I find Google Earth and Google Streets very useful when planning road trips into the unknown. If I make a 'virtual' trip before the real one, I have a pretty good idea of what I'll see and encounter en-route.
Before I learned to drive, when I was very much dependent on trains for getting from one end of the country to the other (yes, it happened a lot, as I was never choosy about where'd I'd work so just went wherever there might be a job), I had a technique for that too. The obvious thing to do is to just go onto The Train Line.com or similar service, and find the route. The problem with that is if you miss a connection, it can leave you feeling a bit worried. So the trick is simply to work out alternatives in advance, and to allow maybe a couple of hours more than you expect to need. So for example, the intended route tells you to switch from platform 1 to platform 3 at Leeds, to catch the 15:30 headed for Portsmouth (for example). Great, but lets say that for some reason, you can't get on the 15:30 to Portsmouth. Rather than running around Leeds station at the time, you just plan in advance a backup plan. Maybe there's a train half an hour later that goes to Sheffield, and from there another train that takes you the rest of the way. So, you make sure that you know in advance what your 'primary' route and timetable is, but you also know in advance that if you can't stick to plan A, you already have plan B in place. I guarantee, it is infinitely less stressful if you know you have little backup plans in place, and plenty of spare time. Then, who cares if one of your trains is 30 minutes late into your station, leaving you only 5 minutes to find the platform for your connection. Instead, you go and have a coffee and get on your plan B train. When I used to have to cross London, it became one of my favourite games to try to reduce the length of time it took me to get from Kings Cross to Waterloo. I think my record was about 40 minutes if I remember right. I always allowed about 2 hours. That's far longer than it ought to take, but it takes the stress out of it. I'd also figured out that although the theoretical fastest way involved two trains, I could leg it from one platform to another and end up taking 3 trains and getting to Waterloo a bit quicker Plan in advance and have backups, and allow lots of surplus time, and it takes all the stress out of it. Don't. We all have our fears. Anyone who says otherwise is lying. I'm absolutely terrified of coming in to land when we're in a plane. I mean proper scared. I cling to wife's hand with one hand and the bottom of the seat with the other, while praying to every god I've ever heard of, just in case one exists, and I don't relax until we're completely stationary on the runway and the seat belt light has gone off And if a spider was to come along at the same time, I think I'd just have a full on meltdown. I get nearly as scared when I'm a passenger in a car but oddly, not when its either a taxi, or its my dad driving. There's no logic to it, its just one of those things.
Thank you Clueless, going to give it a try, small journey first and then i'll try something a bit more tricky. Heading to trainline.com as we speak. Thanks for your ideas and thoughts.
I'm staying well clear of London for now Perhaps that will be a challenge next year. If I get over the Italy trip.
That's what my mate who knows London said, but I get lost in cities, especially ones with silly names like 'The Strand' (the strand of what?) or Elephant and Castle, which as far as I can see has neither an elephant nor a castle.
