Your Trip Guru

Thanks for indulging me this past week as I’ve chronicled my family’s journey down the west coast of our country.

On Friday we started our northward return - this time, going along California’s Pacific Coast Highway (#1). We stopped for a tour of Hearst Castle - a really well-done and interesting tour - well worth the two hours.

We saw many elephant seals just north of Hearst Castle. We’ve now seen elephant seals, sea lions, and harbor seals on this trip - all of the Pacific coast’s pinnipeds.

From there up through Monterey, we were treated to one spectacular view after another on the sharply twisting highway. A sampling of our pics is belo

Past Monterey, we left the coast and headed over to Fairfield, California. We surprised the girls on Saturday with a tour of the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield - a big hit for our ten year olds. We left with several pounds of jelly beans, including some fun bags of irregulars (or “belly flops”).

Most of today we spent in Napa Valley, touring vineyards. The pics below are from Sterling Vineyards, which has a gondola that carried us up to the grapes, and another impressive tour.

The stone wall crumbles upon touch; instant powder. Overhead, the low wooden beams, painted a jet black, creak with all the years they’ve seen. In the corner, and old woman is yabbering away at her long-suffering husband about how nice the city is. She must be getting on for 80, but compared to her surroundings, she’s a spring chicken, a fresh-faced young thing ready to take on the world.

The dusty walls and looming ceilings belong to Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem in Nottingham, purportedly the oldest pub in Britain. Serving its first ale in 1189, nearly a millennium has flown by for this cramped sanctuary. Whilst any stories this antiquated have to be taken with a fist full of salt, the romantics would have it that Richard the Lionheart and his brave knights stopped off here and had one for the road before heading off to fight the Crusades in the Holy Land. That, should anyone need reminding, is a very long time ago. On the wall, there is a tapestry, depicting the city from Roman times to the present day, and Ye Olde Trip has been there for half of that timeline. It’s seen a lot.

In many ways, it is the quintessential British pub. It’s snug, it’s cosy, and has a selection of totally random beers on tap, with names like Cursed Galleon. But it’s not many such taverns that you can say are the starting point of a pub crawl through history.

Ye Olde Trip is just that, nestled into the walls of Nottingham Castle, a building which has taken many forms over the years. It was originally erected by William the Conqueror, two years after the Norman invasion of Britain in 1066. Throughout the years, this Midlands city has been seen as a prime piece of strategic real estate. A buffer between north and south, a gathering point for weary troops and a convenient launchpad for keeping the surrounding areas in order. It’s gone through many incarnations over the years too, having been burned down, left to ruin and remade for various purposes. These days, it’s simply a nice place to hang out. It’s home to a museum and gallery, while the perfectly manicured gardens glisten in the sunlight for picnickers and dozing office workers alike. The artistry that has gone into the gardening is astonishing. Floral displays are dotted around the grounds, while the grand centrepiece is a knight in shining armour that has been painstakingly sculpted out of a bush.

It’s all rather idyllic and sleepy, which despite the odd contretemps and the strategic importance, was what Nottingham was for the first 500 or so years of Ye Olde Trip’s life.

• To beat jetlag, book an overnight flight or one that arrives in the evening when travelling east so you can either catch your sleep on the flight or as soon as you get in to your destination.
• To prevent the swelling of feet as is wont to happen on long flights, walk in the aisle at intervals and try not to take off your shoes.
• Refrain from OD-ing on the free booze when on a flight, as too much alcohol causes dehydration. Tank up instead on aqua-pura.
• When making flight reservation, remember to request for special meals if you have any food restrictions.
• After September 11, airlines follow very strict security procedures. So make sure you reach the airport for check in well before departure time. Its best to check with the airline regarding how much in advance you should be at the airport.
• If your baggage does not arrive on the same flight as you, fill out a Property Irregularity Report (PIR), with a description of the baggage, a list of contents and address to which it should be forwarded. If your baggage does not arrive at all, place a claim with the airline within 21 days.
• Overbooking is a fact of life in the airline industry. If you are not in a particular hurry to get to your destination then volunteer to give your seat up and take the next flight. The airline will provide you a hotel room and other frills, so you can end up having an extended vacation at the airlines expense!
• Do not accept any package from a stranger.
• For a smooth ride on a plane, choose the seats located near the wings as if the plane hits an air pocket, this is where you will get the least amount of bumps.
• If you are planning to watch the in flight movie, choose the fourth or fifth row from the screen to avoid getting a neck cramp.
• If you are prone to motion sickness, take an anti sickness pill before the flight. The pill won’t help much, if you have it after you have started feeling sick!
• Abide by the list of items prohibited on board and carry most items like skis/cues/walking canes/sticks/Swiss knives in checked in baggage - this smoothens the check-in process plus avoids the risk of confiscation and unnecessary delays.
• Last and this is equally important - report any unattended items in the airport or aircraft to the nearest airport or airline personnel.
• Keep track of the weather at your destination and be prepared, especially if you are going to a hurricane prone area.
• Make your hotel reservations in advance, especially if you are visiting a place in peak season. You don’t want to be caught without a roof over your head!
• Negotiating room tariffs over the phone? Call the hotel twice to confirm the rates. Note down the name of the person you have talked to and request a written/faxed confirmation. This way you can be sure that you will not be wrongly billed by the hotel.
• Don’t depend solely on the hotel’s alarm service. Carry your own little alarm clock to catch an early morning flight or that pre-dawn sightseeing trip.
• When you check into your hotel, ask the reception to give you a card with the hotel’s name address and telephone number. This will come in handy if you get lost or forget the name of your hotel.
• Check whether your hotel has a hair-dryer, iron, coffee percolator, etc, to avoid carrying these gadgets and also making it easy to skip the 110/220 conversion problem when travelling to foreign countries.
• Most hotels frown on guests doing their own laundry in the bathrooms, but if you do need to wash some smalls, carry a length of nylon twine to improvise a clothesline.