Oh, No, Not Another Trip Report - for England and Wales
Nov 5th, 2007, 07:52 AM
#21
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The badger issue is quite serious because they carry bovine TB.
The debate is about whether they should be killed in many parts of the UK. At the moment they are a protected species
http://tinyurl.com/24vg2q
The debate is about whether they should be killed in many parts of the UK. At the moment they are a protected species
http://tinyurl.com/24vg2q
Nov 5th, 2007, 10:19 AM
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<b>October 25th</b> – After a great breakfast at Bryn, we took a quick walk around this incredible walled town. We walked the city walls and the waterfront, taking a quick look at “Britain’s smallest house.” Allison had recommended a visit to Plas Mawr, a perfectly-preserved Elizabethan townhouse, but (as usual) we were short on time, as we had a luncheon engagement down the road in Bethesda, near Bangor.
A long time ago, when I was a young Beatlemaniac, I wrote regularly to my Welsh “penfriend”, Heather, in Bethesda. I still have some of the letters and they are fairly embarrassing, being devoted to such topics as Will Paul Marry Jane Asher and Doesn’t Ringo Have Pretty Blue Eyes. Anyway, Heather still lives in the same huge stone house in Bethesda, and we were finally able to meet after 40+ years. She is a linguist, teaching Spanish and French to private students and at the university. It was a great afternoon, and of course we lingered for longer than we’d expected, so we arrived at our next sightseeing stop, Caernarfon Castle, just as they were swinging the huge oaken doors shut for the day. Hmmm…this is happening to us a lot!
Back to Conwy for a roast chicken picnic and another moonlit walk, this time through the graveyard of 12th Century St. Mary’s Church…we found the “We Are Seven” tomb that inspired Wordsworth’s poem. Spooky…and very cool.
<b>October 26th</b> – We had to leave Allison and Conwy today; so sad. Our next destination was the Cotswolds and I had a route planned out for us that would have taken us southeasterly on the A5 toward Shrewsbury. But some nice fellow guests had come up from the Cotswolds the previous day, and they told us of a route that would allow us to see more of Snowdonia NP…it was A470 south to Rhayader, then east on the A44. So we followed this route and it WAS very nice; would have been great but this was the day the weather finally decided to close in, so the vistas were not as huge as they might have been. We sustained ourselves with cookies, chips (I mean sweet biscuits and crisps) and apples en route. When we arrived 6 hours later in the Cotswolds (Chipping Campden), we were told that the other route could have been accomplished in 4…again, it was an “oh, well” situation.
OK, Chipping Campden. We stayed at the Bramley House B&B, about a ten minutes walk from the center of town. Remember what I said about Allison in Conwy? Well, David and Jane at Bramley House were equally as nice as Allison…I really couldn’t believe our good fortune in meeting all these wonderful innkeepers. Our room was wonderful and cozy, overlooking the back garden, and with a king size bed. On our arrival, Jane immediately treated us to tea and scones, and dragged out all her maps and hiking books to help us plan the walk we wanted to do the next day.
Then we walked into town, explored a little and stopped at a grocery for another in-room picnic. We loved the honey-colored buildings and the medieval stone marketplace in the middle of High Street.
<i>Next - a Cotswold ramble (with momentary panic)</i>
A long time ago, when I was a young Beatlemaniac, I wrote regularly to my Welsh “penfriend”, Heather, in Bethesda. I still have some of the letters and they are fairly embarrassing, being devoted to such topics as Will Paul Marry Jane Asher and Doesn’t Ringo Have Pretty Blue Eyes. Anyway, Heather still lives in the same huge stone house in Bethesda, and we were finally able to meet after 40+ years. She is a linguist, teaching Spanish and French to private students and at the university. It was a great afternoon, and of course we lingered for longer than we’d expected, so we arrived at our next sightseeing stop, Caernarfon Castle, just as they were swinging the huge oaken doors shut for the day. Hmmm…this is happening to us a lot!
Back to Conwy for a roast chicken picnic and another moonlit walk, this time through the graveyard of 12th Century St. Mary’s Church…we found the “We Are Seven” tomb that inspired Wordsworth’s poem. Spooky…and very cool.
<b>October 26th</b> – We had to leave Allison and Conwy today; so sad. Our next destination was the Cotswolds and I had a route planned out for us that would have taken us southeasterly on the A5 toward Shrewsbury. But some nice fellow guests had come up from the Cotswolds the previous day, and they told us of a route that would allow us to see more of Snowdonia NP…it was A470 south to Rhayader, then east on the A44. So we followed this route and it WAS very nice; would have been great but this was the day the weather finally decided to close in, so the vistas were not as huge as they might have been. We sustained ourselves with cookies, chips (I mean sweet biscuits and crisps) and apples en route. When we arrived 6 hours later in the Cotswolds (Chipping Campden), we were told that the other route could have been accomplished in 4…again, it was an “oh, well” situation.
