Travel
Places to go, peoples to meet

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I've always enjoyed travel, but I didn't really get started with international travel till quite late in life. I was especially lucky in my second job to get a chance to travel around a lot of Europe. Now I live in the USA and work for Microsoft, I've had the chance to see 18 of the US states (so far). Here's a log of my recent trips, plus some overview data of other places I've been, and roughly when I was there.

I'm a huge lover of London. Recently a group of my American friends were travelling there for the first time, and staying in one of my favourite areas - the West End, and I prepared a walking tour for them, which I've added to this website.

I've also added a table of countries and a table of US states I've visited.

Los Angeles, CA - 30th April - 4th May 2003

Probably our best ship party so far. To celebrate Visual C++ 2003, the C++ team (+family/guests) flew down to CA for a day at Disneyland. I added two nights of hotel and got 3 days down in the Los Angeles area. Since I planned to rollercoaster incessantly, I took along my Cedar Point partner in crime, Erleen.

We spent our first day at Magic Mountain, which has to be one of my favourite coaster parks in the country. Lines were pretty short since it was midweek in early season. We managed to ride 14 coasters in 7 hours. Unfortunately, there were technical problems on X, so we had a 2 hour wait for that. Otherwise, waits were short. This year's new ride was Scream, which was good, but not great. Though there is some win to its floorless design, it seemed not to be exhilarating enough to make my top 10. My favourite ride was Batman - I contine to prefer the experience of a suspended design. In the evening we went to dinner and a movie near to Magic Mountain (which is about 1 hour north of disneyland on LA's dismally jammed highways). Dinner at BJ's restaurant was great, and we followed up with the movie Identity, which was extremely unsatisfying - great first hour, bad end.

We spent our second day at the two Disney parks that were walking distance from our Hotel. In the morning we explore the new California Adventure, which neither of us had visited before. The park, like Disneyland, is more child focussed than Magic Mountain. But we had a very good time, especially on the long and fast accelerated coaster California Screamin'. Lunch at Ariel's grotto was good and surprisingly cheap (for a theme park). In the afternoon, we walked across to Disneyland and hit our favourite rides and the new rides. We were mostly done by the time it started raining, so we watched the fireworks and went home.

After two hectic days, we decided to relax a little more on Sunday. In the morning we drove up to Santa Monica and Erleen spotted an excellent local place to have breakfast (The Omlette Parlour on Main Street). We then drove down to Venice beach, where we rented bikes and cycled all the way up to Pallisades and the end of the beach, and then back down to the south end of Venice. It was a very enjoyable and relaxing cycle.

We had dinner in Downtown Disney at Catal (which was excellent), and where we bumped into endless Microsoft people, as we had done all day. [In our 3 day trip, when there were about 80 Microsoft people present, we bumped into about 12 of them, which seems quite surprising]. The food was great. We then went on to find a local (non-tourist) dance club where we spent a couple of hours dancing. It was a bit heavier than I prefer, but we had a good time nonetheless.

[Compatriots and Hosts: Erleen Anderson]

Trowbridge, London, Oxford, UK - 28th March - 9th April 2003

The motivation for this trip was the C and C++ standards committee meetings in Oxford. I presented our proposal for security in the standard 'C' library.

First, I visited Miles and Hannah in Trowbridge. This was my second time staying at their latest and greatest home, and it was nice to get a whole weekend to spend there this time. We passed an enjoyable and relaxing weekend including a nice walk along the banks of a river, a great dinner out in Bath, and some great social time.

Next, I spent a couple of days in Oxford. at the C committee meeting. This was a lot of fun, and went well. It was fascinating to meet the C committee, and exhilarating to present the ideas I've been driving for a while for improved security in C. We got some great feedback from the committee members and the prospects for the proposal seem promising.

