This road trip continues a series exploring California’s overlooked scenic highways, inspired in part by artist Earl Thollander’s 1971“Back Roads of California,” whose sketches and travel notes celebrated a slower way of traveling. After tracing Highway 127 along the edge of Death Valley and State Route 78 through the badlands of Anza Borrego, the journey now shifts to the north.
If you’ve ever found yourself driving along Highway 395, chances are good you’ve been craning your head west toward the Range of Light, staring at the formidable granite peaks of the Sierra Nevada.
I wouldn’t blame you.
The escarpment rises precipitously from the sagebrush-covered valley floor, climbing through pinyon and juniper woodlands into thick pine forests. Deep, twisted canyons cut into the mountainsides, their channels lined with aspen, before the forests give way to the exposed granite slopes and summits rising above 14,000 feet.
While I’ve spent countless days wandering that high country, camping in its meadows and watching shooting stars rip across the sky, I’ve spent the last decade driving up the 395 with my eyes fixed to the east. Here, the Sierra Nevada gives way to the sand-colored mountains and salty lakes of the Basin and Range, the arid region writer Mary Austin called the “country of lost borders.”
Much of this vast landscape is public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management, some of the least understood and most threatened public lands in the West. These are places I’ve traversed, documented and obsessed over for years, culminating in my book “The Enduring Wild.”
A view of Adobe Valley on River Spring Road off of Highway 120.
(Josh Jackson)
There are many routes that can take you east from the 395 and deep into the parched heart of these landscapes, but there is one route that stands above the rest. It’s what locals call Mono Mills Road and what road warriors nicknamed the “roller coaster highway” for its stomach-lifting undulations.
Welcome to State Route 120 East.
With the highway typically closing for the winter in December, there’s still time to experience this remarkable stretch of road before the snow arrives. The 45-mile route begins a few miles south of Lee Vining, where big sagebrush and rubber rabbitbrush paint the early miles in olive green and mustard yellow, a rich palette against the muted gravelly slopes of the Mono-Inyo Craters, a 25-mile-long volcanic chain of young rhyolite lava domes.
Soon, the highway cuts through miles of gray and white volcanic pumice and ash, creating a lunar-like landscape that manages to confuse the visual senses. Almost nothing grows here except the resilient Jeffrey pine, with its deep taproot and remarkably low metabolic demand. Each tree stands alone, as if carefully placed on the landscape. You can’t help but pull over and wander through the scratch-and-sniff trees, their bark releasing the scent of vanilla and butterscotch.
Ever present to the south, Mono Lake dominates the view from the highway. Its waters are part of the ancestral homeland of the Kootzaduka’a, whose name, meaning “brine fly eaters,” reflects their longstanding relationship with the lake and its ecology. My favorite time to visit is in late summer and fall, when migratory birds converge on the lake to feast on its abundant brine shrimp and alkali flies. For Wilson’s phalaropes, Mono Lake is often their last chance to fatten up before flying nonstop to South America.
Sagehen Summit offered spectacular views of fall foliage.
(Josh Jackson)
Wild horses roam.
(Josh Jackson)
In “Roughing It,” Mark Twain describes his visit to the lake, where he found “nothing but solitude, ashes, and heartbreaking silence.” For him, the area was “little graced with the picturesque.” You will still find solitude, but I doubt you’ll share Twain’s myopic opinion of beauty.
Twain wasn’t the last to overlook the value of Mono Lake. In 1941, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power began diverting water from streams that feed the lake, sending it to the City of Angels via its controversial aqueduct. After just four decades, the lake had dropped nearly 50 feet, doubled in salinity and shrunk to half its original volume.
Without the formation of the Mono Lake Committee in 1978 by a group of upstart citizens, the lake might well have suffered the fate of Owens Lake, which had been drained decades earlier by the same Los Angeles aqueduct, leaving behind an eerily dry and dusty salt flat. A landmark 1994 decision curtailed LADWP water diversions, but three decades later, the lake remains roughly 10 feet below its state-established target elevation.
