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04

Feb

A Walk on the Winter Side

by Joyce McGreevy on February 4, 2020

An intrepid traveler on a beach in East Sussex, England is proof of the power of wanderlust over the forces of winter’s chill. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Winter at an English beach is definitely “chill.”
© Joyce McGreevy

 Winter Wanderlust in East Sussex

Rows of wooden beach huts are locked up tight, their colors vibrant as summer memories.  Gray waves lunge at the Seven Sisters, chalk cliffs along England’s South Coast. January winds drive sand in fitful circles around deserted picnic tables.

Traditional English beach huts on a deserts beach in East Sussex reminds a traveler with winter wanderlust that summer will return. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Before beach huts were introduced in the 1900s, changing for a swim was done in a
bathing machine that, for modesty’s sake, was towed out to sea.
© Joyce McGreevy

But here we come in our oilskin jackets, woolen scarves flapping gamely in the wind. We are the winter travelers, hardy wanderers who love to travel out of season.  This year, winter wanderlust leads some of us to East Sussex.

The Seven Sisters chalk clods on England’s South Coast inspire wanderlust, attracting tourists even in winter. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Do the Seven Sisters cliffs look familiar? They stood in for the White Cliffs of Dover
in the movie “Atonement.”
© Joyce McGreevy

Call us daft if you want, but we don’t mind. After all, we can’t hear you through our sensible “tea-cozy” hats.

Overwintering, underpaying

There are distinct advantages to traveling in winter. Affordability for one. Some of my favorite sojourns have coincided with cold, rainy seasons. Despite the Einstein Effect on my hair, it never dampens my spirits. With steep discounts on accommodation, I happily pack an umbrella.

Rainy English weather and a lush green garden in East Sussex remind a traveler that winter travel has its rewards. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

England’s rainy days yield green winter dividends.
© Joyce McGreevy

My holiday base is a red brick bungalow with a sweeping view of the English Channel. To the east is Seaford, whose quiet, polite atmosphere belies a tumultuous history. Centuries ago, when it wasn’t being attacked by French pirates, the town had a reputation for looting—and causing—shipwrecks. It also tended to burn down with alarming frequency.

A churchyard in Seaford, East Sussex evokes the contrast between the tranquility of the setting and the turbulence of the local history. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Things eventually quieted down in once rowdy Seaford.
© Joyce McGreevy

Fortunately for crown and country, not to mention life and limb, the River Ouse silted up. This rendered Seaford worthless as a port but great at producing remarkable people.

The doctor who first diagnosed dyslexia lived in Seaford. So did three of England’s prime ministers, a NASA astronaut, a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, the logo designer for Johnny Walker Black, and a Who’s Who of famous actors.

Exploring East Sussex

You don’t need a car to meander along England’s South Coast. Even small towns boast frequent daily rail services.

A train in East Sussex, one of many, makes it easy to follow your winter wanderlust and travel between the historic towns of England’s South Coast. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

The train to Newhaven will drop off passengers for the ferry to Dieppe, France.
© Joyce McGreevy

Train stations here have been hard at work since 1840, when the railway connected England’s capital to the south coast. Soon, a steady supply of Londoners streamed—or rather, steamed into seaside resorts.

Follow your winter wanderlust to the train station in Rye, East Sussex, which dates back to the mid-1800s when the British railway connected London to England’s South Coast. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

When railways arrived in Sussex, they provided an alternative to waterways.
© Joyce McGreevy

Brighton is the most famous, a bohemian boomtown that attracted Regency high society and working-class day-trippers.  It’s also set the scene for a long list of movies.

Brighton Palace Pier in winter has an eerie magic that inspires wanderlust to travel to East Sussex, England in the off season. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

At historic Brighton Palace Pier, a winter storm comes out to play.
© Joyce McGreevy

Farther east, Hastings may look familiar to fans of the British television series “Foyle’s War,” a detective drama set during World War II.

Here in 1066, William the Conqueror won the Battle of Hastings, radically altering Britain’s history by wresting it from Scandinavian influence. As William’s Norman courtiers smuggled new French words into the Anglo-Saxon language, the resulting mix became modern English.

Hastings, East Sussex, a key location for the British television series “Foyle’s War” and England’s steepest funicular railway are inspire travelers with wanderlust, even in winter.

