The following entries were tagged with “travel”. They are displayed with the most recent entries first. (1–4)

2007 in Cities

Posted in and on Wed, 02nd Jan 2008 at 19:12

I have a pile of stuff to post about, both things I want to link to and a few observations and more journal-like things that Id like t post about. Right now I don't have the mental bandwidth to accommodate that volume of joined-up thought, so I'm falling back on the blogging stalwarts of ripping off other bloggers and compiling lists. Real content to follow. This post is more for my own interest in years to come.

With that gripping lede out of the way, here's a list—inspired by (i.e., copied from) Jason Kottke—of the cities I've visited in 2007.

  • Dublin (I actually moved here)
  • London (four times, not counting passing through Heathrow)
  • Nottingham
  • San Francisco
  • Mountain View
  • Las Vegas
  • San José
  • Liverpool
  • Paris
  • Manchester
  • Chester

My plans for 2008 already include all of these cities except Paris (though I wouldn't be opposed), as well as Birmingham, New York, Zurich, Naples, Los Angeles, and Ankara. Doing my bit for climate change.

Mountain View

Posted in , , , , , , , and on Tue, 17th Apr 2007 at 01:32

I've just payed to renew this domain for the next year, so I guess I better start using it. It's been a busy couple of weeks for me, what with starting work, Good Good Friday in Nottingham, and now I'm in Mountain View, California.

Yesterday I took myself on a self-guided walking tour of San Francisco. I wholeheartedly recommend walking across the Golden Gate Bridge (photos to come). On the other hand I cannot in good conscience recommend walking to the Golden Gate Bridge from downtown San Francisco. My feet hurt. I'm reminded of this story. Here's a map of my approximate route, though I actually took a more up-and-over approach than a go-around approach to the hills.

I set out from the Caltrain station at 11:30 and got back there at 18:30. That's local time. In GMT those times translate to some time next Thursday. Of course I managed to get a Golden Gate shot glass, not to mention reams of photos of the bridge, of Alcatraz Island and of some really steep hills.

Isn't There an Alternative?

Posted in , , and on Thu, 29th Mar 2007 at 16:05

Search Google maps for directions from Dublin, Ireland to San Francisco, California and look at step #46:

Swim across the Atlantic Ocean 5,572 km

I was rather hoping to fly…

Comments:
Fri, 30th Mar 2007 (11:21)

I think that #47 is even better! Turn left at Long Wharf! The simplicity of swimming across the atlantic boiled down into 5 words! I would at least think that even a superior male specimen like yourself would have to take a breather after your jaunt across the ocean!

by Karl Melady
Fri, 30th Mar 2007 (15:18)

Surely it would be more efficient to drive to Galway and then swim, rather than making your way to France first.

by Joe
Sun, 01st Apr 2007 (01:47)

It's actually quite a clever prank, albeit released somewhat soon for April Fool's day. It turns out that if you travel eastward, distances are indicated in miles, while voyagers with a departure address in Europe are treated to distances in kilometers. Try it yourself, asking for reverse directions. And this interesting feature is implemented flawlessly in "localized" Google Maps versions, too.

Awesome find, Rory.

by nv1962

Travel Plans

Posted in , and on Wed, 28th Mar 2007 at 10:53

I don't know if I mentioned before that my starting work next week looked like it was going to prevent me from spending the Easter weekend in Nottingham with the Joinees. It turns out that my manager will be away at the end of that week, so I can take the Thursday off even though it's only my fourth day on the job. Thanks to the bank holiday on Friday and the public holiday on Monday, my first weekend will be five days long. I just needed to book a hotel, because I still had my flights.

The following weekend, I'll be flying to California to spend three weeks at Google HQ in Mountain View, near San Francisco.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go and get a machine-readable passport.