“We saved the lake from destruction,” Bartshé Miller, policy director for the Mono Lake Committee, told me by phone. “But we haven’t gotten the patient out of the hospital yet.” For those who want to help protect the lake, Miller suggests signing up for the committee’s newsletter to learn more about ongoing conservation efforts and ways to get involved.
Back on the highway, the road climbs steadily, surpassing 8,000 feet near mile 15. This is where Sagehen Meadows Road, a well-maintained gravel route, turns south. The 4-mile detour toward Sagehen Summit is worth your effort. In late September, the aspens covering the summit turn from green to amber gold, transforming the mountainside into an astonishing display of autumn color.
The sun kisses the mountains beyond in Adobe Valley.
(Josh Jackson)
Near the halfway point of the journey, another short dirt road leads to the BLM-managed Granite Mountain Wilderness, dominated by an 8,920-foot peak that resembles a stack of boulders glued together in the shape of a pyramid. With no trails on the mountain, reaching the top requires 1,800 feet of climbing. One sweltering July morning, two friends and I made the trek. We switchbacked up steep sandy pitches, scrambled over sections of class 3 granite, and reached the peak in the early afternoon. The summit register revealed roughly 40 names scribbled over the past decade, or what amounts to three or four people annually. Unbelievably, someone had already been there earlier that day, like a ghost we had neither seen nor heard nor felt. One of my companions added his name to the register and then wrote “sage for days.”
A few miles later, the highway earns its nickname as it quickly rises and falls over a succession of short hills that run through Adobe Valley. Between the crimson mesas rising above the flats, hidden lakes and springs, and the pronghorn and wild horses that roam the open country, this is my favorite place to venture off the highway and set up a camp chair. I would trade you a hundred Yosemite Valleys for the solitude and subtle beauty offered here at dusk, as the sun sets over the Glass Mountains and the sky turns mauve.
Forty-five miles after it began, the journey through volcanoes, salt lakes, pine forests, aspens and a valley that stretches across the horizon comes to an end at a lonely intersection with U.S. Route 6, which, improbably, runs all the way to Provincetown, Mass. I’ve made this drive a dozen times, and it’s the quiet and open spaces that always bring me back. The Sierra will always rightly command attention. But there’s an entire world waiting for those willing to turn east.
The route: State Route 120 East, between Highway 395 to U.S. Route 6
Distance: 45 miles (one way)
Drive time: 1.5 hours straight through; allow a full day for stops
Best time to go: With an average elevation of roughly 7,000 feet, the road is usually closed from December until late spring, when snowmobiles are the only way in (in 2023, the road didn’t open until July 1). You can find up to date Highway 120 closures on Caltrans website.
Fuel:
Lee Vining (Mile 0)
Benton (Mile 45)
Food/coffee:
Camping:
Lodging:
El Mono Motel: Charming, family-run boutique lodging and coffee house.
The Inn at Benton Hot Springs: Rustic elegance in a tranquil surrounding, the perfect spot to get away from it all and to relax and rejuvenate in the historic hot springs.
Lake View Lodge: Cozy lodge with basic amenities and a cafe.
Hike/Explore/Learn:
Notes:
These lands are the very definition of a landscape that requires all of us to “pack out what we pack in.” The only pit toilets are found at the South Tufa Interpretive Trail near mile 5.
Dispersed camping is allowed on BLM land and in the National Forest around Sagehen Summit. There are dozens of gravel roads skirting the area where you can pull off the highway and park/camp for the night (please look for spaces that have previously been occupied). Many of these side roads are 2WD friendly, but please exercise caution!
The new route gives Brits the chance to visit two Christmas markets this historic city which run from November to January and boast free entry, featuring classic winter scenes of chalets, Christmas trees, and an open-air ice rink
The first flight comes after Ryanair unveiled its newly expanded winter schedule last month, with 22 new routes from UK airports(Image: Peter Byrne/PA Wire)
Ryanair has announced a brand new route in time for cheap getaways this winter and this Christmas.
The budget airline has revealed its new winter 2026 route from Manchester to Warsaw Modlin in Poland. Ryanair bosses shared yesterday (October 27) how the first of the Manchester-Warsaw Modlin flights took of this week.
