Vicarious Travel

Something earlier this month led me to take down and read the journal I kept of my car tour around Great Britain during Easter Break of 1989.

At that time I was doing a sabbatical year abroad, studying at Oxford on a program sponsored by William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri. I was reading Medieval Church and Architecture History, and like a handful of other Oxbridge program students, I was privileged to be a lodger at Coverdale* Hall, one of the Church of England theological colleges affiliated with the University.

But we Americans suffered the same fate during school vacations as did the British students who didn't have all-year-round rooms-- we got kicked out for a month at Christmas and Easter to make space for conferences and seminars.

This was no hardship, really-- it gave us the incentive and excuse to travel. Most of my compatriots headed for the Continent both times. Me, I took my architectural tour of Europe in December, and devoted the Spring break to England, Scotland, and Wales.

And as I said, I kept a journal. A not-badly-written journal, if I say so myself. So from time to time, I plan to share my travels with you, interspersed with my usual entries for 2008.

I'll try to keep editing to a minimum. I might break up paragraphs to make them more readable. I well may excise portions where I wax a little too personal, or where I might embarrass others. I might substitute a pseudonym from time to time (marked with an asterisk). I may or may not give actual names of bed and breakfasts and their proprietors-- what would you like? But in general, I'll copy down what I wrote nineteeen years ago, and let you see the landscape, architecture, food, and people as I saw them when I was in my mid-thirties.

I took a lot of slides during the trip. Assuming they're not too faded, I'll see about scanning a few and illustrating the entries from time to time.

One more note: Then, as now, I like to avoid main roads and motorways whenever possible. So don't take my route numbers as the quickest and most direct ways! Equally, don't assume that when I tell you I was trying to find some B road, I must have been lost!

So hop in (on the lefthand passenger side, please), and we'll get going!