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Friday 15 April 2011

With Cunning Needle - 2 Day Conference * 21-22 October 2011 * Winterthur, USA

In my occasional series of Travels and Museums, I must tell you about a memorable day visiting Winterthur Museum in Delaware. Perhaps when you travel there to participate in this fabulous two-day conference, as you must, you will remember me and smile. Click here for your information download and registration form.
Everyone told me they hired a car or took taxis to Winterthur - but I am YorkshireWoman so I disregarded all advice. I have travelled on the back of flat bed lorries in the Rif mountains of Morocco; I have travelled by donkey, yak and other quadrupeds too numerous to enumerate; I have travelled through snow, ice, desert and midnight sun; have disregarded royalty, celebrities and even the Dalai Lama in the quest for my destination. YorkshireWoman always gets through. Then there was Winterthur. I travelled Amtrak from Philadelphia to Wilmington, popped into the Tourist Information Centre there to ask how I should travel the next 6 miles to the museum. I was told to hire a car. There were definitely no buses. If I came back the day following one of their friends would take me. Very kind people. But YorkshireWoman knew there was a way - somehow. On her forward retreat back to the Amtrak station, she went past a bus office. Buses to Winterthur? No. Buses going near Winterthur, then? Where is it? YorkshireWoman produces map. Looks like the number 10 should get you close. Yo! Buy ticket. Wait for bus. Get on bus. Ask driver to let me off at Winterthur Museum. Where's Winterthur Museum? No, I am the tourist here. Do you have a map? Yorkshirewoman never travels anywhere without all the maps of the universe in her teeny handbag. Try getting off there. Sit down. Ride for a long time. Route bears no resemblance to bus map. This could be Wales. See shops, shopping parade, lots of people. It must be here. Get off bus. No signs to Winterthur. Sees horses in fields. Considers saddling up. Goes into Wine Shop. YorkshireWoman always knows where friends are to be found. Tell me how I can walk to Winterthur from here. You can't. I can't! Too far, too dangerous on road for little lady. Before I can say, I am mighty YorkshireWoman, he says he will take me in his car. That is so very kind of you, I'm terribly grateful. Arrive Winterthur. Note bus stop right outside gate. I shall know better next time!

3 comments:

  1. Welcome to the USA Jaqueline!! I`m afraid I have no advice...I am a transplanted Canadian and haven`t braved the busses here yet!. That`s one of the many things I miss about England, their public transport system. It was wonderful!!

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  2. Hi Jacqueline...
    I well remember your experiences going to Winterthur. I believe it took you most of a day to make the trip.
    You may remember that Linda H and Laura M flew into Boston (I believe) and then took a bus to Deerfield there thinking they could take a taxi to their hotel. Thankfully Linda C learned of their plans and the two of us picked them up at the bus stop (not much more than a gas station).
    I'm afraid that in much of the US, we do not have much good public transportation except in the very big cities.

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  3. When I found the transport, it was good, though - and regular. But I was astonished that the people who knew of the museum didn't know about the bus, and the bus driver who must have stopped at Winterthur so many times, didn't know it was Winterthur and a museum. It was a parallel universe situation!

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