Ryanair says it will operate six weekly flights on this “exciting new winter 2026 route, providing UK customers with even more choice at Europe’s lowest fares”. Ryanair’s full winter 2026 schedule is available to book now via the Ryanair app and website in time for cheap winter and Christmas breaks.
The new route gives Brits the chance to enjoy Warsaw’s two Christmas markets, including the huge Jarmark Warszawski at Plac Defilad, by the Palace of Culture and Science, and the traditional, historic market in the Old Town along the city walls.
Both markets run from November to January and boast free entry, featuring classic winter scenes of chalets, Christmas trees, and an open-air ice rink.
The first flight comes after Ryanair unveiled its newly expanded winter schedule last month, with 22 new routes from UK airports with Birmingham, Edinburgh, Liverpool, and London airports benefiting the most. Ryanair also announced that it was adding nineteenth-based aircraft at Manchester Airport this winter, helping it to run one extra route from the North West hub.
Ryanair is increasing its flight frequencies on another 26 routes from Manchester, including holiday hotspots like Malaga, Palma de Mallorca and Madrid, as well as city break destinations like Barcelona, Belfast, Venice, Porto, Prague and Krakow.
Eye-catching flights among the list included the new winter sunshine route from Birmingham to Marrakech, which regularly enjoys mild winter temperatures. The bulk of the other routes are to northern and western European destinations where more festive pleasures are on the itinerary.
The new route announcement followed the boss of Ryanair warning that air fares would “no doubt” rise next year for summer holidaymakers amid the surging price of oil and the Iran war.
Earlier this month, oil prices rose above 100 dollars a barrel for the first time since July after the latest round of strikes in the conflict.
Ryanair’s Director of Communications, Jade Kirwan, said: “ It was great to see the first flight of our new winter 2026 route from Manchester to Warsaw Modlin take off this week, bringing the first of many happy Ryanair passengers on their winter 2026 getaways.
“Our Manchester to Warsaw Modlin route will operate six times per week, offering our UK customers even more choice at the lowest fares in Europe. Ryanair’s full winter 2026 schedule is available to book now on the Ryanair app/website.”
THE UK could soon get a direct link via ferry to a new destination in Europe.
Plans have been submitted for a ferry route between Aberdeen in Scotland and Iceland, often dubbed ‘Snow Land’.
Plans have been revealed for a new ferry route between the UK and IcelandCredit: GettyThe proposed route is between Aberdeen and SeydisfjordurCredit: Getty
The passenger and freight ferry would head to Seydisfjordur – a town on Iceland’s east coast.
Bob Sanguinetti, chief executive of the Port of Aberdeen, said: “A regular service between Aberdeen and Iceland would certainly be of interest to the port.”
Sign up for the Travel newsletter
Thank you!
So far, one ferry operator has shown interest in the route.
In the future, there could also be a stop in Orkney.
TUI is launching a new route from London Gatwick to Athens, recently named the top winter destination by Time Out, where temperatures can occasionally reach the low 20s on particularly sunny winter days.
TUI is launching a new route from London Gatwick to Athens, offering travellers a city break in a European capital that stays mild for much of the winter.
The Greek capital joins an expanded Gatwick network of 59 destinations. The German holiday company is also adding services to Palermo, Santiago de Compostela, Seville, Valencia, Tangier, Djerba and Mytilene.
Athens was recently named the top winter destination by Time Out. Writer John Ovans, who spent last winter there, said “the city never goes into full hibernation mode”.
He also suggested Athens could challenge Lisbon as Europe’s leading city for digital nomads, thanks to “cheap living, a warm lifestyle, and a gritty-glamorous vibe”.
While visitors should not expect summer heat, particularly sunny winter days can bring surprisingly mild temperatures. Ovans wrote: “On a good winter day you might get up to the high teens, or even low‐20s on rare extra sunny occasions.”
He recommended eating outdoors in the city’s squares, with awnings and gas heaters helping diners enjoy neighbourhoods such as Psirri, Plaka and Exarchia even on sunny days in January and February.
A spring visit also revealed a vibrant and exciting city, reports MyLondon. Although its iced freddo coffees and open-air cinemas are best enjoyed in warmer weather, many of Athens’ biggest attractions appeal throughout the year.
