Initial Observations and Takeaways

After a month exploring England's industrial heritage, collecting random observations feels valuable—even if perspectives shift once home. From the practicalities of terrifying British roads and ubiquitous traffic circles to deeper reflections on heritage preservation and the expanded sense of historical time that comes from walking among ruins spanning millennia, this trip offered both practical lessons and profound perspective shifts on human nature across eras.

Reflections Before Departure

September 21, 2025

I decided to spend some time collecting random observations and takeaways from this visit. These will likely change as time passes and I settle back home, but the exercise feels valuable.

Trip Structure

The Industrial Age theme was tremendously helpful. I've been to Britain many times before—enjoyable visits, but they can become a hodgepodge of random historical and archaeological sites. This trip had that too, but putting an Industrial Age thumb on the scale helped tie everything together and led us to really interesting places that might have been overlooked otherwise.

Transportation

I've taken trips to Britain depending entirely on public transportation, but there's no substitute for being able to drive around. I'm truly grateful for all the driving provided by Emma and Ian.

Driving in Britain is terrifying. It only begins with driving on the left side of the road. From there, 80% of the roads are effectively one lane. If they are two lanes, people are parked in one of them. There's a complex, somewhat intuitive protocol for figuring out who goes and who pulls over when cars meet. Then there are traffic circles everywhere—I like them, but they're everywhere, many times two or more lanes wide. I marveled at the real estate required just to accommodate them.

Another oddity: intersections don't have stop signs. At most, if they have anything, there are "Give Way" yield signs. The driver to your right has priority, but if there's no driver there, just keep driving. I checked my instincts several times, and even after a month they were almost uniformly wrong. I'd sign up for a driving course if I was ever tempted to drive here.

Accommodations

Generally very comfortable and pleasant. I like duvets. I don't like British plumbing.

Food

There's an interesting, frequent flavor profile I tasted in everything from chips to the whiskey sauce on my steak. Seems heavy on onions as aromatics—kind of sweet, a little on the sour side, often unexpected in savory foods.

Lots of good "foreign" food. The Gurkha restaurant was excellent. The Thai takeout was excellent. Mezza in Thornbury is a great location with good food.

I did eventually conduct a study of onion rings and jalapeño poppers. Not traditional British fare, but they do them very well. The onion rings at the Wellington Hotel in St. Just were amazing!

Beer

Lots of different beers. I tended to try local varieties, which changed with locality—every place seemed to have their own. Room temperature "real ales" are tasty and fine.

Heritage Preservation

Britain excels at preserving and presenting their heritage. Even small sites are well-maintained, informative, and accessible. The signage is excellent. Most places have good explanatory materials. They take this seriously, and it shows.

Politics

Britain is deeply divided right now. Brexit continues to be a contentious disaster. The political discourse is harsh, with clear tribal lines. Sound familiar?

One thing that struck me: the Union Jack represents the union of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The English contribution is the St. George Cross, so flying it alone expresses "England first and only" xenophobia. An amazing attitude given that Brexit has been such a disaster.

Time and Perspective

Your sense of time here is dramatically expanded. You start thinking the Romano-British period (first three or four centuries AD) is relatively recent. You visit sites from the Stone Ages to the present and see them through the eyes of people who lived during those times.

In every era there are things that made life meaningful. In every era there are people who made life brutal. You see times when human life was incredibly cheap. You start to realize that if you exchanged the oppressors with the oppressed, the behaviors would be the same.

My impression of humans in general didn't improve, but this trip gave me a deeper and more nuanced perspective on it. I'm hoping this will help somehow as I return home to live in the American version of irrational insanity.

Pictures can be found here: https://beloretrato0.picflow.com/d43bka91mw