The next step was to travel to London for a few days to visit my mother in her new flat in Ruislip. The new place looks really great, and is very well situated. We had an enjoyable time -- including sorting through some house tasks, taking walks around the area, seeing a great show in central London (Mamma Mia), visiting the Globe theatre and riding the London Eye. I was also able to visit my father's final resting place for the first time, and we visited my aunt and cousin from his side of the family.

I spent a couple of days packing up lots of my stuff for transport back to the USA. It was quite a trip down memory lane, including visiting with my old toys and schoolbooks. I shall have to make a bunch of space when I get back to the USA.

I took one evening to go up to London and wander around to take in the atmosphere, which I always enjoy doing. I wandered from Brunswick square across to Lower Oxford Street, and then down to Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square, then up to Picadilly Circus and back around. I had two unexpected meetings that night. First, I am pretty sure I saw Jane Hill (who now reads the BBC news, but who I used to be in International Hall with) on Picadilly Circus. I was across a crowded street so I couldn't be totally sure. But sure enough.

The other meeting was even more extraordinary. As I was wandering randomly on Leicester square, I bumped into a friend (Meg Pageler) from Seattle. Quite a massive coincidence to say the least. I was struck dumb (which really almost never happens to me :) ). She was staying with friends in London and had just seen the Lion King, and was also wandering randomly. What chance of that? Anyway, after I got my breath back, later that evening I sent email, and the next day Mum and I were able to spend with Meg, her sister and two friends having a lovely dinner and evening. A great time was had by all.

The worst news of the trip is the fact that Dionysus, the greek restaurant/chippie of my youth has closed down. I often made a point of visiting when I was in the UK. A few years back the business was forced to relocate from the Tottenham Court Road to the junction of Lower Oxford Street and Charing Cross Road. Even though it always seemed busy in its new location, I guess it must have had trouble maintaining business. There is no sign of it now except a boarded up building. A great loss, at least to my memory.

The final part of the trip took me back to Oxford for a day at the C++ committee meeting, which was also good fun and went well.

[Compatriots and Hosts: Miles & Hannah Dennis, Mum, Herb Sutter, Jon Caves]

Starkville, MS & Columbus, MS & Alabama - 8th-13th October 2002

I went on a recruiting trip to Mississippi State University, which is based in Starkville, which is in the middle of a pretty empty part of Mississippi. While I was there I kept asking my hosts, hotel managers, etc where I should go and see that was in driving distance. I was amazed that people had few suggestions. There were some very helpful people at the University who gave me some local pointers, but I guess there really just isn't much tourist stuff in this area. Even the airport was tiny.

In the end in my spare day I drove into Alabama for lunch, and then down to Jackson for the state fair and downtown, which was pretty desolate and deserted. Clearly the gulf coast of Mississippi is the most interesting bit, but it was a bit too far away.

Pictures to follow eventually...

[Compatriots and Hosts: None]

Vancouver, BC - 4th-6th October 2002

My mother and cousin Sue were staying with me in Seattle. Vancouver is a great place for a weekend trip - only about 3 hours drive away up I5. In Vancouver we did the usual sights - the Capilano Suspension bridge, Stanley Park, Gastown and the CN Tower. We also had dinner at a great restaurant called Hy's.

[Compatriots: Jean Lovell, Sue Plato]

Boston & Belgrade, Maine - 17th - 25th August 2002

For our third year in a row, Jay and I travelled to meet Mike and Anne at their cabin in Maine. As before, we spent a week at the cabin and a day in Boston.

This year we started out in Boston. I met up with Rudy and Rhiannon, who were in great shape despite the record Boston heatwave. We had a fun relaxing day together, and all had to sleep in the same room, since that was where the air conditioner was and it truly was that hot. I met up with Jay and some of his friends for dinner on Saturday. On Sunday afternoon, we drove to Maine. This journey seems shorter every time, probably because we already know the route.

We spent the week relaxing as usual. There was a lot of reading, chatting and playing on the Beach with Mac. We ate out a bunch, which was fun. And this year we broke our record run of bad luck with service at restaurants.

