Travel and Arrival

 It seemed surreal yesterday that, after 2 years of planning, the day to fly had finally come!  Fortunately for me, I got to go to my final destination; others on my flight got turned around.  When we took off from San Francisco, "pandemic" had not yet been officially declared; when we landed in Boston it had, and airline employees were scrambling to deal with the ramifications of this for passengers who were heading through the UK (London) to another European destination.  That could have been me.  The final destination today was supposed to have been Rome, but I made the hard choice a couple of weeks ago to cancel my Italian study destinations and move all my research and travel to the UK.  But who knows what even that will look like a week or two or a month or two from now!  I just have to reiterate how bizarre it was to be in the air, literally, as these changes were implemented - got on the airplane in one place under certain rules - got off that same airplane 5 hours later under different rules!

I feel very bad for the other travelers.  Astonishingly, my experience was that it was one of the easiest long-distance travel situations I've ever been in.  The decision to go forward with it wasn't easy, but doing it was.  God's hands were just all over this, and I feel blessed.  One of the things that throws me is that I can tend to get anxious about details, especially when traveling alone, but everything went so smoothly.  For example, getting an Oyster Card from the machine at the airport was probably one of the easiest things I've ever done in my life!  (Some of you are probably thinking to yourselves, "Duh!" and others are thinking, "What's an Oyster Card?!")

This was a milestone moment - plane travel was over - last leg of the journey was here - HOPPING ON THE TUBE!  What a joy to see it!  (Piccadilly to District and off at Bayswater - no problem!)

 And what a joy to see my hotel! It's very pretty  .  .  .  on the outside  .  .  .

I think this room is tied for the smallest hotel room I've ever stayed in.  I took this picture from just inside the door to the room.  You can barely open the wardrobe doors without banging the wall, and see that rectangular thing in the front middle of the picture?  That's my chair(?!).  That's where I'll be sitting to do my reading and research and blogging and communicating.  And this room is actually BIGGER than the one I originally booked because I got an email a couple of days ago asking if I wanted to upgrade to a bigger room for a reasonable charge.  Here it is - the BIGGER room!  (Online pictures in hotel advertising can really be deceptive!)

I'm also reasonably certain that the paper coasters left in the room came pre-used, which makes me wonder about the cleanliness of the room in general (ooph!).

I mean  .  .  .  it's actually pretty cute  .  .  .  from certain angles  .  .  .  But the room is basically this bed, and that's it.  I'm really, REALLY hoping that neither I nor anyone else in this hotel gets COVID-19, because if I have to be quarantined in this little teeny-tiny room with not even a chair for 2 or 3 weeks I think I will lose my mind!  

I decided to get out immediately and get walking while I can - just in case!

I love it that the British do this on their roads!  My travels were easy, but I still basically had two back-to-back days with no night, and I was TIRED.  Given that they drive on the opposite side of the road than I'm used to, it's really nice that they've provided reminders for which way to look for the traffic to be coming from.  (I might have died today otherwise!)  Well, not right here since there's a barricade, but  .  .  .  you know  .  .  .

 So  .  .  .  I should have been in Italy today  .  .  .  today Rome, then many other cities, including Venice.  I feel like I saw a little bit of a faux Venice in London today with the canal and boats and also the pigeons, which I hear fill St. Mark's Square.

There was more of a purpose to my walk than just getting out.  When I was here 4 years ago for a week, I tried really hard to get out to Kensal Green Cemetery, because there is a famous mathematician buried here, and I wanted to include this person in my previous travel report.  But Kensal Green is rather away from the other sights I needed to visit, and I was always WAY too tired at the end of the day to try to tack it on (which is saying something!)  So this time, it was my first excursion.

 I had learned from previous, unsuccessful ventures into graveyards to try to find a specific grave that it's harder than finding a needle in a haystack.  So this time I got smart and did my research.

And then I left my research in the hotel room and had to go from memory.  Check out the map above, that I came across when entering the cemetery, how many areas and lanes there are!  When I found the grave I was looking for I raised my hands in the air in triumph and gave a little "Whoo!"

But, both the mathematician and the cemetery are going to have posts of their own, so here's a lovely picture of some stones for now:

As I walked I noted that the US is not the only country that has had a run on sanitizers and antibacterial wipes.  (Thank you Jacqueline!)

After all the travel and the walking (45 minutes each way with way too long spent standing and walking in the cemetery), I decided just to take one other quick jaunt before heading to dinner and "home."  I decided to just cut across the corner of Hyde Park that separates me from my neighbors William and Catherine.

The rainbow over Round Pond felt symbolic and gave me joy to see!  And I imagine Wills and Kate and their three children must have enjoyed it as well, as viewed through their windows.

So, here we are at Will and Kate's place: Kensington Palace.  Just a guess here, but I'm thinking their rooms are a tad bit more spacious than mine  .  .  .  just guessing  .  .  .  just guessing  .  .  .

