What is one of your favourite journeys and why?

Question

Mine is going home along Snake Pass in The Peak District (Derbyshire, England). It's a beautiful, often hair-raising drive through forests, moors, lakes, hills and finally a couple of miles down a snaky 'mountain' pass until I finally see the lights of the town where I live.

What journey have you loved?

Answer 1

a steep car ride through salt box hill road in biggin hill
at night when its pitch dark and eerie and it feels like the road is haunted, is the best journey in the world

Answer 2

The suburban train from Dublin to Killiney. After you leave Dalkey station (my hometown) you pass through a tunnel and then emerge with a sudden, heart-stopping view of Killiney Bay and the Wicklow mountains - on a sunny day the light bounces off the sea and for a few moments I almost believe in God. It makes the best sense if you've come all the way from Dublin, because then it's a pretty dreary journey that's redeemed at the last minute.

Unfortunately, there's nothing in Killiney apart from a beach and lots of rich people's houses, so the only thing to do is get back onto a northbound train and go home again.

Answer 3

The Snake Pass is unforgettable - but my favourite drive in that part of the world is the stretch from Bakewell to 'plague' Eyam (coming in on the A623 - over the mountains). It is easy to imagine yourself back into Jane Austen's Bakewell, and then as you move north towards Eyam you slip back in time until you pass the Hancock's farm - which shakes you with a jolt out of any pleasant nostalgia about what a wonderful time the olden days might have been).
My favourite journey of all though starts on the A40 from Brecon and then turns off to Llansantfraed. It's beautiful country (through the edge of the Brecon Beacons national park) but again it has a story to tell.
The English religious poet Henry Vaughan actually began as a city gent, living it up and writing rowdy poems of loyalty to the king. When the roundheads won the civil war Henry needed to make himself scarce pretty sharp (though once he was off the scene no-one ever seems to have made any special effort to track him down). Vaughan became curate of the parish of Llansantfraed. In the 1640s Llansantfraed was in the middle of nowhere (and it still is). Brecon is still a busy place, even though it is picturesque, and you can feel yourself leaving civilisation behind you as you drive away from it into the hills. In theory the A40 is a major road - but along that stretch it just doesn't feel like one. When you get to Llansantfraed, you almost miss it. Then, when you have turned round for a second look - you can hardly find the church. And in the churchyard itself Henry Vaughan's grave is well hidden.
Vaughan writes some of the quietest - but least forgettable - poetry in English. And he chose exactly the right spot to live and be buried in (though he never did learn to spell the name of his parish properly).

Answer 4

By jeep from Peshawar through Landi Kotthal up into the Northwest Frontier of Azad Kashmir to the Swat Valley, or to Chitral on the Afghan border. Absolutely stunning

Answer 5

Moving through the Grand Teton National Park to view The Teton Mountains of northwestern Wyoming. Beautiful atmosphere and stunning mountains and rivers.

Answer 6

I went to school in Santa Cruz, CA and lived a year in Aptos-
I had a back route home from school in case the freeway was jammed- it followed a little beach road south right along the sea past the sailboat harbor and wound through little neighborhoods of beach houses all the way to Capitola, where I could get over the freeway and get home. I doubt it works anymore...new housing was being built even then.

Answer 7

Seaplane from Hulule Airport in the Maldives over the atolls until it lands on the Ari Atoll just ouside the Rangali Island...

You can see the reefs below and make out the odd whale shark.... it's like nothing on earth you've seen before....

After that... my favourite journey is a clear M25 and A1M on my way home!

Answer 8

Going to Ireland last year: not only was one of the most exciting trips I've ever done; but at journey's end, I was meeting my mother in law for the very first time! And she was also meeting both myself, and her granddaughter for the first time since I married her son! It was a moment I will never forget, and is imprinted in my most treasured memories: my only regret was that we had been unable to get there sooner! What years were wasted that we could have shared this terrific bond! And as for Ireland itself: everything I'd ever heard about the beauty of Ireland was reduced to mere words: there ARE no words; one of the most delightful, gorgeous, GREEN patchwork of colours, sights, sounds, quaint and wonderful folk; camaraderie and "old world charm" I have ever beheld! We await our return journey with pent breath!

Answer 9

Back in 1986 I traveled to Russia as an independent tourist, something Intourist was not terribly happy about. I went in through Finland and took the train to St. Petersburg. When I got to the station, I wondered how to find my hotel. Not to worry - the KGB met me on the train! They escorted me to a taxi driver, told him where to take me, and gave him strict instructions not to talk to me. By the time we left the city and headed out into the countryside -- really dark Peter-and-the-wolf forests -- I was beginning to worry about my safety... Eventually we pulled in to the hotel. I checked in, went to my room, and headed for the restaurant. There was a woman in a military uniform at the elevator who asked me what the problem was. I said I was looking for the restaurant, to which she directed me. As soon as I walked into the restaurant, the headwaiter tried to engage me in an illegal currency transaction. I spent the night drinking tumblers of vodka with a group of Georgians (Russian, not southern US) who spent the night trying to get me to give them my watch or some other "trinket." The next morning there was a dancing bear in the lobby!
From St. Petersburg I went to Moscow. The KGB dutifully met me at the station and was always there to accompany me on my strolls through town. They never stopped me from taking pictures or going anywhere, but locals were more than a little reluctant to be seen talking to me. The guys who were not following me were generally going through my luggage. I did meet a couple of dissidents, and we cruised the town for a really interesting evening (after managing to ditch my escort). After Moscow I took the Trans-Siberian Railroad all the way to Nahodkha on the Pacific. It took 8 days from Moscow. Not very comfortable and the food was pretty bad -- I often bought fresh bread and preserves from the women who came to the station at local stops. Still, it was an excellent adventure.

Answer 10

Hey Belinda,

Mine is going all the way from the Peruvian coast (Trujillo) to the heart of Bolivia (La Paz). That is, going from 30 to 3,650 meters above sea level!! I went by bus and it took me 4 days to reach La Paz.

It was so beautiful, I saw so much diversity in terms of climates, food, and peoples. There is so much to see and feel there.
Unforgettable.

Thanks for asking!