Early in the week we drove down to Freeport (home of LL Bean). We had a fun day there. We also found a British store (Bridgham and Cook), where we were able to get sausages, sweets and other stuff we'd enjoy during the week. I was able to cook everyone breakfast on Saturday.

On Wednesday and Thursday, we drove to the coast and saw a bunch of lighthouses. We stayed at Pemaquid point, which had excellent views and a great rocky beach with lighthouse. We stayed at the Hotel Pemaquid, which was the most 'British' hotel I've ever stayed at in the USA. Despite having charming rooms and good views, their service lacked some basic stuff, such as credit cards, confirmed reservations, working television and shampoo in the rooms. Living in the USA really has really spoilt me on hotel service :)

When we got back from the coast the weather was cooler, and I took the opportunity to do some swimming. For the first year I made it out to 'The Rock', a stopping place offshort opposite the cabin. Next year I want to try for 'The Island'. One time we even took Mac out there as Anne and I dragged him along on a float.

Most evenings we played Parcheesi, a game none of us had played before. It was fun to all learn at once, and to gradually evolve our strategies. I won a few times, but ended up feeling I didn't really know why. The game seems pretty random.

Pictures to follow soon

[Compatriots and Hosts: JayK, MGrier, AnneCh, Mac, Flo, Rhiannon & Rudy Agosti]

London and Barcelona - 28th June - 7th July 2002 - TechEd Europe 2002

Though I've visited Spain several times, it's always been Madrid that I visited, combining business with pleasure. Madrid has many of the virtues of southern europe - vibrant atmosphere, friendly people, late-night culture and largely unspoilt historical architecture. I've always been curious about Cataluña, but have never previously had an excuse to travel there.

I flew through London, allowing me to make my obligatory nocturnal visit to Dionysus, to wander around the West end, and to suck up the London atmosphere for a short while. As usual, I ended up staying at a very unsatisfactory hotel (myhotel Bloomsbury), although it was ideally placed for me just off Bedford Square. It's always great to get back to London, even if only for a very short time. An a large doner and chips always tastes great at midnight, though I do miss the company.

The conference was based at the huge, cavernous, characterless Barcelona convention centre. As if that weren't bad enough, there are no hotels near this place, and they'd decided to install all the speakers at an extortionate, beautiful, distant 5* hotel (Rey Juan Carlos). The journey in a shuttle bus could take ages, and the hotel had exactly that kind of stuck-up pompousness you need to really annoy an informal Microsoft crowd. They asked at least one of our party to come in through the back entrance because they were sweaty after playing tennis.

The conference went well. I was doing my source control talk, which was somewhat melancholy, given that I am now leaving source control behind, and I will never get to give the speeches I wanted to give about what we were doing before. And though my talk came in above average as always, I still think I do least well in Europe, where my humour doesn't do as well.

The best part of the conference were the more informal times when I got a chance to meet a bunch of VC++ customers and start building up context for my new work. I was excited to find passion and diversity in the VC community, and to start to understand how they see .Net and what we're doing. I was also pleased to meet Mark Russinovitch (of sysinternals fame) for the first time -- he was speaking too, and turned out to be very personable and interesting and good company.

But enough about the business end. Barcelona was a lot of fun. It's a beautiful, vibrant city. The biggest suprise for me was how much it reminded me (positively) of Madrid. I guess I had been lead to expect something different, but it really seemed quite similar. I spent some time exploring the city, wandering around random streets, exploring highways and byways - my favourite part of getting to know a new city. Sadly, our hotel was poorly placed for walking into town. At least it was well placed for the metro, which worked very well.

Barcelona is a full sized city, much larger than I expected. It's easy to forget how small Seattle really is :) I was especially impressed by the architecture (as I often am in spain), and by the modernisation. When I was in Madrid 10 years ago, parts of it often seemed as if they were stuck in a 1960s commercial timewarp - small, pokey stores were commonplace. But Spain seems to be moving into the commercial 21st century and their was ample sign of growth, development and economic vibrancy all across the city.