Since I was supposed to be in Italy today, what else would I eat but Italian food - my standard choice: the most plain pasta dish I can find with a lemon-lime soda.  Ah  .  .  .

 And right in front of my face was a poster of Rome!

I've never been to Italy, I'm sad to be missing it on this trip, but I am more than happy to be in jolly old England!

Travel

A major tarmac delay in from a previous trip

POST SCRIPT: I had drafted this post to go up on March 11, the day I was to fly out to Rome.  Most of my time in Italy is (was?) to have been spent in northern Italy, but as I watch the coronavirus warnings on the news it looks like if I were to head to the areas of Venice, Padua, Pavia, and especially Milan, that I may not be allowed out and into the UK to continue my travels.  That's just a prediction, but I fly out in 2 weeks and will spend (would have spent?) 5 weeks in Italy.  Who knows what that virus is going to do over that period of time. So at this point everything is up in the air (no pun intended), and I'm scrambling to change over the course of a few days the plan that had been carefully crafted over the course of a year and a half (two years, really).  Originally my concerns about travel were the discomfort of long flights and the details of setting up phone service in Europe-- am getting a little change of perspective on that.

*****

This trip that I am beginning is an AMAZING opportunity!  However,  to say I'm looking forward to countless hours sitting on a plane would be a lie.   And to say I'm not nervous about this trip would also be a lie. I am a shy, introverted person who appreciates above all else the comforts of home; I also tend a bit towards anxiety.  (And some of you reading this are chuckling right now because you know that to say I tend a "bit" towards anxiety is like saying the ocean is a "bit" wet!)  BUT, I am so passionate about the history of mathematics and about the particular mathematicians that I am studying that there is no way I would not have jumped at the chance to do what I am doing!

As I've been reading about my mathematicians, something that has caught my eye has been their travel experiences.  I mentioned in my introductory post that Cardano and Dee had met in London (1552).  That meeting actually happened as Cardano was on his way back home to Pavia from Scotland - an even further destination.  As the second most renowned physician of his day (behind Vesalius), Cardano was asked by Archbishop of St. Andrews, John Hamilton, to come and treat him.  Cardano left Italy on February 23, 1552 and arrived in Scotland on June 29, 1552 - a journey of just over 4 months!  He did have a bit of a "layover" in Paris  .  .  . but still, in comparison to the somewhat less than 24 hours it will take me to cover the 6250 miles from home to Rome, the FOUR MONTHS it took Cardano to cover the 1500 miles from home to Edinburgh is quite the journey and kind of puts mine in perspective.

On the other hand, I won't have servants along attending me  .  .  .  hmm  .  .  .

John Napier left his Edinburgh home in 1563 to travel to the European Continent in order to continue his education. He was just 13 years old at the time!  He would have had a servant with him, but no amount of help could come near to alleviating the rigors of travel.  Depending on weather (and pirates!) it could take up to 10 days to go by ship the short distance from Scotland to the Netherlands.  Traveling by land was actually harder.  Among other things it was best to present one's-self as being impoverished so as to avoid the notice of the robbers who roamed the roads.  Even at an inn it wasn't a good idea to pay for a bed or a good meal because that would show you had money, so sleep might have to be on a bench or table or in a stable.  As uncomfortable as this sounds, it might not have been so bad in comparison to a bed, however, as a bed might have to be shared by multiple travelers (strangers) and could be filthy and flea-infested.

It isn't known where Napier studied on the Continent.  It may have been as nearby as the Low Countries, or further on to Paris or Geneva (most likely), or perhaps even as far away as Italy.  But one thing is certain, his travels would have been neither brief nor comfortable!

And then there's John Dee who left his most dearly beloved home in Mortlake, England to travel to central Poland.  He set out on September 21, 1583.  Once he had made his way along the Thames and out into the North Sea, a storm drove his ship back towards shore where they would have to wait a week for a new anchor to arrive. Getting back from ship to dinghy to shore was an ordeal that left Dee falling into the sea and becoming "foul arrayed in the water and ooze."  Once across the sea, they made their way across the Netherlands towards Denmark, a trip not made easier since Dee had packed at least 800 of his very favorite books!  Onward they went through Germany and then, with "slow, perilous progress," over into Poland.  Between two of the cities in their travels they had to hire two-dozen men to clear a two-mile stretch of road to enable their coaches to pass, after which they found themselves marooned outside the city, which was surrounded by floods.  On February 3, 1584, he finally arrived in Lask.  This journey, as had Cardano's, took just over four months.

So, no matter what the next 24 hours have in store, I'll be spanning the distance of about a fourth of our globe in that relatively short time - and mostly sitting in a chair!  One car, three planes, and a train later, I will arrive at my hotel, which is located directly behind the Pantheon in Rome - and that will be a glorious sight to behold!!  POST POST SCRIPT - Well, that was the original plan - not at all sure what the alternative plan will turn out to be - a much more "interesting" journey than anticipated!!  I sure hope it doesn't get as "interesting" as any of the three examples above!