The Acropolis is worth the climb in any season, offering breathtaking views of the Parthenon and the city below.
Another highlight is the National Archaeological Museum, where exhibits include the Artemision Bronze and the Mask of Agamemnon. An extensive refurbishment is on the horizon.
For affordable lunches, Athens’ traditional workers’ canteens, historically known as inomagireia or simply magireia, serve hearty, home-style food.
These unpretentious venues dish up stews, soups and casseroles straight from heated trays or pans, making them a good option for budget-conscious visitors.
In the evenings, the city’s tavernas come alive whatever the season. Home-style dishes can be enjoyed alongside rakomelo, a warming spirit served as a digestif.
Across TUI’s wider network, the new routes will add 640,000 seats and open up previously unconnected destinations in Spain, Greece, Italy, Slovenia, Tanzania, Cape Verde and Morocco. Most services will operate two to three times a week.
TUI Airline chief commercial officer Peter Glade said: “Gatwick has played a central role in the development of Tui’s airline business in the UK for more than six decades. For generations of customers across London, the south and southwest of England, it has been the gateway to their holidays.
“Expanding our portfolio to 59 destinations is a natural next step as we continue to invest in one of the most important markets. The additional flying creates more opportunities for customers, supports continued growth in both package holiday and flight-only demand, and reinforces our long-term commitment to Gatwick.”
It was 41 years ago in April of 1987 as a 28-year-old sportswriter that I was given one of my favorite assignments.
From LAX, I flew to Indianapolis, rented a car and drove one hour to Bloomington, Ind., home of the NCAA basketball champion Indiana Hoosiers. My most vivid memory was nervously driving on Route 37 with no GPS guiding me and seeing the many varieties of basketball hoops hanging on farm houses and family homes, providing powerful evidence that all the stereotypes about the state’s love for basketball were true.
This was months after the best selling book, “A Season on the Brink,” was published. And a month after coach Bob Knight and Indiana won their fifth NCAA basketball championship.
My assignment was to check in with Glendale native Joe Hillman, a 1984 Hoover High graduate who was Knight’s first recruit from west of the Mississippi River. Hillman averaged 41.3 points his senior year at Hoover He ended up being a reserve guard behind Steve Alford and Keith Smart on the 1987 NCAA championship team, so it was perfect timing.
He also continued to play baseball and was a 25th-round draft pick of the Oakland Athletics in 1986.
Fast forward to Tuesday at the YMCA in La Cañada Flintridge. The guest speaker for the Glendale Quarterback Club was Hillman. It was the first time seeing him since my trip to Indiana. Now 60 and living outside of Indianapolis, Hillman was asked tough questions.
1984 All-CIF basketball team.
(1984 Foundation)
Can you still hit?
“I can still do that.”
Can you still make free throws?
“I don’t know about that.”
How come you never went into coaching?
“I wouldn’t have been patient enough.”
How did Knight convince you to go to Indiana?
“We don’t have this in Indiana,” Knight told him during a visit to Santa Anita while looking out at the San Gabriel Mountains. “Why would a California kid come to Indiana?”
Hillman: “I want to play on a national championship team.”
Any Knight stories to tell?
“I don’t know if you can put them in a paper.”
Years later, when talking to other players, Hillman said, “There was a method to his madness. They all had the same stories with different names.”
Indiana’s Daryl Thomas (24) and Joe Hillman (44) victorious during interview with CBS announcers Billy Packer (L) and Brent Musberger (R) in 1987.
(Manny Millan/Sports Illustrated via Getty Imaages)
Among the Knight truths: Players who practiced best always got to play. The best players always got the most heat from him. Anyone who graduated from Indiana received his total loyalty.
Hillman remembers calling Knight eight years after graduation seeking a phone number to reach a Reebok executive to inquire about a job. Knight ended up telling the executive he’d drop Adidas shoe contract for Reebok if Hillman were hired. Hillman didn’t get the job but learned what Knight would do for any player who got his degree.
“He was the most honest, most blunt coach,” Hillman said.
Asked why he chose to be subjected to such harsh criticism for four years, Hillman said, “My father was on me from the time of T-ball. He said constructive criticism was good.”