For a scenic shortcut in 1066 Country, make haste to Hasting’s funicular railway.
Photos by Pixabay and Pxhere

A Pocketful of Rye

Don’t overlook the smaller towns. One of the most captivating is Rye. For centuries, it prospered as a royal port—and a popular haunt of smugglers. Over time, the sea receded by two miles, and Rye became less lively, much to its benefit.

The lyrics of Rudyard Kipling’s “A Smuggler’s Song” on a wall in East Sussex reflect the turbulent history of England’s South Coast. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Poet Rudyard Kipling, a man of Sussex, collected local lore.
© Joyce McGreevy

Today, Rye deals chiefly in visitors, who come for the sheer pleasure of wandering its beautifully preserved streets.

Mermaid Street in winter means fewer tourists in the picturesque town of Rye, which inspires a traveler whose wanderlust has led her to visit the historic towns of East Sussex, England. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Some buildings in Rye are so old that they were renovated in the 1400s.
© Joyce McGreevy

To experience Rye in January is to discover the best reason for winter travel: no crowds. You can explore the twitterns, scenic alleyways that link the labyrinthine streets, without walking a gauntlet of kidney-crushing elbows. You can linger in idyllic settings without crashing anyone’s photo opp.

In Rye, a twittern, or scenic alleyway offers tranquility to a traveler with wanderlust for a winter holiday in East Sussex, England. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

The twitterns of Rye set an Anglophile traveler’s heart a-twitter.
© Joyce McGreevy

Rye is so small you can’t get lost, except in reverie. Stroll the cobbles of Mermaid Street and you may feel as if you’ve stepped into a literary novel.

You have.

In the 1920s, author and former mayor E.F. Benson used a barely disguised version of Rye as the setting of Mapp and Lucia, his popular series of humorous novels. In brief, it’s an epic battle of brilliant wits and wealthy twits. Two public television adaptations were also filmed in Rye.

Even before Benson’s tenancy, Lamb House was home to another famous novelist, Henry James. In 1898, the author was on a quest for a “charming, cheap old” refuge when he spotted a painting of the place and fell in love with it. During 19 years there he wrote many of his greatest novels.

A view of the rooftops of Rye, a picturesque English town in East Sussex, England, is ample reward for a traveler with wanderlust for a winter vacation in England. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

“Old, square, red-roofed, well assured of the place it took up in the world, “
wrote Henry James of his home in Rye.
© Joyce McGreevy

Winter Pleasures

Summer in East Sussex buzzes with entertainment, like the world-famous famous Glyndebourne opera festival and Eastbourne’s Magnificent Motor Rally.

A replica of the 1902 halter skelter on a winter’s day evokes wanderlust for summer excursions to the Brighton Palace Pier on England’s South Coast. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Since 1902, revelers have raced to the top of the helter skelter
—in summer, that is.
© Joyce McGreevy

But the quieter pleasures of winter have a richness all their own. Brisk walks make a virtue of visiting pubs with open fires and friendly locals. Old bookshops, eccentric museums, and ancient churches become places to linger, for true fascination cannot be rushed.

Oh, I see: The slower pace of winter can deepen one’s sense of place.

A tiny bookshop in Rye, a picturesque town in East Sussex, inspires wanderlust for winter travel to England. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Ideal for one or two customers at a time, Rye’s Tiny Book Store accommodates countless fictional characters.
© Joyce McGreevy

And so, I settle in one rainy evening with a cup of tea and a copy of Mapp and Lucia. On the page, it’s summer in Rye, a terribly hot June morning, and the eglantine is in full flower.

Thanks to winter wanderlust, I can picture it all so clearly.

Comment on the post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

 

Adventure Travel/Art of Travel/England/Literary World

20

Jan

London, Lost and Foundling

by Joyce McGreevy on January 20, 2020

An array of silver charms seen on Marchmont Street are evocative markers of Britain’s past, inspired by historical tokens at London’s Foundling Museum. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

I spotted one—then several—fascinating artifacts in the pavement. What were they?
© Joyce McGreevy

Historical Markers Lead to Fascinating Discoveries

I’d walked along Marchmont Street often yet never noticed them—small, mysterious objects embedded in the pavement.  Unlike London’s “blue plaques,” historical markers at eye level that link figures of the past with buildings of the present, the Marchmont Street objects were easy to overlook.

