Saturday, December 20, 2008

So - here we go. First of the 'by request' posts.

I'm a little nervous, so go easy with me. I'm going to start with an easy one. This one was a request by Tom McRae - one of my favourite musicians. He asks 'what's your favourite journey?'

I do love travelling. I love car journeys and train journeys. I don't like plane journeys, but they're an necessary evil if you want to go further than Europe.

In reverse order, then I think my favourite journeys are:

3) The train ride from London to Truro, in particular the bit through Dawlish.
Cornwall is beautiful, and the five hours on the train on the way down allow you to decompress and destress and nap, if you need to, and read, and listen to songs, so that by the time you're there you've forgotten what made you leave London in the first place.
The reason this trip is so special though, is because of the way the train winds through the countryside then takes you right out onto the beach at Dawlish. It's your first view of the sea (did you ever do the "I can see the se-a! I can see the se-a! sing-song on family holidays?) and it's a promise of what's to come in Cornwall. It always feels strange - this big intercity train taking you along the beach, like one of those old donkeys you used to see at Blackpool, but it's magical.

2) The drive down the 101 from Portland to San Francisco.
It's a long way, alright, but whether you're the driver or the passenger (I am always the passenger!) you are amply rewarded for the miles you put in.
Apart from the variations in temperature (the journey can take you from rainy to hot hot hot then back to breezy and mild) the main joy about this journey is the variety of landscape. It's not just the rugged coastline of the Pacific North West, though that is wonderful, but the fact that you drive through the redwood forest. Unless you've been to the redwood forest you can't imagine how majestic the trees are. They are huuuuge and powerful and lush and inviting. It's completely awe-inspiring. You have to have your photo taken next to them - but the photo just can't show how big they are.
Eventually, you meander through wine country, and you can even stop in Santa Rosa for a late lunch before you drive across the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco. Truly - this journey has everything.

1) The journey home. Preferably at dusk. No matter where I've been, no matter what I've been doing, there is something so perfect and wonderful about the journey home. The stretch of the A45 up to our road is grey, tatty, littered with flooring shops and places to get tyres, but it never fails to fill me with happiness. I sit at the last set of traffic lights before our home and know that whatever is troubling me will soon be much better, soothed by my husband and home.