The Year of Charles Darwin Ultimate Tour (Part 2)
Back in December, I wondered if you could plan an itinerary for the entire year in which everything you did was Darwin-related
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Back in December, I wondered if you could plan an itinerary for the entire year in which everything you did was Darwin-related. I quickly discovered that planning itineraries is hard work (my friends over at Smithsonian Journeys do this every day—they are amazing) and stopped in early May, leaving us in London. But I've kept at it and managed to fill the rest of the year. So where to next?
May 12: Debate in Westminster Abbey, London, chaired by the BBC's John Humphrys and sponsored by Theos and the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion. The debate will explore the compatibility of belief in God and Darwinian evolution.
May 13: View the Alfred Russel Wallace Collection at the Natural History Museum, London.
May 14 – 15: Visit the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
May 16: Darwin’s London, Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, London.
May 17 – 19: Sightsee through southern England on the way to Lyme Regis.
May 20-21: Go on a fossil hunting tour in Lyme Regis. Visit the Lyme Regis Museum.
May 22 – 24: Lyme Regis Fossil Festival 2009.
May 25 – 26: Travel to London. Fly to New York. Take train to Cold Spring Harbor.
May 27 – June 1: Evolution: The Molecular Landscape, symposium at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
June 2 – 30: Travel home. Check to see if house still exists. Call friends who haven’t heard from you in months. Feed cat. Pack for the next bit of travel. Reread On the Origin of Species and The Descent of Man.
July 1: Fly back to England.
July 2: Exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, “‘Endless Forms’: Charles Darwin, natural science and the visual arts.”
July 3: Visit the Cambridge University Botanic Garden.
July 4: Wonder why no one around you is celebrating Independence Day.
July 5 – 10: Darwin Anniversary Festival, Cambridge University, England. “A Festival of science, society, literature, history, philosophy, theology, art and music arising from the writings, life and times of Charles Darwin presented through talks, discussions, performances, workshops, exhibitions and tours.”
July 11: Visit the University of Cambridge Zoology Museum. See “Darwin: Beetles, Finches, Barnacles.”
July 12: Sunday. Rest.
July 13: Visit the University of Cambridge Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences. See the Darwin Collection.
July 14: Take the train to Oxford.
July 15 – 18: Religious Responses to Darwinism, St Anne’s College, Oxford.
July 19: Fly to the Galapagos Islands.
July 20 – 24: Darwin celebration in the Galapagos, hosted by the Charles Darwin Foundation.
July 25 – 31: You’re in the Galapagos! See everything!
August 1 – 3: Fly home. Call mom and explain why you aren’t going to visit her this year. Pack.
August 4 – 10: Hiking trip in the Sierra Nevada region, California. See Mount Darwin, Darwin Glacier and Darwin Canyon in the Kings Canyon National Park and Inyo National Forest.
August 11: Fly to Chicago. Wonder why you planned to go to Chicago when its 90+ degrees out. Remember that at least you didn’t plan to go when it was -20 degrees.
August 12: Visit the Museum of Science and Industry and the Field Museum.
August 13: Wander among the animals at the Brookfield Zoo.
August 14: Visit your brother; talk about his new research project.
August 15: Fly to Washington, D.C.
August 16: Visit the National Museum of Natural History and the National Zoo.
August 17: Check out the National Arboretum. Take train to New York.
August 18: Spend the day at the American Museum of Natural History. Wander out into Central Park.
August 19: Check out the New York Hall of Science.
August 20: Take train to Boston. Take bus to Woods Hole.
August 21 – 22: Hang out with scientists at the Marine Biological Laboratory. Enjoy the beach.
August 23: Back to the Galapagos!
August 24 – 27: Second World Summit on Evolution.
August 28 – September 15: Follow the footsteps of Alfred Russel Wallace and visit Southeast Asia.
September 16 – 20: Human Evolution – 150 Years After Darwin, conference in Gibraltar.
September 19 – 22: Darwin’s Mistake and what we are doing to correct it, Azores.
September 23: Fly to Paris.
September 24: Visit the Museum national d’Histoire naturelle. See the Grande Galerie de l’Evolution.
September 25: Take train to Geneva, Switzerland.
September 26: Visit the natural history museum in Geneva.
September 27: Take advantage of being in Switzerland and eat lots of Swiss chocolate.
September 28: Fly to Edinburgh, Scotland.
September 29 – 30: Visit Edinburgh Butterfly & Insect World, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Edinburgh Zoo and the National Museums Collection Centre.
October 1: Take train to Glasgow. Visit the Glasgow Science Centre.
October 2: Take train to Manchester.
October 3: Darwin at the Manchester Museum exhibit opening.
October 4: Visit the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry.
October 5: Fly to Falkland Islands.
October 6 – 7: Visit Darwin, Falkland Islands.
October 8 – 12: Fly home. Do laundry. Check on kids.
October 13 – November 23: Smithsonian Journeys tour – South America’s Ancient Civilizations. Among the destinations on this 40-day cruise is the Beagle Channel, named for Darwin’s ship the HMS Beagle, which explored these waters in 1832.
November 24 – December 31: Follow the footsteps of Alfred Russel Wallace and visit the Amazon.
January 1, 2010: Stop thinking about Darwin. Obsess about something else. Any suggestions?
(Many thanks to Darwin Online for compiling the list that contained many of these events.)
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