On Marchmont Street, London a token embedded into the pavement becomes an historical marker for those with the focus to spot it. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Some historical markers hide in plain sight.
© Joyce McGreevy

Here was public art at its least public, eloquent objects underfoot, shyly waiting to be seen and heard. Yet they, too, were historical markers, clues to a poignant chapter of London’s past.

A metal object embedded in the pavement on Marchmont Street marks a poignant chapter of London’s history. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Who had set this into the pavement? And why?
© Joyce McGreevy

Shining a Light on History

Marchmont is one of my favorite London streets, a place of bookshops, cafés, art house cinemas and pocket parks. Of its history, I knew that it was named for an earl, and that he’d been governor of Britain’s first charity organization for children—a home for “foundlings,” as abandoned infants were referred to long ago.

As for the mysterious objects, I’d never noticed them until that morning, when a glint of sunlight on rain-washed pavement caught my eye.

A heart shaped silver token on a London Street is an historical marker and a symbol of the parent-child bond. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

I wondered whose initials  these could be.
© Joyce McGreevy

There they were, a scattering of silver tokens. What could these fascinating artifacts mean? I had to find out.

A silver token engraved with a name and birth date and found on a London street becomes an historical marker, prompting the author’s visit to the Foundling Museum. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

Why did I sense an urgency about the recording of
this name and birth date?
© Joyce McGreevy

Tokens of Affection

Created by artist John Aldus in 2006, each token represents the bond between parent and child. In the London of the 1700s, that bond was tested to the breaking point as extreme poverty forced countless women to separate from their children.

According to one historian, mothers who relinquished infants to the care of a nearby “hospital” (a term used broadly then) were urged to “affix on each child some . . .  distinguishing mark or token, so that the children may be known hereafter, if necessary.”

It might be a heart or a locket, a brooch or a humble bottle tag. Each token signified the hope of reunion.

Where had the children gone?  As historical markers, the tokens pointed the way—to the Foundling Hospital, just around the corner.

London’s Foundling Museum, the former Foundling Hospital, contains poignant treasures and surprising historical discoveries. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

At what is now the Foundling Museum, the original tokens are still on display.
© Joyce McGreevy

Following the Clues

In its time the Hospital had been a place of hope. Prior to 1739, abandonment was rampant and often fatal. Parishes were overwhelmed and some refused to help children labeled “illegitimate.”

Thomas Coram, a ship captain who’d calmly weathered the traumas of life at sea, was stunned to see children dying in the London streets. For 17 years, Coram campaigned to create a refuge, convincing Marchmont and other prominent Londoners to offer support.

A historical marker tells the story of British sea captain Thomas Coram, who campaigned to create London’s first charity for children, overcoming widespread prejudice about children born into poverty or outside of marriage. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

While a statue of Coram gave few clues to his character,
this historical marker revealed his compassion.
© Joyce McGreevy

Surprising Discoveries

Something I hadn’t expected to see at the former hospital was a collection of priceless paintings. How did they relate to the practical needs of at-risk children? Historical markers solved the mystery.

In 1739 as the Hospital began welcoming children, portraitist William Hogarth found the perfect way to raise public awareness of the charity—he donated several masterpieces and convinced artists like Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough to do the same.

The Foundling Hospital became London’s first public art gallery, a place where people could gather while supporting a worthy cause. Hogarth the great painter had also proved a genius at PR.

A Rousing Chorus of Support

Soon afterward, Hogarth asked a musician friend for a favor. Little did either man guess that it would change history. In 1742, the musician’s latest work had received dismissive reviews at its London debut. Hogarth asked his friend—George Frederic Handel—to try again, this time at the Foundling Hospital.

Buoyed by a rousing Hallelujah chorus, the new, improved performance of Handel’s “Messiah” was a phenomenal success. So many people wanted to see it that performances had to be added and it raised a fortune for the children’s charity. Instead of fading into obscurity as Handel had feared, it became Great Britain’s most beloved choral work.

A London choir evokes the historical connection between Handel’s Messiah and the first British charity for children, Thomas Coram’s Foundling Hospital. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

A London choir’s song has a surprising connection to the Foundling Hospital.
© Joyce McGreevy

One More Surprise in Store

As I left the museum, a volunteer told me to keep an eye out for another historical marker, just up the street. I soon found out why.

