Cavern Club itself. (Where “it all started.”) So we’ll have plenty to do in Liverpool before heading southeast to Stratford.

And in Stratford? There are three Royal Shakespeare theatres, along with Shakespeare’s Birthplace, Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, and even a Shakespeare’s Distillery, “an artisan gin and rum distillery certified as a carbon-neutral business.” And maybe some practice hikes around the area, drinking in the ambience of those long-ago halcyon days. (Or so they seem to us.) Possibly followed by a G&T at that Shakespeare Distillery. And on Sunday, a service at Shakespeare’s Church – Holy Trinity, Stratford. There I’ll pray for continued safe travel, before getting ready to hop on the train back to London for seven or eight days. Once back in London we’ll use the remaining days on those BritRail passes for day-trips including but not limited to Winchester and Canterbury. (That’ll be the pre-August, pre-hike “on to Canterbury!”)

Finally, once the BritRail passed run out we’ll see if there’s anything else to do in London…

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The upper image is courtesy of Liverpool Lime Street railway station – Wikipedia. The caption: “LIME STREET STATION LIVERPOOL JULY 2013.” The article included the photo below left, “Inward view of Liverpool Lime Street Station in 1959.” (Closer to the time Brian Epstein frequented the place.)

Re, positive thoughts. The full link is to How to Think Positively Every Day: Advice (Wikihow). See also 11 Ways to Boost Positive Thinking, 5 Tips to Train Yourself to Think Positively – Walden University, and others, by Googling “think positive thoughts.”

Re: “Recon.” The link is to Reconnaissance – Wikipedia: “In military jargon, reconnaissance is abbreviated to recce (in British, Canadian, Australian English) and to recon (in American English), both derived from the root word reconnoitre / reconnoitering.” I’m familiar with the term because I came of draft-age in the late 1960’s (and thought I might end up involved in such things). More precisely, familiar with the term “LURPs,” long-range reconnaissance patrols in Vietnam. (A LRRP was conducted by a “small, well-armed reconnaissance team that patrols deep into enemy-held territory.”) For more information see Long-range reconnaissance patrol – Wikipedia and Long Range Patrol in Vietnam War| K75 Rangers: “The long-range reconnaissance patrols (LRRPs) of the Vietnam War operated in a silent netherworld of dark green shadows where error could mean death and where the extraordinary was commonplace.” (All of which means some things from your “yoot” are hard to forget. And by the way, “Lurps” is not a misspelling. That’s how they pronounced it back in the day…)

Re: “Preview.” See the old-time (1960’s) Prevues Of Coming Attractions (1960s) Cinema Promo Trailer.

Re: Stratford-upon-Avon. I usually shorten that to “on Avon” on the theory that in this day and age the average reader is overwhelmed with data and so of necessity has the attention span of a gerbil. Thus fewer syllables, fewer words, shorter sentences, shorter paragraphs, etc.

Re: “Hanging fire.” See Wiktionary, the free dictionary, that aside from figuratively meaning to “wait, or hold back,” it literally referred to the case “when a gun does not immediately fire when the trigger is pulled, but may fire shortly after.” (Which I didn’t know. See also “misfire.”)

On Brian Epstein trying to get a record deal, see Lecture 5 in the Great Course, England, the 1960s, and the Triumph of the Beatles. (“Beatles for Sale: Brian Epstein’s Genius.”) Professor Michael Shelden opened by quoting Paul McCartney during a taped interview in 2007. Enduring a number of technical glitches Sir Paul said serenely, “We’ll get it right. We’ll move majestically to the end like the steam train bringing Mr. Epstein into Lime Street Station to tell us we had a record deal.” Shelden added that if the Beatles were to conquer the world “they knew the journey would begin at Lime Street Station with the long trip to London.” And that Epstein repeatedly took that long train ride until, after “many frustrating setbacks,” he finally came back with a deal. (As for that deal, it was officially signed in June 1962. See George Martin offers The Beatles a recording contract, though it seems the band’s very first record contract came a year earlier, “in Hamburg, Germany, where the band honed its craft playing gigs in the city’s boisterous nightclub district.”) And here’s the full “time and again” quote:

Time and again he boarded the London train from Lime Street station and kept pitching the Beatles as the next big thing in music. And time and again he would return with bad news for the band. One record label after another turned the group down.

