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Just Hanging Out at the White Cliffs of Beachy Head

Forget the White Cliffs of Dover…I love the white cliffs of Beachy Head. Beachy Head is the scenic high point of the popular South Downs Way — a hiking path an hour or two south of London…and a world away from the big city.

We’re just finishing up 18 days of filming three brand-new public television shows in England, and I’m so thankful for the sunny weather we’re enjoying. The shows are looking just great — as you can see here.

In this clip, I just filmed the “tease” to start our Southeast England show from this queasy perch. (The “tease” is that goofy little clip before the formal show open, where I say hi and explain where I am — usually with something crazy or striking going on around me. For example, on this spot, I said, “We’re just hanging out on the South Coast of England.”)

Stay tuned. We’ll be releasing this show and nine others — Rick Steves’ Europe Season 9 — on public television starting in October.

By the way, hikers love Beachy Head and, sadly, so do distraught people ready to end their lives. As we filmed here, the Beachy Head chaplain was parked in the nearby lot, ready to counsel people ready to take a suicide leap. (About 20 people a year used to take their lives by jumping off these 500-foot cliffs. Now, in part because of the work of these chaplains, the number is lower.)

This is Day 80 of my 100 Days in Europe series. As I research my guidebooks and make new TV shows, I’m reporting on my experiences and lessons learned in Vienna, the Alps, the Low Countries, England, and beyond. Find more right here on my travel blog.

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Cornwall’s Geevor Tin Mine

The PBS series Poldark shows the heyday of Cornwall‘s tin-mining industry. But in the late 20th century, that industry collapsed. And today, the last mine to close is now open to visitors — dedicated to telling the miners’ story.

The Geevor Mine, which closed in 1990, represents the last hurrah not only of Cornish tin mining, but, in a sense, of Britain’s Industrial Age. Exploring it, I gained a better appreciation for the simple yet noble lives of miners. And my visit nudged me to consider more thoughtfully the plight of miners in the USA.

Causing you to see things differently — whether you tend to be liberal or conservative — is a powerful value of travel. If you travel and don’t find yourself reconsidering things you thought you understood in at least a little different light, perhaps the value of your experience is being needlessly blunted by a closed mind.

What are some ways that your travel experience has shaken your strongly held ways of seeing things?

This is Day 79 of my 100 Days in Europe series. As I research my guidebooks and make new TV shows, I’m reporting on my experiences and lessons learned in Vienna, the Alps, the Low Countries, England, and beyond. Find more right here on my travel blog.

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The Dramatic Cornwall Coast

I just finished filming a TV show about Cornwall, in the far southwest of England. And when the sun is shining (as it does off and on most days in the summer here), it’s hard to imagine a more dramatically beautiful place in the British Isles. The constant wind made the scenes even more strikingly beautiful, as the entire coastline came with a lacy border of crashing waves.

In filming this clip, I’m quite exhilarated because I had just sat on the edge of a cliff, looked into the camera, and opened our show by saying, “Set on a rocky peninsula, Cornwall is a fascinating land. It’s a pirate’s punch of Celtic culture, legends of smugglers, and mining heritage. It has a rugged appeal that makes it a favorite among English holiday-goers.”

Tin mining was long the dominant Cornwall industry. This evocative coast is dotted with 19th-century Industrial Age ruins. The two desolate engine houses you see in this clip once pumped water out so they could mine a half-mile down — and then, under the sea bed, far out to sea. Below me, the ground is honeycombed with mine tunnels. At its peak, there were hundreds of tin mines in this part of Cornwall. (The PBS series Poldark is filmed right here and features the tin-mining culture of Cornwall.)

This is Day 78 of my 100 Days in Europe series. As I research my guidebooks and make new TV shows, I’m reporting on my experiences and lessons learned in Vienna, the Alps, the Low Countries, England, and beyond. Find more right here on my travel blog.

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Cornwall’s Dramatic Minack Theatre

Filming our Cornwall episode in southwest England, we enjoyed a play at the amazing Minack Theatre. Here’s how our script describes it:

The big draw here is the Minack Theatre, carved out of rock high above the surf. This open-air theater — with 700 seats — is gorgeously landscaped and set in a rocky cliff with a terrace stage perched hundreds of feet over the sea. A visit by day lets you marvel at the garden-like setting and the story of Rowena Cade, the visionary theater lover who created it.

If the weather’s fine and you’re here at lunch or dinnertime, get a Cornish pasty and a bottle of elderflower pressé (a local herbal drink) and grab a grassy seat at the high end of the theater for a memorable picnic. Watch the gannet birds dive for a fresh fish lunch. They hit the water at 70 miles per hour. (Sadly, many of their children follow their parent’s lead and dive for a fish before they understand how to do it safely…and later wash up on the shore with broken necks.)

This is Day 77 of my 100 Days in Europe series. As I research my guidebooks and make new TV shows, I’m reporting on my experiences and lessons learned in Vienna, the Alps, the Low Countries, England, and beyond. Find more right here on my travel blog.

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Brooding Tintagel Castle

I always find Tintagel Castle, on the rugged coast in Southwest England, evocative and brooding…especially in gloomy weather. It’s amazing to me that way back in the sixth century, people could have chosen this godforsaken bluff on a desolate coastline, so far from anything, to build a mighty castle…but they did. Was it the legendary King Arthur? We’ll never know. But it’s fun to imagine. (BTW, we’ve had a string of rainy days, and one thing I’ve noticed is that English vacationers don’t let a little bad weather get in the way of their fun. I’ve nicknamed them “armadillo tourists.”)

This is Day 76 of my 100 Days in Europe series. As I research my guidebooks and make new TV shows, I’m reporting on my experiences and lessons learned in Vienna, the Alps, the Low Countries, England, and beyond. Find more right here on my travel blog.