An historical marker, one of London’s blue plaques, identifies Charles Dickens’ home on Doughty Street near the Foundling Hospital, a charity that influenced his novel Oliver Twist. (public domain image by Wally Gobetz)

Did this “betoken” one more connection?
© Wally Gobetz/CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

In 1837 author Charles Dickens moved to nearby Doughty Street, taking regular walks through the Hospital grounds. Dickens was so moved by accounts of “good Captain Coram’s heart” that he raised funds for the children’s charity organization and wrote about it in his most famous works. In Dickens’ novel Oliver Twist, the orphaned Oliver’s true identity hinges on the discovery of  . . . a token.

A silver token engraved with a flower gathers moss on Marchmont Street, a marker of history, unnoticed by most passersby. (Image © Joyce McGreevy)

I had come full circle, back to the tokens of Marchmont Street.
© Joyce McGreevy

Today Is Historically Remarkable

Coram, as the children’s charity organization is known today, has expanded as its goals have evolved. They now include upholding children’s rights and empowering parents to provide a loving, secure environment to their child.  The former Foundling Hospital has become a place to celebrate the power of individuals and the arts to change lives.

Oh, I see: When you follow historical markers into the past, you make important discoveries about the present. Which might just inspire you to contribute to making a better future.

See some of the original tokens here. (Scroll down.)

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Cultural Symbols/Discoveries/England/On Foot/Travels to the Past

06

Jan

Travel Hacks for 2020

by Joyce McGreevy on January 6, 2020

A mountain climber taking in the view from a peak reminds the author that 20/20 hindsight can actually be a valuable travel hack. (Public domain image by Skeeze/Pixabay)

Seen in hindsight, a travel challenge may prove to be a peak experience.
Image by Skeeze/Pixabay

Take a Fresh Look at 20/20 Hindsight

What’s your travel vision for 2020? Now that we’ve journeyed to a new decade, it’s tempting to focus forward. But don’t overlook the vision that’s always 20/20—hindsight.

Hindsight has a bad rep. No critic ever praised anyone for being “hindsightful.” If hindsight were a character, she’d be the younger sibling of over-achievers. As in, “Why can’t you be like your brother Foresight, always thinking ahead? Or your sister Insight, who brings home one A+ after another?”

Hindsight also gets characterized as Woulda, Shoulda, and Coulda—that terrible trio who show up too late to offer assistance, then stand around shaming us for mishaps we cannot undo.  Yet hindsight can help us debrief, and more.

Focus backward for a moment, and you’ll see how hindsight can be a travel hack.

A purse left behind on a dirt road exemplifies the travel mishaps that trigger 20/20 hindsight yet also inspire travel hacks. (Public domain image by Needpix)

In travel as in life, experience has a cost. Hindsight’s wisdom may not come cheap.
Image by Needpix

Travel Hack 1: See Hindsight as Signpost, not Setback.

In travel, mishaps abound: The wrong train. The faux pas. The theft or scam. The analog camera dropped into the scenic waterfall.

But hindsight, positioned farther along in the journey, knows something we don’t. Maybe the “wrong” train averts the strike that stalls the “right” train. Perhaps the faux pas breaks the ice, turning strangers into friends. The sting of dishonesty is salved by gratitude for countless times when honesty saved the day.

And the camera? Sometimes you must wait to see what develops.

Oh, I see: While clarity may not be “instamatic,” there’s much more to hindsight than meets the eye.

Travel Hack 2: Use Hindsight to Learn a Language.

A sand sculpture of people borne aloft by balloons that resemble brains symbolizes the brain’s power to use hindsight to boost our ability to learn a language. (Public domain image by FotoEmotions/Pixabay)

The brain uses hindsight to improve language learning, better preparing us to travel.
Image by FotoEmotions/Pixabay

Hindsight is a surprisingly efficient teacher, good news for travelers who want to learn a second language. Numerous scientific studies show that a mechanism in the brain reacts in just 0.1 seconds to things that have resulted in us making errors in the past.

Errors like using inviter in French the same way “invite” is often used in the U.S. In France, you “invite” someone to dinner only if you are planning to pay.