We spent several evenings dining at some of the city's better restaurants -- I had some especially good lamb, if I remember right. One evening when I was on my own I made a massive mistake and went to what turned out to be a pretty awful pizza chain. Memorably poor food. But our other choices were good. We also made our way to the beach one night for an enjo

The most memorable part of the trip are probably the Ari Bixhorn anecdotes (not repeatable here, for Ari's sake) which I narrowly missed witnessing. Oh, and the fact that our 5* hotel was in the centre of the area where high class hookers make themselves available. Strange sight in what was otherwise a respectable area totally unlike Soho, Kings Cross or similar. That and the extremely long quest for dinner on Saturday night, which was great viewing and exercise but 17 times longer than expected :)

[Compatriots and Hosts: RonaldL, AriB, BranBray]

New Orleans- 11th - 14th April 2002 - TechEd 2002

My first time in New Orleans since 1998. Went up there to speak at TechEd, and spent the weekend in town. Conference went well. Then spent Saturday wandering around the Latin Quarter.

[Compatriots and Hosts: None]

Lake Tahoe NV/CA - 7th -10th February 2002 - Visual Studio .NET Ship Party 

Our ship party for Visual Studio .NET was at a nice hotel up in Lake Tahoe, which is on the NV/CA border. I flew into Reno and drove up. Long drive over the mountains - slippery and foggy late at night. We had a nice formal dinner with a great dance band and I got a pretty amusing caricature done. The next day I spent the day with David crossing the lake on a boat. We went to dinner with Brad, David, Stefanie. I also spent an afternoon down in Reno, seeing what little of the sights there are. And I drove around the whole of Lake Tahoe - some good and scenic stopping points. It was still snowy at this time of year, so there was very beautiful landscapes and skiing for some.

[Compatriots and Hosts: Tonnes of people from work, David, Stefanie, Brad, etc]

London and Gloucester - 2nd - 18th December 2001 - Dad's Funeral 

The end of a very difficult year. Thanks to all the friends and relatives who sent kind wishes at the time.

[Compatriots and Hosts: Mum, Miles, Hannah]

Orlando, FL - 10th - 21st October 2001 - VSLive Orlando & Vacation

I was speaking at VSLive in Orlando (about Source Control, as was usual at that time). Lucy then flew down to Orlando and joined me, and we spent a week doing the local theme parks, including Disneyworld, Epcot, MGM Studios, Blizzard Beach, Downtown Disney, and others. All at the same time as filing papers to finally close on the purchase of my condo. We had a great time.

[Compatriots and Hosts: Lucy Martin]

Yarm, England - 5th - 7th October 2001 - Rhainnon & Rudy's Wedding

A very brief trip to England and back in 48 hours. Flew out on Friday 5th, drove up to Yarm on Sat 6th, Surprised Rhiannon by being there, drove back to airport on Sunday overnight. Very tiring, should have taken an extra day.

[Compatriots and Hosts: Rhiannon Thomas & Rudy Agosti, Brendan, Raymond, etc]

Boston, MA & Belgrade, ME- 24th August - 2nd September 2001 - Vacation

[Compatriots and Hosts: Mike & Anne, Mac, Flo, Shari Krell]

Indianapolis, IN, Detroit, MI, Lake Darien, NY, Baltimore, MD - 31st May - 5th June 2001 - Oasis Groupie Week

[Compatriots and Hosts: None]

Las Vegas, NV- 24th March - 1st April 2001 - Vacation

[Compatriots and Hosts: Mike, Anne, Jay, Stacey, Mac, Flo, Juliet]

Minneapolis, MN - 21st - 24th March 2001 - IETF Minneapolis

[Compatriots and Hosts: CKaler]

San Francisco, CA - 17th - 21st January - VSLive San Francisco

[Compatriots and Hosts: KHardy]

Boston, MA & Belgrade, ME - 19th - 27th August 2000 - Vacation

[Compatriots and Hosts: Mike, Anne, Jay, Mac, Flo]

