Some people are silly enough to be offended by almost anything, tbw, but I don't think most people are particularly bothered about the question - more mystified as to why so many local authorities want to jump on the bandwagon every time a new round of applications for city status is notified. There's one on at the moment, not that you'd know about it - I only do because my humble London Borough is applying, for no obvious reason. The "city" title has no practical effect, in terms of administrative, legal or financial powers, just the fact that the ceremonial civic head gets to be called Lord Mayor, which may be the only real reason!

But maybe flanner, with the perspective of a big village with two cathedrals, has a different view!

Thanks, PL, for the further clarification

Day 8—Brighton and a last London Loop

We were all in the lobby before 9 am for the 90 minute ride to Brighton. It was cloudy-ish and cool but not bad. C walked us to the Tourist Information office near the Royal Pavilion and then we all separated to meet back at 4. B and I wandered the Laines a little, where there are lots of jewelry shops in a windy maze. We decided we’d find fish and chips soon (it was 11:45-ish) and have an afternoon tea around 3 maybe, so we headed toward the Channel. We ate on Fish Street at a restaurant called Fish and Chips! Maybe it has another name but not on the sign and I forgot to look at menu. It was good stuff. I had plaice and B had cod and we swapped bits; I couldn’t tell any difference; fresh, hot and flakey. We were right across the street from the Channel so views while eating were great. Next door was a candy shop so we got some Brighton Rock which is just nice hard sweet candy. Different colors and shapes (some beyond risqué).

We walked along the water front just a little and across the pebbly beach to the water and stuck our feet in! It was pretty chilly stuff, even on this sporadically sunny day. I did see a very few people in the water. It was a silly treat to put our feet into the English Channel, though! B has the same sense of “Wow, we’re HERE!” that I do a lot, so we make good companions.

After we dried off, we wandered back to the TI, got me a map and found some souvenirs, and headed to the North Lanes area, which C had said was less commercial and more boutique-y. It was also less mazy but just as (oops, have avoided this word but here it comes) quaint and narrow and busy. No empty shop spaces. It started to drizzle a couple times and skies were not blue. But it never really turned into rain drops, just light sprinkling for a while. We wandered in the North Lanes until about 2:30 in and out of second hand shops and such.

Then we headed back toward the Channel looking for tea. We’d run into T and S who had had a big (high?) tea with lots of sweet stuff at Dabney’s but we couldn’t find it. We did locate the little shop we’d passed which gave us the idea and we got a pot of tea and 2 scones with clotted cream for £4.95. My first afternoon tea! Finally after all these days I had a place, time and companion to enjoy it—at an affordable price. (Hubby and I HAVE shared some spots of afternoon tea but not deliberately like this or with tea food!) It was fine, good actually for the price. Upon leaving, we turned the corner and there was Dabney’s. Ha. Ours was probably much cheaper, though, and just enough, but the girls raved about the sweet stuff at Dabney’s. Maybe next time!

The pier area was next; it was pretty busy bus still strollable. I of course took pics. We all made it back to the bus on time and off we went.

This was a much longer ride back to London as traffic was horrendous. We passed through Notting Hill and alit at Queensway—hey, my old stomping grounds! This is where we stayed last summer. We walked up Inverness Terrace to Bishops Bridge to Mr. Fish, where we had—lasagna! (since we’d been in fish and chips territory for lunch!). It was veggie lasagna with spinach and gooey with white sauce—and chips. It was edible and filling anyway. Girls liked it.

I had had several ideas about what to do on our last night. Now that I knew where I was and the weather was very fine, I decided, with some input, to take us on a last loop, via the Tube with some stops. One thing I hadn’t factored in was shopping, but now that we were at Queensway it made sense to take time for what was a last souvenir spree, so we walked down Queensway and went into several shops for some important (!) last minute items.

We caught the Tube at Bayswater. M’s card got “eaten” and he just left it, planning to just stick close to one of us through the stiles. But I told him to go talk to an agent because he had to be carrying a pass; agent got it unstuck for him. We rode the Tube to Baker Street (hey, more old stomping grounds!— exited right across from the Subway where we got all those cookies in 2005!) Quick walk to 221B Baker Street for several pics, as T had requested a walk-by and I was happy to direct. Kids liked that.