Making mistakes in the language classroom may occasion chagrin, but the hindsight factor compensates by helping us avoid errors in the future—and in Michelin-starred restaurants.

Travel Hack 3: Read a Great Travel Memoir.

If only I’d known, we travelers fret, I would have done things differently. Yet it isn’t “things” we mean, but only that one little thing—the single, precipitating misstep or omission—which we then fixate on to the exclusion of everything that enriched our experience beforehand.

For some, that’s all hindsight is, a useless obsession, and many dictionaries support this negative reduction. I prefer Merriam-Webster’s more contemplative wording: “the perception of the nature of an event after it has happened.”

To discover how unflinching and invaluable hindsight can be, treat yourself to Fifty-Fifty: The Clarity of Hindsight (Strategic Book Publishing), my favorite travel memoir of 2019. The author, “Vagabond Lawyer” Julie L. Kessler, has traveled to 107 countries and counting.

Julie L. Kessler, travel ninja and “Vagabond Lawyer”, is the author of the travel memoir Fifty-Fifty: The Clarity of Hindsight and writes “The Traveling Life,” a popular column for the San Francisco Examiner. (Image © Julie L. Kessler)

You probably already know Kessler’s popular column, “The Traveling Life” in The San Francisco Examiner (#SFExaminer).
© Julie L. Kessler

In Fifty-Fifty, a must-read collection of 50 essays, Kessler beautifully demonstrates that hindsight is a many-faceted thing. Yes, it can be painful, but it can also be hilarious, practical, and empathetic.

The book cover for Fifty-Fifty: The Clarity of Hindsight, a travel memoir by Julie L.Kessler, a.k.a., “Vagabond Lawyer,” depicts a travel ninja who travels the globe.

Kessler’s travel memoir won accolades at the London, New York, and Paris Book Festivals. © Julie L. Kessler

In Kessler’s compelling prose, travel hindsight becomes profound, illuminating in ways that go beyond mere “20/20” corrective.

In one unforgettable chapter, the very act of misplacing a passport ushers Kessler into a whole new world of insight.  As she notes:

“Every single destination, even if unintended, holds the chance of something miraculous.”

I don’t want to spoil the revelatory moment that results—after nightfall, in the middle of nowhere, raw with grief and stranded among strangers—but the way Kessler finds the miracle within the mishap proves that sometimes nothing less than the rich context of hindsight can guide us onward.

Travel Hack 4: See the Future of Traveling to the Past.

Could time travel obviate hindsight altogether? According to unidentified sources at The Time Travel Mart, “We’ve been here since the beginning of time so no matter the era, we have just the thing to help you through your travels. Whenever you are, we’re already then.”

A signboard reading “The Mar Vista Time Travel Mart” hints that time travel ninjas have the ultimate hack for turning 20/20 hindsight into a perfect past experience. (Photo © and courtesy of 826LA)

Made a mistake on life’s journey? Time travel offers a (re)vision of a perfect past.
Photo courtesy of 826LA

Wait—The Time Travel Mart?

This online store, which also has two brick-and-mortar locations in Los Angeles, sells what every time-travel ninja needs—a Pastport, (essential for entry to Pangaea),  time travel tickets, a Time Scouts Handbook, and a Victorian iPad that allows you to write your thoughts and then share them “with everyone who passes by.”

A “Pastport” for the armchair travel ninja is a popular item at The Time Travel Mart, a Los Angeles based online store that supports the free literacy programs of 826LA. (Photo © and courtesy of 826LA)

Don’t delay! Get your Pastport . . . yesterday!
Photo courtesy of 826LA

Will these products really blast you into the past? Only time will tell.  But they bode well for young people traveling into the future.

That’s because all proceeds help support free literacy programs at 826LA. If your 2020 travels are of the armchair variety, this travel hack’s for you. Visit The Time Travel Mart and help launch a young person’s journey of discovery into a bright future.

The Future of Hindsight

From my current perspective, I don’t know how 2020’s travels will lead to 20/20 hindsight. But thanks to travel hacks like activating the brain’s linguistic hindsight, following Kessler’s travels, and becoming a time-travel ninja, I’m unafraid to find out.

What has 20/20 hindsight revealed to you about past travels? How might this inform your travels in 2020?

Comment on the post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

 

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