Classic British Flight Sim

Ah the modern world, where technology is supposed to help you...

Me and the Mrs are going to Norfolk for a weeks R&R and some light bird watching etc in three weeks and I was planning my route out via Google maps get directions thingie.

Great thing Google directions has is there's three options to travel by and each one suggests the best route and even any services if you need, which I thought was very clever.

You can go by Car, suggested route here

Looks fine to me, the route I was expecting to take,

Or by public transport, here

Not bad, it even lists the buses you have to catch and where the stops are, which I thought was very convenient.
Oddly, there's no mention of trains though even if I pick them as a mode of travel, which is a shame.
I like trains and if I go to Montrose Station, which is the destination of the local bus that passes the end of our farm track,
I can get a train all the way down the east coast mainline to Kings Cross if I want, so I thought that would be a suggested method at least most of the way.

The final Pièce de résistance though was the "on foot" route, which though not my choice on such a long journey, I was intregued as to what route it would suggest.
Anyway here it is

takes 4 days three hours and involves : -
Rosyth - Zeebrugge ferry ,
then
Zeebrugge, BE - Hull, UK ferry
then
Kingston upon Hull - Rotterdam
then
Hoek van Holland, NL - Harwich, UK ferry
with loads of walking between ferry ports in Belgium and Holland in between

Bit more of an adventure than I'd expect, better pack the bags now Mrs P, we're going to be some time...

Interesting, I wonder how that would compare time wise to actually walking the whole way, e.g. along the coast.

Makes you wonder what they classify as walking if ferry travel counts but trains don't...

I have to admit that I chuckled when I saw the 3rd map - walking. I was wondering how good a swimmer you are. Then I scrolled down and saw the references to the ferries, and I really laughed. What a convoluted route!

Nigel²

I think the on foot route included ferries because it calculated that though you sail over the north sea a few times, the actual walking distance and time taken to reach the destination works out substantially less, along with the content of my wallet

The train option does come up in the Public Transport option Skippy, but for some reason even if I choose that as the public transport method of choice, it still insists on sending me by bus . Might be something to do with the fact that I have to start and finish the trip by bus, so its considered that I'd prefer to do the whole route on the same mode of transport or something

Anyway, interesting tool none the less, especially since its quite detailed in the bus routes, stops and services.

gordon-in-aberdeen wrote: takes 4 days three hours and involves : -
Rosyth - Zeebrugge ferry ,
then
Zeebrugge, BE - Hull, UK ferry
then
Kingston upon Hull - Rotterdam
then
Hoek van Holland, NL - Harwich, UK ferry
with loads of walking between ferry ports in Belgium and Holland in between

Lovely!!

That is quite interesting. I think the train thing may be due to distance. It seems to work well going between busses and trains on short trips (i.e. an trip from my apartment in Carrollton to Fort Worth, about 40 miles from me) and gives the correct most direct route via bus, Light Rail, and Commuter Rail (which takes me about 2 hours) - Carrollton to Fort Worth Zoo

However, if I try to do the same thing to San Antonio (where there is a direct AMTRAK link), I get told that I can't do it because apparently AMTRAK isn't a participating agency with Google.