Back to the Baker Street station and downstairs to catch Tube. M couldn’t find his pass, so he went back to buy one and came back with ticket he’d bought only good for Zones 1-2. So I had to send him back to find an agent to help him, but he found his ticket on the floor of the store where he’d gotten a drink. Yay! Good to go again.

On Tube to Tower Hill. Lines kinda slow. Off Tube, through subway, and toward Tower Bridge. The sky was gorgeous and lights just coming on everywhere. The Tower had some lights and the Bridge was lit up already. We walked about half way for lovely views of the city, the river, the Tower and the Bridge. Even if pics turn out blurry with the low light, it was pretty.

We were all moving pretty slowly. I hated to leave, didn’t want to say bye to the river, and wanted to take a quick jaunt to Hyde Park Corner—but I looked at the time (9:45) and drooping kids and said, “Nah, not gonna happen!” The Warriors were being very cooperative but were pretty weary. So we headed west. Again the Tube seemed slow and we had some weirdness at a change, but we got back by about 11:15. Nobody has to rush tomorrow morning!

Day 9—Departure Day

It was very rainy out there; I was glad we weren’t out in it. I was NOT glad to be leaving! But glad to have been there. My feet really hurt; I’m ready to see my family; I want to eat green stuff. But I could SO stay another month if I just ignored how much it cost!

We all got up at different times and ate breakfast and packed (I had to divvy up some of my stuff because I’d packed light but didn’t allow room for the 9 space-taking mugs, plus a few other things, I bought!).

We all met at 11:30 in the lobby and had time to take a pic with C and gave her her St. Swithun’s thank you card. She said she had really enjoyed this group and was not glad the tour was over, like she often was. Yay, she enjoyed us all! All the groups did do remarkably well in terms of politeness and punctuality and pleasantness.

The bus picked us up at 11:45 and dropped us at Terminal 3 by noon probably. C got the other groups situated and then walked us down to the AA area. We said bye and off we went. The line was not long to check in; then all those long walks and such and finally into gates area which was really crowded. I found us some seats to be our gathering point as we waited for a couple hours. Then we just dispersed and regrouped; our gate wasn’t posted until almost 2. I got a salad at Eat and decided not to try to change my few pounds (20) back. Also went into the Harrods and bought some tea and a piece of Portmeirion china—a spoon rest but it will be a tea tidy for me.

Our plane was right on time at 3:15. The flight was long but uneventful. Arrival in DFW was smooth; passport line long but no problem; by the time M and T had caught up with me, as I was waiting for them as they were way behind most of us, B and others had gotten all our bags (recognizable because my husband had suggested we all put orange tie wraps on them so they were easy to find). Then we rechecked bags then went through security which was flowing well.

Flight home was a couple minutes late but smooth, and we arrived to find families waiting for us at almost midnight. My hubby had made a foam board with a “Welcome Home Weary Warriors” message! Clever guy.

The kids gave me a couple cards and some buttons with variations of the “Keep calm” theme on them—funny! They all say they’d go again despite tired feet, little sleep, unusual food, long Tube rides and some crazy lady not letting them rest much! It was a great treat for me and a gift from them for me to be their leader—and they were most excellent followers, and helpers, and encouragers. Well done! Brilliant!

Do I understand the Brighton day correctly?
««C walked us to the Tourist Information office near the Royal Pavilion and then we all separated to meet back at 4.»»

So it was basically 5½ hrs of free time. You and the principal ate, shopped and walked on the beach a bit. And the students did what? Mooched around, too? There was no formal educational element, like a guided tour of the Royal Pavilion?

Seems like an appalling waste of a day.

Whew..... I'm exhausted! Thanks for such a charming report. I just read it all the way through.
(Think I'll have a glass of wine..-

ron--if your question is serious (can't always tell tones here!)--

I wondered about that much "free" time in Brighton of all places, too, when I first got the schedule. But actually this was a good way to end up our very busy schedule. They are teenagers and I hadn't allowed much "mooching around" time at all and hardly any leisurely strolling and no shopping except in gift shops--and of course as I had stressed all along in preparation meetings, shopping was not the purpose of the trip, but it was fine to be able to wind down a bit by browsing. The educational component of this trip was not anything "formal" like classes, tests, or accountability for what they heard or saw but more the whole "Wow, not everybody in the world is like me!" education. An education for their spirit more than their minds. There's really only so much they could take in before saturation and I'm pretty sure I approached exceeding that point for some of them!