Comparing today’s college sports environment of NIL deals with the 1980s, Hillman said, “It would have been scary what kind of money we could have gotten.”
Hillman expressed disappointment at the lack of multiple-sport athletes today in high school sports. He said even Knight appreciated and supported his option to keep playing baseball.
Looking back on that trip from 1987, I re-read my observations: “The four-lane highway that stretches from Indianapolis to Bloomington is virtually deserted as darkness begins to descend over the lush, green countryside. The temperature is in the 50s, and the sky is overcast after three straight days of damp weather. The picturesque Midwestern landscape is immaculate, but equally alluring are the distinctive basketball hoops found among the farms and family homes along Route 37. Hoops are everywhere — on barns, rooftops, telephone poles, even next to power transformers.”
I remember getting lost in a forest trying to find where Hillman was living in a townhouse.
I wrote: “After finding the correct street, the quickest way to locate an Indiana basketball player’s residence is to ask a young fan. Shooting baskets by himself on a court not far away was a 12-year-old.
Ryanair services daily direct flights on the route for just £15 but from April next year, layovers will now be required for those wanting to fly to fly from the UK to this city
Ryanair plans to cut all flights to a European airport next year(Image: Getty Images/Stock Image)
Ryanair plans to cut all flights to a European airport next year. From April 2027, Europe’s biggest budget airline will no longer fly to Bremen in Germany.
This will axe around 500,000 seats. At present, Ryanair services daily flights on the route from London Stansted to Bremen for just £15. The airline’s website appears to have tickets for the final flights to Bremen scheduled for March 27, 2027.
Ryanair previously announced it would be cancelling 24 routes to and from Germany, cutting 800,000 seats in total. Nine airports will be affected by the decision, affecting major cities and popular with tourist spots:
Berlin
Hamburg
Memmingen
Baden-Württemberg
Cologne
Frankfurt-Hahn
Dortmund
Dresden
Leipzig
Earlier this year Ryanair said it will be reducing its flight schedule to and from Berlin by 50 per cent.
CEO Eddie Wilson subsequently said that Germany’s aviation market is “broken”. He also said it “needs an urgent fix.”
“As a result of these high government taxes/fees (the highest in Europe), and Lufthansa’s high-fare monopoly, German citizens/visitors now pay the highest air fares in Europe,” Mr Wilson said.
For decades, the bold, mid-century building at Lincoln and Olympics boulevards in Santa Monica has been the end of the line — the last address on the 2,400-mile westward journey of Route 66. Once home to the Penguin Coffee Shop, today it holds Mel’s Drive-In. But now its future is in doubt.
The owners of the property have filed early paperwork to level the structure and replace it with an eight-story apartment building. Preservationists are pushing for a historic designation that might protect it.
The groups appear headed toward a showdown Dec. 14, when the Santa Monica Landmarks Commission will hold a hearing on the site’s nomination for protected status by the Santa Monica Conservancy and the Los Angeles Conservancy. The allied conservancies contend that the building is “the most significant representation of its style and period in architecture and design in Santa Monica.”
Designed by famed mid-century architects Armet & Davis, the building held the Penguin Coffee Shop from 1959 through 1991.
(Architects Armet Davis / Santa Monica Public Library Image Archives)
“This isn’t about saving a modern restaurant. It’s about preserving some really important Googie architecture,” said Nina Fresco, vice president of Santa Monica Conservancy. She added that “there’s no reason why housing and historic preservation can’t be partners.”
Irvine-based firm ValueRock Realty bought the half-acre Mel’s property for $6.2 million in 2020, and in 2025 began offering the property for sale, asking $26 million through brokers Newmark Pacific.
Soon after learning that the building was for sale, the Santa Monica and L.A. conservancies nominated Mel’s for a landmark designation, which can protect buildings from demolition, Fresco said. As part of the effort, Santa Monica Conservancy leaders raised $6,800, the cost of a Santa Monica landmark nomination, and enlisted the L.A. Conservancy as an ally.