Re: The Mersey. The link is to Ferry Cross the Mersey – Wikipedia, about the Gerry and the Pacemakers song “released in late 1964 in the UK and in 1965 in the United States.” Also, “The Mersey Ferry runs between Liverpool and Birkenhead and Seacombe on the Wirral Peninsula.” See also FER Gerry Marsden Ferry Terminal – Seacombe Ferry Terminal. And there was also a Ferry Cross the Mersey (film), which I didn’t know until working on this post.

About that “three hour” train ride from London to Liverpool. I’ve seen Google Map references that say many such trips can take seven hours, but I’ve been assured ours won’t take that long.

Re: Stratford. See e.g. The 18 best things to do in Stratford-upon-Avon – Time Out. See also Church of the Holy Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon – Wikipedia.

Re: “Anything else to do in London.” That was either sarcasm, irony or maybe hyperbole? I sometimes get those three mixed up.

The lower image is courtesy of Church of the Holy Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon – Wikipedia.

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March 15, 2025 – It’s that time of year again. Well, almost. To explain, pretty much every September since 2019 I’ve done a Camino hike over in Europe. (To me a Camino hike means at the end of each day you look forward to a warm bed, hot shower and a cold beer.)

My brother and I started such hikes in 2017, on the Camino Frances. I met up with him in Pamplona and from there we hiked – and biked* – the 450 miles to Santiago de Compostela. (The “Way of St. James.”) In 2018 we changed up and did an 11-day canoe trip, from Kingston on Lake Ontario up to Ottawa. (A break in the hiking action.) In 2019 my sister-in-law joined us for a hike on the Portuguese Camino, from Porto – home of port wine – back up to Santiago. In 2020 came another break in the action, thanks to COVID, but in 2021 it was back to the Camino Frances – or at least the part I missed in 2017 – hiking over the “dread Pyrenees.” (For reasons explained in Hiking over the Pyrenees, in 2021 – finally!)

In 2022 we three hiked the Way of St. Francis in Italy, from Assisi down the 150 miles to Rome. In 2023 we hiked the Robert Louis Stevenson Trail in France, what the French call the GR 70 or “Chemin de Stevenson.” Last year – 2024 – we three hiked the Camino Finisterre – to the “end of the known world” – then on to the Camino Ingles. (Basically a round trip from Santiago, out to and up the northwestern coast of Spain, then back down to Santiago.)

In all those hikes we had to learn important terms in a foreign language to get by. (In Spain for example, words like cerveza and banos, pretty much in that order.) But not this year! This August we’ll be hiking in Merry Old England, and so will be able to understand what the locals are saying. (Pretty much.) Which means it’s time for a bit of preliminary research.

For example, in 2021 I posted Countdown to Paris – 2021, on August 8, the month before I flew over to do the over-the-Pyrenees hike. Then on July 24, 2023, I posted On visiting Paris and Lyon in 2023, before flying over to hike the Robert Louis Stevenson Trail. (In the Cévennes Mountains of south-central France.) Then on March 5, 2024, I posted Preparing for a Camino hike, for the Finisterre and Camino Ingles hikes – again in Spain.

The ’21 post covered the 2010 film, The Way, starring Martin Sheen. It’s central premise was not just that an old, out of shape Beverly Hills eye doctor went to France to recover the body of his son – who died while hiking over the Pyrenees. It also covered his spur-of-the-moment decision to go on and hike the 500 miles of the Camino Frances himself, without any prior preparation or training. In other words, the film shows all the things you should not do when preparing for such a hike. (Including sitting on a bridge and taking off your pack, only to see it fall into the river below and float away. Or leave your pack unattended, to be stolen by a young gypsy.)

The ’23 post discussed my early plans for climbing the towers of Basilique du Sacré Cœur in Paris and Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière in Lyon. (Neither of which panned out. “C’est la guerre.“) And finally, the ’24 post offered tips for such an adventure. It led off with a sentence, “Getting ready for a hike on the Camino de Santiago? [Remember my definition.] Here are some useful tips.” Which as it turns out is always good for me to review.

