Travelling to Peterborough/Leicester England

[winn]

I'll be travelling to the Peterborough/Leicester areas on business for two weeks starting in the first week of October.

Since this is business, I will only have one weekend for siteseeing. I have several questions:

 

1. Is it okay to pack my camera equipment in my suitcase which will be in the luggage compartment? Will the cold

and high altitude affect it? Or should I carry it onto the plane with me? (I'll be flying out of Chicago to Manchester.)

 

2. What equipment should I take? I won't have family with me so I won't be taking photos of people for the most part.

I have the following Canon equipment: the 400D XTi, EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM , EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM, 85mm

f1.8 USM, 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 Kit lens, EF 50 f/1.8 II lens and the 580EXII Speedlite.

 

I'm thinking of taking the 18-55mm kit lens over the 24-70mm because of size, weight and risk of damage along with

the 70-300mm and leaving everything else home inlcuding the speedlite and my monopod. I won't be taking picture

of people and I don't know if I'll need the faster 24-70mm (or the faster prime lenses) for any indoor shots. Your

thoguhts?

 

3. What is there to shoot in the area? Any Roman ruins?

 

Thaks for your help!

[casey145]

Hello Brian,

 

I would expect that you would be OK with putting the lenses in your hold luggage. Provided they are wrapped in the clothes you are taking with you and that they are kept away from the edges of the case/bag. But make sure your insurance covers you, just in case. From past experience doing trans atlantic flights lenses in the luggage works fine.

 

I wold not put a camera in hold luggage. If you must hang it around your neck. Check in never bother you for doing that. Might make you look like a typical tourist. But hey you wanna take photos...!

Effort in result out..!! :o)

 

I would recommend the 24-70 its a "L" lens, I would ignore the weight over quality any day of the week. Put the monopod in your case. If you are working here, you may get a chance to shoot early evening. I think it will pay off for you. Depending on how enthuastic you are about shooting.

 

Do some research on Norfolk and on Cambridge(University town). They are interesting towns to visit and walk around.

London is a train ride (about 1.40 hr mins). Which will bring you into Kings Cross station. Then get the tube to Green Park(Victoria line) and have a walk around(Buckingham Palace is near there). Get a copy of the London A to Z. will help you to get around. It's worth it.

If you have a car at the weekend you could drive around outside Peterborough.

If this is the first time to the UK .

You will find Loads of quaint British villages/towns in the area. Check out maps and places that interest you on Google maps.

 

Good Luck and enjoy it.

[colin carron]

I have taken my gear both as hand luggage and in a suitcase. No problems either way though you can keep a closer eye on your hand luggage and make sure it doesn't get thrown about too much.

 

The 24-70 is a chunky old bit of glass but the f2.8 aperture will be useful in buildings or the often cloudy English weather. I think I would take your three zooms, or alternatively if the 24-70 is too big the 18-55, the 50mm and the 70-300.

 

I do not know how mobile you will be or what subjects you tend to take. However taking the 'Roman Ruins' question as a guide there are roman ruins all over UK but very few of them merit a lot of photos unless you are an archaeologist. The best Roman ruins are in Bath, or Hadrians wall both of which are quite a distance away. If you really want roman stuff then the roman baths at Bath are probably the most insteresting.

 

For more general advice there are lots of previous threads on visiting the UK.

 

Closer places of interest might be the cathedrals and medieval town centres at Lincoln or York. The university town of Oxford is nice too. Longer day trips might include a trip to London (use the train and London underground to get around),

 

Fow countryside in general to the east of Leicester is flat and to the north and west gets more hilly though you have to go to North Wales for really rugged mountains around Snowdonia. You are quite close to the Peak District around Matlock in Derbyshire. If you like flat coubntryside the fens around Boston (Lincolnshire!) or the Norfolk Broads around Wroxham are worth a visit.

 

Have a good trip!