(If your question was a back-handed way at commenting on the busy-ness of the other days and the paucity of times allowed to people watch and relax, I would counter that relaxing wasn't the point of most of the trip.)

I very much enjoyed your description of leading students on an EF tour to England, which brought back fond memories of my own experiences as a trip leader at various times with EF, Explorica, and Casterbridge tour companies. You showed a good deal more patience and flexibility than I did as leader and I think you did a very good job.

Your trip to Brighton reminded me of a similar trek we once made, for which we had reserved tickets to the Pavilion. Our students are from Iowa, and many had never seen the ocean, so when the bus stopped for the Pavilion tour this group rebelled and broke for the sea to wade in the water and play on the pier. And the British notion of a beach vacation provided a new cultural insight as well. They missed a fine tour of the Pavilion, but for them the greater memory may have been their day on the beach.

By the way, are you going to publish any of those pictures anywhere?

Thanks again.

DW, you are amazing, but I am glad I was not on this tour!

Bookworm, yes the question was serious and thanks for answering in kind. I was thinking as if I was a parent who had helped pay for such a trip and was wondering about why you needed to waste a day.

I had no problems with the busy-ness of the rest of the trip - I think it is good to keep teens busy. I'm surprised that they were knackered after what I consider, at most, a moderately active week. And they certainly had lots of rest time on buses if they needed it. As an aside, I get a shiver, I find it very creepy when people say they want to set aside time for people watching.

Anyway, I'm sure they will have memories that will last them a lifetime.

ron--Yes, I agree about keeping them busy! I think they were tired out because travel IS tiring for many--different beds, somewhat different foods, lots and lots and lots of walking, the stress of crush of public transport--it was draining and half of them were getting over or starting a cold, too. If I were planning a tour, I wouldn't include Brighton like this, but it wasn't a wasted day in the end--the girls got to experience a real tea, they were at the English Channel, they saw another beach town culture (we live on a Bay of the Gulf of Mexico, very much a beach city).

"So do towns-people get offended if ignorant Yanks call their home a city,"

No. The English (as opposed to the Scots) for most urban agglomerations is "town", which can cover anything from where I live (which most people call a village, but whose inhabitants have been proud to call a town for the past 800 years: "stadtluft macht frei" applied throughout mediaeval Europe) to anything smaller than London. Americans' use of "city" as in a recent post here that went " underrated cities: the Antrim coast" just sounds weird.

As Patrick says, the word "City" in English (again, as opposed to in Scots) simply means being given the formal designation, which has virtually no substance: not even the Lord Mayor title (which Winchester deigns to use, on the grounds that it's a silly modern invention, dreamt up in that upstart London place as recently as 1354, centuries after Winchester had got used to calling its senior citizen plain "Mayor".

I've just got a thing about hokey histories, and silly tour guides. Had to restain myself from heckling a guide in Pompeii the other day who was churning out the nonsense about chariot grooves, railway gauges and the space shuttle. If he thought the grooves in the street before him were 4' 8.5" apart he must have been blind. (the memory of that awful heckling tourist in the Morse Martyrs' Memorial episode was a strong restraint)

Though TBW's travails, as so well recorded here, make it clear what those guides/chaperones have to put up with. TBW has my deepest sympathy.

flanneruk--Which Morse episode? I looked through my DVD set and don't see that title. I think I vaguely remember such a scene but don't remember what episode. Do you recall the title? Any excuse to re-watch Morse is a good one!

Thanks for sympathy, but I really did enjoy practically the whole trip. I do sift guides' info through a mental, fact-checking sieve later. And some forum posters, like you in my experience, are excellent sources of more factual facts. Teaching must be a calling, I guess, a gift more than a skill, and I love "putting up" with the kids and sharing with the travails of this trip with them.

I just started reading what promises to be a fascinating report -- but nowhere in it do I see an explanation of EF and EFE. By patient googling (there is a lot about EF as a Nigerian name), I learn that EF is an international Educational institution, called Education First. One would think, that -- with 17 teachers in the immediate family including a school founder-- that I would know this. If I do not, perhaps a lot of other people also are not "up" on what EF is, and does.