England - 30th June - 16th July 2000 - Vacation

[Compatriots and Hosts: Mum & Dad, Miles & Hannah]

Orlando, FL - 3rd - 11th June - TechEd 2000

[Compatriots and Hosts: None]

Seattle, WA, Portland, OR, San Francisco, CA, Los Angeles, CA - 5th - 9th April 2000 - Oasis Groupie Week

[Compatriots and Hosts: None]

Cambridge, England - 26th February - 5th March 2000 - VSIP Research Event

[Compatriots and Hosts: DouglasH, FrankGo, Mum & Dad]

 I don't have clear records before the start of 2000. Some of these are approximate, and I may perhaps be off by a year

Battle Creek, MI, Sandusky, OH, Toledo, OH, Chicago, IL - May 1999 - Vacation

[Compatriots and Hosts: Erleen]

London, England - May 1999 - Conrad & Yasmin McDonnell's Wedding

[Compatriots and Hosts: Conrad, Yasmin]

Dallas, TX - July 1999 - TechEd 1999

[Compatriots and Hosts: None]

Denver, CO - October 1998 - Win2K PDC

[Compatriots and Hosts: None]

Albuquerque, NM - September 1998 - Pete Chew's Wedding

[Compatriots and Hosts: Pete, Lynn, Jeremy King]

England - July 1998 - Vacation

[Compatriots and Hosts: Mum, Dad, Miles, Hannah, Rhiannon, Fiona]

New Orleans, LA - June 1998 - TechEd & VS6 Laught

[Compatriots and Hosts: SimonP, PWilson, LizzieP]

Los Angeles, CA - 27th Feb 1998 - Oasis

[Compatriots and Hosts: None]

Victoria, BC- September 1997 - Vacatoin

[Compatriots and Hosts: Mum & Dad]

San Francisco, CA - March 1997 - VBits

[Compatriots and Hosts: KimCarn]

Seattle, WA - 23rd February 1996 - Move to America

[Compatriots and Hosts: None]

Before I move to America, it gets even more vague. I was travelling about every 2 or 3 months on business, seeing a lot of Europe, and before that travelling to Europe to see Louise.

Anaheim, CA, New York, NY - December 1993 - Win95 PDC & Vacation

My first trip to the USA

[Compatriots and Hosts: None]

I've always kept track in my head of which countries I've visited. I did most of these during the 7 years between leaving Eton and moving to the USA. Time to write it down

Name	First Visit
Austria	?1994? Vienna Attempting to set up ?HOD? project
Belgium	1992 Commission review of Intuitive just after joining Brameur
England	Birth
France	?1978? Family ?day? trip to France, first time abroad, date very uncertain
Germany	?1985? Family vacation to stay with the Pickels
[East] Germany	?1993? Berlin, Just post-unification, [Brameur for RAMA]
Greece	?1992? Athens, and environs [Brameur for RAMA]
Italy	?1994? Naples [Ravelli Tech/Arts]
Luxembourg	?1991? Meeting up with Miles & Hannah
Netherlands	1989 Meeting Louise for Christmas
Spain	1993 Brameur, for RAMA
Sweden	1993 Brameur for Intuitive
Wales	?1987? Vacation day soon after we moved to Gloucester

When you move to somewhere as large, diverse and interesting as the USA, you start keeping track of where you've been. I don't count connecting flights (too easy!),but I do count driving thru provided I stop somewhere.

These US states places are still on the To Do list. 22 down, 28 to go

Alaska

Arizona

Arkansas

Conneticut

Delaware

Georgia

Hawaii

Idaho

Iowa

Kansas

Kentucky

Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

New Jersey

North Carolina

North Dakota

Oklahoma

Rhode Island

South Carolina

South Dakota

Tennessee

Utah

Vermont

Virginia

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Wyoming

© Copyright 2001-2003 Martyn Lovell. All Rights Reserved.