[winn]

Kieran & Colin,

 

Thanks for the responses. We will have a rental car for the two weeks. (Of course, I'll have to consider what my travel partner wants to do.) I'm thinking I'll try for London for a day if I have enough energy after my work week. Otherwise, I'll stick to the more local areas. I'll do some research on the areas you both mentioned above. I'll also be at Bruningthorpe, which I believe has an military air museum there or nearby. I guess I'll take the 24-70, 70-300, and since it is so light the 50mm lenses (along with the monopod).

 

Thanks again!

[johnw436]

Warwick Castle is fairly close to Leicestershire and makes a nice photo trip.

 

The Space Center in Leicester is not NASA Cape Canaveral, but it's minutes away if you're already there in town.

 

What's a trip to England if you don't take the train to London? I definitely would not drive. The train is cheap and you don't have to try to park a car in London, which is its own reward. While in London the Tube will get you wherever you need to go.

 

*Note: When making left-hand turns at intersections, resist the urge to turn wide into the right hand lane as you usually would. The English drivers get so perturbed when you do that.

[colin carron]

If you are interested in air musems you cannot do better than visit Duxford which is near Cambridge on the M11. It has an American hangar as well as lots of aircraft and vehicles from Britain and elsewhere.

 

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=525063

[winn]

I talked with my travelling partner and it looks like we will visit Warwick Castle on the way from Manchester to

Peterborough the weekend we arrive. Then the next weekend we will visit Hadrian's Wall one day - I know it is a long

drive, but is something I am interested in. The other day we will probably be heading for the East coast, I'll look into

the areas Colin mentioned "the Norfolk Broads around Wroxham " etc. Neither one of us was real interested in

London. (Although my wife and everyone else thinks I'm crazy for not going there.) Thanks for the help...

[tscheung]

I would suggest: 18-55 and 24-70 f2.8L (eqt. 40-100, as a mid-rang tele, for FF body)

[lheusinkveld]

Brian, that is an extraordinary itinerary to consider, and you will be spending most of your shooting time sitting in your car (and lots of that time in traffic jams).

 

Warwick Castle is by no means on the way from Manchester to Peterborough. The interesting parts of Hadrian's Wall are well off the motorways. By all means take the weekend and visit it, but assume that it cannot be combined with the east coast in the same weekend.

 

If I were to put your proposed itinerary into an American context, I would suggest that you are planning to fly into Newark, visit Niagara Falls on the way to your destination in Albany, then the next weekend go for one day to Washington DC, and return to Albany with a sightseeing round of the Adirondacks. Might be doable, but truly does not make sense.

 

If I may offer suggestions, think about Derbyshire, Chesterfield, Lincoln, on the way to Peterborough. If you really want to see castles and roman ruins that first weekend go to Chester and see a bit of North Wales, Conwy is a lovely old castle, and Chester has a Roman forum and the wall is great to walk around.

 

If you can give Hadrian's wall a miss this trip (I would guess easily 5 hours driving each way from Peterborough), you will find lots of interesting things to shoot in Cambridge, which is a lot closer, then head southeast towards St Albans, which has some Roman ruins for you.

 

If you do go to Hadrians Wall, take in Carlisle and the castle, and try to stay one night in the Lake District, Keswick or Ambleside.

 

Myself I would not pack any camera or lenses in checked baggage. TSA locks are cut off same as any other lock, and there is plenty of pilferage from US airports. Airlines will not reimburse for any computer, photographic, or electronic equipment that is stolen from checked baggage, I know, I just went round the whole issue with Continental after foolishly putting a P-2000 into checked baggage.

 

Hope this is helpful, enjoy your trip!

[david_henderson]

Frankly it is ludicrous to think about Hadrians Wall from Peterborough as a day trip. I wouldn't even want to do that as a two day trip, but as minimum you need to stay overnight somewhere round Hexham or Corbridge. Do a google image search on the wall- its not as if its the Great Wall of China, snaking virtually unbroken across large tracts of countryside. Hadrians Wall is mostly in fragments and foundations of forts. Sure it is of historic interest but with one or two exceptions its no huge visual treat and you'll need to travel from one fragment to another to make a decent trip

 

How about abandoning thoughts of "where could I possibly get to from Peterborough?" in favour of "how can I fill two days with interesting and photogenic sights relatively close to Peterborough?" The latter thought process might for example take you through the fens to the relatively nearby north Norfolk Coast, which is very evocative and has some interesting little towns on and behind it, maybe getting down ( maybe via the Norfolk Broads) to the Suffolk Coast near Southwold and Aldeburgh, before completing the circle with a few hours in Cambridge which leaves you less than an hour from your base.

