Friday, February 22, 2008
Anticipation
They say anticipation is half the joy of a trip. In our case it is more than half because we also look forward to reading about what our near- professional guides Sue Anne and Bruce are planning for us! Now I have that good old Carly Simon song in my head...
London
Aimée and Steve asked if we could squeeze a day trip to London into the itinerary. Seems like a do-able thing. One’s first trip to England wouldn’t be complete without at least a peek at this magnificent city—though really getting to know London would take more than a day, or a month, or a year.
Train or coach from Cheltenham will probably be the easiest way to do this. Our recommendation for anybody’s first trip to London is to start with a double-decker bus tour. This link takes you to just one of many that seem to be operating there. There’s also an amphibious DUCK tour. We took one of these in Boston as part of Bruce’s MIT reunion a few years ago, and it was great fun. The DUCKs also operate in Baltimore. I’m still amazed that so many DUCKs appear to have survived from WW II, especially considering how anxious everybody seemed to be to melt down, sink, or otherwise scrap most everything as soon as the war was over. There’s something like only two LSTs left in the world and a similar number of seaworthy Liberty Ships, but there seem to be DUCKs just about everywhere!
We’re experimenting with Google’s on-line document service to keep a spreadsheet of our shared expenses and a listing of our detailed itinerary and to-do list for the trip. Seems like an interesting approach. Both families can access it and collaborate in updating it. A better way of recording things than sending e-mails back and forth and writing stuff on scraps of paper. We’ll report on how it works out.
Train or coach from Cheltenham will probably be the easiest way to do this. Our recommendation for anybody’s first trip to London is to start with a double-decker bus tour. This link takes you to just one of many that seem to be operating there. There’s also an amphibious DUCK tour. We took one of these in Boston as part of Bruce’s MIT reunion a few years ago, and it was great fun. The DUCKs also operate in Baltimore. I’m still amazed that so many DUCKs appear to have survived from WW II, especially considering how anxious everybody seemed to be to melt down, sink, or otherwise scrap most everything as soon as the war was over. There’s something like only two LSTs left in the world and a similar number of seaworthy Liberty Ships, but there seem to be DUCKs just about everywhere!
We’re experimenting with Google’s on-line document service to keep a spreadsheet of our shared expenses and a listing of our detailed itinerary and to-do list for the trip. Seems like an interesting approach. Both families can access it and collaborate in updating it. A better way of recording things than sending e-mails back and forth and writing stuff on scraps of paper. We’ll report on how it works out.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Links
I’ve gone back into the previous post and inserted links to sites that will provide lots of information about the places in our itinerary. Most of these are at Wikipedia, which we’ve found to be a terrific source of information for travel planning. And for understanding where you’ve been after you’ve been there.
Another good site is that of UNESCO World Heritage. There they list over 800 places worldwide that are unsurpassed in their beauty, their history, and their contribution to the culture of the world. None that we have ever visited (over 40 in total) has been a disappointment. The UNESCO site for the UK includes a number of the places we plan to see on this trip, either on their official list or on the ‘tentative’ one. I’m not sure what the difference between the two lists might be, as all the places are really nice!
There’s a link over on the right of this page to a Google map of our itinerary. For the moment it just shows the major localities that we plan to visit, but we’ll update it with side trips as the journey progresses.
Another good site is that of UNESCO World Heritage. There they list over 800 places worldwide that are unsurpassed in their beauty, their history, and their contribution to the culture of the world. None that we have ever visited (over 40 in total) has been a disappointment. The UNESCO site for the UK includes a number of the places we plan to see on this trip, either on their official list or on the ‘tentative’ one. I’m not sure what the difference between the two lists might be, as all the places are really nice!
There’s a link over on the right of this page to a Google map of our itinerary. For the moment it just shows the major localities that we plan to visit, but we’ll update it with side trips as the journey progresses.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
We’re going to England and Scotland!
Sue Anne, Bruce, Sue Anne’s sister Aimée, and her husband Steve will be going to England and Scotland for two weeks in October. October is a great time for a trip—Germany 2000, China 2006, and Italy 2007 for SA & B, and Germany and Austria in 2007 for A & S! Off-season prices, fewer crowds, but weather generally still pretty nice.
This will be the first time there for Aimée and Steve, and a return trip to lots of favorite places plus some new ones for Sue Anne and Bruce.
Here’s our tentative agenda:
Saturday, October 4 - SA & B fly from Manchester, NH to Chicago. Seems kind of strange, but that’s how the air fare we got at www.cheapoair.com (a Web site, not an airline!) (which we found through www.farecompare.com) worked out. Does anybody really understand how airline routing and pricing works? But this actually turns out well for us, since A & S live not too far away, near Madison, Wisconsin. They take a bus to Chicago, and we meet at the airport. Then we fly overnight to Manchester, England on British Midland Airlines. Great circle route.
Arrive in Manchester on Sunday, pick up rental car, drive to the Lake District. Beatrix Potter country, lovely! It was described to us before our first visit as one of those places which suddenly opens up in front of you and fills the horizon as you top the final hill on the way in. And that’s just how it was.
Week of October 6-10 in Scotland. Day trips in and around Edinburgh for a couple of days (including St. Andrews, home of golf), likewise out of Glasgow (home area of Bruce’s Scottish grandparents), heading as far north as Loch Lomond.
Then we head down into England, stopping for a walk around the walled city of Chester, which dates back to the Romans. (All the ‘-chester’ and similar sounding cities do. It comes from castra in Latin, meaning ‘camp.’) Then on to the picturesque town of Ledbury in the Malvern Hills, where we’ve booked a cottage for the week.
We’ll be using Ledbury as a base for lots of day trips—Stratford on Avon, visiting old friends and favorite pubs (Hobnails & Apple Tree especially!) in Cheltenham, nearby Cotswold villages, and northern Wales.
Fly back via Chicago on Saturday, October 18th.
Stay tuned for more news as it develops.
This will be the first time there for Aimée and Steve, and a return trip to lots of favorite places plus some new ones for Sue Anne and Bruce.
Here’s our tentative agenda:
Saturday, October 4 - SA & B fly from Manchester, NH to Chicago. Seems kind of strange, but that’s how the air fare we got at www.cheapoair.com (a Web site, not an airline!) (which we found through www.farecompare.com) worked out. Does anybody really understand how airline routing and pricing works? But this actually turns out well for us, since A & S live not too far away, near Madison, Wisconsin. They take a bus to Chicago, and we meet at the airport. Then we fly overnight to Manchester, England on British Midland Airlines. Great circle route.
Arrive in Manchester on Sunday, pick up rental car, drive to the Lake District. Beatrix Potter country, lovely! It was described to us before our first visit as one of those places which suddenly opens up in front of you and fills the horizon as you top the final hill on the way in. And that’s just how it was.
Week of October 6-10 in Scotland. Day trips in and around Edinburgh for a couple of days (including St. Andrews, home of golf), likewise out of Glasgow (home area of Bruce’s Scottish grandparents), heading as far north as Loch Lomond.
Then we head down into England, stopping for a walk around the walled city of Chester, which dates back to the Romans. (All the ‘-chester’ and similar sounding cities do. It comes from castra in Latin, meaning ‘camp.’) Then on to the picturesque town of Ledbury in the Malvern Hills, where we’ve booked a cottage for the week.
We’ll be using Ledbury as a base for lots of day trips—Stratford on Avon, visiting old friends and favorite pubs (Hobnails & Apple Tree especially!) in Cheltenham, nearby Cotswold villages, and northern Wales.
Fly back via Chicago on Saturday, October 18th.
Stay tuned for more news as it develops.
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