Then on Sept. 18, ValueRock filed a preliminary application with the city (also known as an SB330 application) to replace the 1959 building with an eight-story apartment building, including 138 apartments, 123 parking spaces and first-floor retail space.
The sign of Mel’s Drive-In features a penguin, homage to the coffee shop of yesteryear.
(David Fouts / For The Times)
When it bought the property in 2020, ValueRock announced that it “is considered to be a historical landmark within the community.” But in its September filing for the apartment project, ValueRock management checked a box indicating that no historic or cultural resources are known to exist on the property.
“We didn’t know they would be quite this aggressive, but it’s not a huge surprise,” Fresco said.
Under city law, Fresco said, if a property is more than 40 years old, the owner must wait at least 75 days after seeking a demolition permit before any demolition can happen. “So we’re OK at least until that hearing” in December, Fresco said.
If the Landmark Commission agrees to confer landmark status on the building, Fresco said, it may be shielded from demolition — but the owner can appeal the decision to the City Council.
Management at ValueRock Realty did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The restaurant remains open, receiving a steady stream of locals and Route 66 travelers. “We’re going to be here until 2029,” said Marilina Borchio, manager of Mel’s, citing a lease that runs through June of that year. As she spoke, the breakfast crowd was trickling in on Sunday morning. Borchio said she’s spending a lot of time reassuring customers who “think we are going to be demolished tomorrow night.”
The Googie-style building, designed by famed mid-century architects Armet & Davis, held the Penguin Coffee Shop from 1959 through 1991, catching the eyes of passing drivers with its dramatically slanted roof, oversize windows and a long counter inside for diners in a hurry. Architectural historians describe Googie style as a bold strain of Mid-Century Modernism, notable for big neon signs and swooping roofs, especially popular among restaurants, bowling alleys and car washes, now increasingly rare. Rae’s Diner, a 1958 building on Pico Boulevard, is another Santa Monica example.
The coffee shop never earned a Michelin star (nor has Mel’s) but its workaday American fare won a following. “The Penguin gets my vote for the best diner around,” wrote Times restaurant critic Charles Perry in 1989.
But two years later, the Penguin was gone. By 1992, the building had been converted into a dentist’s office. Eventually it fell idle, until the San Francisco-based Mel’s chain arrived in 2016 and began a renovation aimed at bringing back the restaurant’s ’50s atmosphere.
Mel’s Drive-In now occupies the old Penguin Coffee Shop building at the official end of Route 66 in Santa Monica.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
The renewed restaurant opened in 2018, with a penguin atop its sign, in homage to years gone by.
“A lot of the neon elements are gone, but the main elements are still there,” said the Santa Monica Conservancy’s Fresco, who is also a Santa Monica planning commissioner and former landmarks commissioner.
The renovation and restoration effort included removing layers of paint and tile that had been added over decades, revealing interior stone cladding that had been covered and replicating the counter and stools, vinyl cushioned booths, tables of plastic and metal, terrazzo floor, and light fixtures. The work was “to the letter of the Secretary of the Interior’s standards” for the treatment of historic properties, Fresco said.
The building is not mentioned in “An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles,” by David Gebhard and Robert Winter, which is a prime source for many preservationists. But Mel’s won a $10,000 grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 2025 to pay for Route 66 centennial signage project.
Route 66 memorabilia at Mel’s Drive-in.
(David Fouts / For The Times)
“This site, like Route 66 itself, represents something greater than itself,” said Rhys Martin, manager of the National Trust’s Preserve Route 66 initiative, in an email. “It’s a connection to a journey through time and space that will be forever lost if this remarkable Googie structure is demolished.”
Fresco said she’d love to see the building continue to operate as Mel’s, but in the big picture, “we can’t stop them from building housing.” Still, Fresco said, she is hoping that the owner can come up with a project that retains the existing building while adding housing around it, as several other developers in Santa Monica have done. At 829 Broadway, developers agreed to preserve a World War II era Quonset hut while building a five-story apartment building around it. (The Quonset hut was occupied by Pono Burger from 2013 to 2025.) And the old Rapp Saloon — an 1875 brick building at 1436 2nd Street — was reborn in the late 1980s as a meeting space within a four-story hostel, now known as Hostelling International’s HI Los Angeles Santa Monica Hostel. The Santa Monica Conservancy begins its walking tours there.