 

Unlike some others I don't think its entirely mad to visit Warwick on the way between Manchester and Peterborough. What I would say however is that its a longish journey on unattractive motorway and i might not accept an hour or two in the castle as a fair trade off for that especially if its a good day. If it were a sunny day then a direct route across the Peak District via say Buxton and Bakewell (possibility to visit Chatsworth) and down into Dovedale near Ashbourne would be a lot more interesting in total. You can be in decent countryside in well under an hour from Manchester airport by heading east.

[mike_doyle2]

Hi Brian, just picked up on your thread, if you are in Leicester, take a walk up the High Street and you will find St. Nicholas's Church on your right almost opposite the Holiday Inn, however at the side of the church you will find the Jewry Wall an escavation of a large Roman villa and bathing complex, Leicester was a very important part of the Roman occupation and many Roman remains were found during demolition and reconstruction work, if it is open the Jewry Wall Museum is full of these finds, also King Richard having lost his crown at the Battle of Bosworth is reputed to be buried on the other side of the road in Castle Gardens, Leicester is very rich in history Simon De Montfort being one of its many famous citizens, though sadly the planners of the sixties and seventies with their craze for modern buildings robbed the city of some fine architecture which fell to the demolition ball.

 

Hadrian's Wall from Peterborough is a very long journey up the A1 (Great North Road) and you would not get to enjoy too much after such a long hike, it may be more prudent to drive south from Leicester to Warwick, a fine city and Castle, and also you could easily make Shakespeares birthplace at Stratford on Avon, the journey across from Warwick is rich in chocolate box villages with thatched cottages etc.

 

And finally London, which is better visited by using the train the East Coast Main Line from Peterborough to Kings Cross takes 90 minutes, then use the underground and bus and of course on foot, as there is so much to see it is better to prioritise what is important to you. The changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace takes place every morning on the forecourt, and if you wish to obtain close up photographs of the Guardsmen at their sentry boxes, standing with your back to the palace gates, look up the Mall and to the left you will find the entry to St. James' Palace where the Guardsmen are on the pavement as opposed to behind the fence at Buckingham Palace.

 

Also worth considering is Windsor with its fine castle and again many photographic opportunities exist there too, I am afraid you will return home exhausted!! Take the 24-70 lens, I have just returned from three weeks in Europe and that is all I needed with my Nikon.

 

If you have any specific questions please do not hesitate to get in touch, having lived in Leicester, and also in London and Windsor when I was a Guardsman in the early sixties, I am happy to be of help, I now live near Peterborough, in Lincolnshire and close by is Stamford a beautiful old market town that just begs photographers to visit, take care and enjoy your trip, Mike

[winn]

Thanks so much for your responses!

 

Right now my work plans have changed and I will not be going to Leicester for 3 days as originally planned :-( We will be in Peterborough for the whole two weeks. The plan is to visit Warwick on our way from Manchester to Peterborough; it is "somewhat" on our way and we will need something to occupy us as we adjust to the time change and lack of sleep.

 

The middle weekend is not planned in detail. If the weather is nice, we will head out 3 to 5 hours driving time and spend the night at that location. We haven't finalized the where yet (although it won't be London, I'll save that for when I visit again with my wife). Maybe Hadrian's Wall, maybe Stonehenge, maybe the coast... If the weather is poor we will stay local.

 

From what I've read here and talking to my travel partner who has been to England several times, I won't need my 70-300mm lens (on a 1.6 crop factor body). I'll take my 24-70L along with my 85mm and since it is so light, maybe my 50mm.

 

If I get some decent pics, I'll post and give an update here. Thanks!