It talked mostly about the importance of having a good pack, not a “cheap low-hanging pack from a local ‘Yuppie Goodwill.’” And about how the experts say your pack – including a full bottle of water – should weigh no more than ten percent of your body weight. (In my case 15 pounds, but for the last two hikes I’ve gone to 20.) And about the importance of packing only quick-dry clothes, good hiking shoes – along with some other incidental concerns.

Which brings up preparing for the next adventure, hiking the Canterbury Trail. The destination is Canterbury Cathedral, home of the Archbishop of Canterbury, “spiritual leader of the Church of England and symbolic leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion.” A pivotal moment in its history was the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket, “in the north-west transept (also known as the Martyrdom) on Tuesday 29 December 1170, by knights of King Henry II:”

The posthumous veneration of Becket transformed the cathedral into a place of pilgrimage, necessitating both expansion of the building and an increase in wealth, via revenues from pilgrims, in order to make expansion possible.

And it looks like we needed to do this pilgrimage sooner rather than later. It turns out, “Much of the stonework at Canterbury Cathedral is damaged and crumbling, the roofs are leaking and much of the stained glass is badly corroded… [A] combination of centuries of weathering, pollution and constant use had taken its toll on the ancient building and some serious problems were in need of urgent action.” Which makes this trip kind of like that 2019 pilgrimage to Jerusalem,* what I rightly considered the chance of a lifetime. (I wouldn’t want to go back there now, or any time in the foreseeable future for that matter, and I am turning 74 in July.)

Back to the August hike: We’ll start at Winchester Cathedral, not just famous – for we of a certain age – for the 1966 novelty hit song by the New Vaudeville Band. But rather than “bringing me down,” this cathedral should make a good start for our UK pilgrimage. Among the largest of its kind in Northern Europe, it is the “sixth-largest cathedral by area in the UK, surpassed only by Liverpool, St Paul’s, York, Westminster (RC) and Lincoln,” and a major tourist attraction.

I hope and plan to write more preparation posts in the coming months, but in the meantime, here’s a glimpse of some of the foresty terrain we’ll be hiking through…

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The upper image is courtesy of Canterbury Cathedral From The Pilgrim’s Way Uk – Image Results. See also Pilgrims’ Way – Wikipedia, Canterbury Cathedral – Wikipedia, Pilgrims Way | Winchester to Canterbury | Pilgrim Walks, and Home | Canterbury Cathedral. (The site Pilgrims’ Way to Canterbury | The Natural Adventure offers a different and shorter route.)

Re: “Hiked – and biked.” Google Maps says it’s 234 miles from Pamplona to León, and from Leon, 182 miles to Santiago, though the official Camino mileage may differ. It took us 20 days, with one day off in Burgos, to get to Leon, but we only had 10 days left to finish. So we rented mountain bikes in Leon. (Google Maps also says the full Camino Frances hike from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in France – and over the Pyrenees – is 453 miles, but Camino guidebooks put the distance at 500 miles.)

Re: 2018 canoe trip, see The “Rideau Adventure” – An Overview. For information on other past hikes use the search engine at the upper right.

Re: That French term after the ’23 post review. See History of the phrase ‘c’est la guerre’ (‘it can’t be helped’). It noted, “The French phrase c’est la guerre – literally ‘it is war’ – expresses acceptance of, or resignation at, the situation engendered by war; it can be translated as ‘it can’t be helped.'”

Re: “Yuppie Goodwill.” It’s actually the Clothes Less Traveled store in Peachtree City GA. “And by the way, I ditched that low-hanging pack on the sidewalk, by a series of recycle bins, just outside our last lodging in Rome, at Viale Angelico 38. (A half-hour mile-and-a-half walk up from Vatican City.)”

Re: Pilgrimage to Jerusalem. See the May 2020 post, This time last year – in Jerusalem!

Re: “Bringing me down.” The 1966 song begins, “Winchester Cathedral, you’re bringing me down. You stood and you watched as [pause] my baby left town…”

The lower image is courtesy of Pilgrims’ Way – Wikipedia, which provided the caption.

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