I suggest that OP do a short paragraph on E.F., an where his/her school is (I'm guessing not in an economically-troubled location). Just to catch us all up on this organization. Thanks!

"flanneruk--Which Morse episode?"

I'm actually not a Morse fan.

But there's one (based on The Jewel That Was Ours, though I think the TV show had a different title) where there's an American tour group at the Randolph hotel, and the bossy woman stereotype in the party keeps correcting the guide.

As you'd expect, the woman dies (do you have any idea how stressful it is living somewhere sudden death is so universal?) and the guide is a philandering, drunk, failed academic. Or something.

Thanks for the trip tale, TBW!

And Flanner and Patrick, thanks you for your explanations of the city designation.

I hope that TBW will post some pictures from the trip. I realize that you have to be careful of posting kid pictures, but maybe some of the others would be great.

flanner: Thanks.

travelerjan: Must be careful not to advertise here. I'm not a spokesperson for EFTours, which is just one of several student-oriented tour group providers. Here's the website:

http://www.eftours.com/

I would rather people go to the website and read about it there; I will say mostly great things about them as a reviewer, like I'd review a hotel, restaurant, or site, but I don't want to use this forum to give specifics about them. This TR was meant, as I said, to be a trip report, not an EFEducational Tours review. But definitely look at their website if you want more info and facts. Hope this helps, though.

I also usually give very few specifics about me and will say even less about my students. Yes, they pay tuition for a private school, but it is a stretch and sacrifice for most of our students. I would say our south Texas area IS economically troubled to some extent and our school enrollment in the high school is not growing much. My group was small, and I won't be able to recruit groups yearly but will try to go again in 2013--if this happens, people will be signing up 13-18 months ahead of the travel and so spread out the payments. Travel is expensive and a luxury many students can't afford, I know. For my group, it was, like tuition, a sacrifice on the part of most, a graduation gift, and/or something that the kids worked in part to help pay for.

Great report. Enjoyed it all. I got back Sunday, posted my report Monday, and pictures Tuesday. Stop slacking

Ok, i completely understand about not being a 'spokesperson' for EF, it would have been clear with that phrase "one of several available student-orient tour group providers".. Perhaps it was the lack of commas in the first sentence that threw me off > "from the school where I teach on an EFEducational Tour" On hasty reading, it made me think EF was a chain of schools, or a program used by schools, something like American Field Service. Now it's clearer. Thanks!

As for the economic situation, i suppose the reference to never having been on mass transit threw me off a bit, mentioning that in your area only busses are available and none of you use those. I know that in many areas busses are stigmatized, and not used even if available. Just speaks to the divide in our country. Perhaps this will change in the (distant) future when energy costs alter the multi-car mindset. But that's another whole topic!

I totally understand the go-go aspect of a tour for first-timers. Just got back from being "trip mommy" for 15-17 days In Greece with a quartet of educated, curious, active (and sometimes flighty!) 60-somethings... and I'm exhausted! I did have a few moments of "oh, I've been to this village enough times" but reminded myself, bringing them there for their first time enabled me to be there at all. Wonderfully clarifying thought.

In my mind, a day wandering freely in Brighton is every bit as educational as a guided tour in Oxford for a group of Texas teens. I've done both (and in Oxford had an exceptional guide) and I hope that no parents would question your choice of activities.

I'm with Nikki on this. It sounds as though you had a bunch of unusually reasonable and grown-up pupils (you were the only one who dropped money, and only one of them mislaid a ticket, and then only temporarily? That deserves a medal in itself!), who deserved at least one day out of the usual force-feeding of high culture and what "They" want them to learn, as opposed to what they notice off their own bat. I'm no educationalist, but I always understood you've got to have some downtime for any learning to be absorbed and digested. And if it's given them the appetite to come back and find out more (and to use public transport), then it's been an educational success. Well done.

Thank you Nikki and PL--encouraging words and I'll pass on the kudos to kids, too!

twk--Ahh, don't make me like a slacker! Ha! I am feeling swamped by the jpegs--a week after getting back from England, hubby and I went to Colorado for 5 days and took another mass amount of photos! I need to get the memories in words written (for both trips) before they fly away, whereas the pics aren't going anywhere! Maybe I'll get a few posted next week. The best ones have the kids in them, but there are other nice ones.