Showing posts with label Hotwire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hotwire. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

So You Want to Go to England: Getting There - Freighter Cruises


Why fly when can you take 20 times longer for three times the price?
Photo by Mike Baird, licensed through Creative Commons



Part 6:  Getting There - Freighter Cruises
Part 7:  Surviving Heathrow Airport



Once upon time, if a young man suffered from wanderlust or a failure to fully comprehend the rhythm method, fleeing his quaint coastal hometown was a simple matter.   All he had to do was run, preferably under cover of darkness, to the dockyard and beg for a job on the first freighter bound for Sheik Yarbouti.  Once onboard he was free to enjoy a lifetime on the open sea, never again to worry about personal responsibility or any kind of basic human comfort.

Over time, the slow encroachment of unions and maritime laws has made it tougher to escape your mistakes by sea.   Now the experience of traveling on a seagoing freighter is limited to those who thoughtfully joined the Seafarers International Union before “forgetting” their prophylactics and independent-minded tourists who have time and money to burn.  

And so, having covered some options for flying the friendly skies, in this installment of "So You Want to Go to England" we takes a look at this considerably less popular alternative to air travel.