If the allied conservancies win landmark status for the Penguin/Mel’s building, Fresco said, the owners “will be able to do exactly what they want to do now. They will just have to do it differently.”
Route 66, which was born and officially named U.S. Highway 66 on Nov. 11, 1926, was extended to Santa Monica in 1935. Though many travelers think of the Santa Monica Pier as the end of the route, its official terminus from 1935 on was at the intersection of Lincoln and Olympic boulevards, where Mel’s now stands.
Though Route 66 was decommissioned in the 1980s, its popularity as an Americana-rich driving route has grown in recent years, especially during this year’s centennial celebration of the road.
By the time the coffee shop building was going up at the end of the route in 1959, Fresco said, interstate freeways were already beginning to usurp Route 66’s role and the Santa Monica route of Interstate 10 had been plotted. By putting their eye-catching building on a spot along Route 66 and next to the path of the freeway, Fresco said, the people behind the Penguin were catering to motorists on roads rooted in two different eras.
“The Catholic Church shaped Rome. Commerce shaped Manhattan. It is popular culture that has shaped L.A.,” architecture critic Alan Hess told a Times reporter in 1993. “We should see these buildings in that context and take them seriously.”
A VITAL ferry route to France is being axed three weeks earlier than planned after operating for over 40 years.
Customers have been told they will receive a full refund or alternative travel routes following the shock announcement.
Brittany Ferries has axed its Poole-Cherbourg route three weeks earlier than plannedCredit: Alamy
Brittany Ferries has confirmed that the Poole to Cherbourg route will close three weeks earlier than planned.
The last crossing was originally set to take place at the end of the month.
Sign up for the Travel newsletter
Thank you!
All passengers who were set to be travelling in the latter half of the month will receive a full refund or be provided with alternative travel on Portsmouth routes.
The early axing of the Poole-to-Cherbourg route has occurred for two reasons.
Firstly, Brittany Ferries is selling the vessel which currently operates on the Rosslare/Cherbourg route – Cotentin.
To prepare, the vessel must be withdrawn from the service by mid-October.
Secondly, a back-up vessel, the Commodore Clipper, suffered gearbox failure earlier this month rendering the ferry out of action pending remedial work.
The gearbox issue forced the early closure of the Portsmouth-Le Havre route, but has now meant the company has needed to move Barfleur onto a new route and finish Poole-Cherbourg sailings earlier than planned.
Barfleur, the vessel which has served the crossing since 1992, is set to be moved to the Rosslare/Cherbourg route from October 12.
CEO of Brittany Ferries, Christophe Mathieu, said: “The reality is that, post-Brexit, Rosslare/Cherbourg has become a strategically significant route for Brittany Ferries, carrying nearly 25 percent of all freight traffic so we must prioritise.
“I know there will be disappointment with this operational change, and I apologise to all those travelling from Poole in the latter half of October.
“We shall of course refund tickets or provide alternative travel on routes out of Portsmouth.
“It has been a privilege to serve the Poole-Cherbourg route since 1986.”
The company revealed it would be shutting down the 40-year route owing to growing financial pressures, particularly affected by the pandemic, the EU’s Emissions Trading System and competition on the Eastern Channel.
The crossing closure is forecast to affect around 20 jobs and the decision forms part of a wider restructuring by Brittany Ferries.
Brittany Ferries has confirmed that passengers will still be able to head out to France from Poole, instead via the company’s seasonal service to St Malo.
Customers can also cross the Channel via routes from Portsmouth and Plymouth to Caen, Cherbourg, St Malo and Roscoff.
A new high-speed crossing between Poole, Guernsey and St Malo is set to be debuted in 2027.
The MS Barfleur first began her voyages between Dorset and France in 1992 and was the shortest journey over the Channel, taking just four hours and 15 minutes.
The crossing garnered a huge amount of success, leading to a £6million refurbishment of the ferry terminal in the 1990s.
The route has faced difficulties more recently, seeing a temporary closure in 2010 following a decrease in ticket sales – however it was reopened in 2013.