OK, Chipping Campden. We stayed at the Bramley House B&B, about a ten minutes walk from the center of town. Remember what I said about Allison in Conwy? Well, David and Jane at Bramley House were equally as nice as Allison…I really couldn’t believe our good fortune in meeting all these wonderful innkeepers. Our room was wonderful and cozy, overlooking the back garden, and with a king size bed. On our arrival, Jane immediately treated us to tea and scones, and dragged out all her maps and hiking books to help us plan the walk we wanted to do the next day.
Then we walked into town, explored a little and stopped at a grocery for another in-room picnic. We loved the honey-colored buildings and the medieval stone marketplace in the middle of High Street.
<i>Next - a Cotswold ramble (with momentary panic)</i>
Nov 5th, 2007, 03:29 PM
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Wow - what a fantastic trip report!
Re the Luna & Simone Hotel,
<< . . . quiet and (if possible) views were important to us . . >>
Did your room meet that criteria? Just curious. The rate of £85 sounds very good for London. Was that per room or per person?
Re the Luna & Simone Hotel,
<< . . . quiet and (if possible) views were important to us . . >>
Did your room meet that criteria? Just curious. The rate of £85 sounds very good for London. Was that per room or per person?
Nov 5th, 2007, 03:56 PM
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Thanks! Re: the Luna & Simone, our room was quiet. The view was interesting to us, though it was mostly of rooftops and chimneys. And yes, the £85 was per room, not per person! A very good deal for London.
Nov 5th, 2007, 07:22 PM
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<b>October 27th</b> – Jane prepared yet another great breakfast, then wrote down directions to Snowshill, the first town on our planned Cotswold ramble. Snowshill was featured in the Bridget Jones movie, and is absolutely charming – so cute it looks like a Hollywood fantasy of an English village. We took Jane’s “AA 50 Walks in the Cotswolds” book with us, but didn’t take the ordinance map she offered…uh-oh. As we set out on the hike, we learned that directions like “walk one quarter of a mile and then turn right through the orchard and go through the gate in the high stone wall” weren’t exactly helpful given the number of orchards, gates and high stone walls we were encountering. But the day was lovely, with the sun peeking in and out of clouds, and we ran into so many nice people that it didn’t much matter that we were rarely sure if we were on the right path. One of my favorite moments was when we were approached by a sweet friendly horse, who followed us for quite a distance as we walked through his pasture. I used to spend a lot of time with horses and really miss them! Unfortunately, we’d left the apples in the car.
We finally made our way to Stanton, another picture-perfect village, but never did find Stanway, which was to have been the third stop on our loop. In fact, at one point we found ourselves on a high ridge with very little idea of where to head next…I was getting anxious, imagining that we would have to spend the night curled up among the sheep. But finally we spotted Snowshill, and made our way directly there across the fields. I love that hikers have the right-of-way across private farmland in Britain; it makes navigation quite a bit easier. When we got back to Snowshill we found another group of hikers clutching the same AA book we had; they hadn’t found either Stanton or Stanway so we felt a bit better about our wanderings.
We drove back to our wonderful B&B, then walked back into Chipping Campden. My husband had noticed the previous day that every door facing High Street was different and unique, so he took pictures of about 50 doors as we made our way through town. At Jane’s suggestion, we walked to Broad Campden and shared a tasty cottage pie at the Baker’s Arms pub. When we walked back through town, we lingered to listen to a Welsh choir that was performing at St. James Church. At the B&B, Jane had left a slice of layer cake in our room – wow, another perfect day!
<b>October 28th</b> – More fond farewells and off to Bath. Unfortunately, the weather finally got seriously wet on this day. I had planned our route to visit the Slaughters and Bourton-on-the-Water on the way south, but it was raining so hard that we decided to save them for another visit. Finding our way to the B&B in Bath was a little difficult; especially because the drivers of the Volkswagen Polo ahead of us in traffic were even more unsure of themselves than we were and kept stopping suddenly in unlikely (and hazardous) places. When we did get to our accommodations, the Ashley Villa Hotel, it was only 11 am and too early to get our room. That was too bad, because later in the room we found a good walking map of Bath and information about local bus service, which we could have used. But we set out from the hotel and after about 30 minutes recognized that we were near the Royal Crescent.
Taking a tip from both the Fodor’s guide and Rick Steves, we paid £5 each to visit #1 Royal Crescent, which was promoted as “a glimpse inside the splendor of Palladian architecture.” Sorry, RS and Fodor’s; we tried valiantly to appreciate the museum, but it was only 4 rooms and a basement, all behind velvet ropes, with a lot of furniture that seemed to be mostly on loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum (which is free!). My advice would be to purchase the £2 guidebook as you will learn just about as much from it as you would from the visit.
Next we wandered around Bath (it had stopped raining), and ate some snacks on a bench in the Circus. The city center was very crowded with shoppers, and our next destination, the Roman Baths, was crowded too, but still an incredible experience. Besides the awesomeness of the ancient ruins themselves, the museum is very interactive and state-of-the-art. But our favorite things were the actors dressed as ancient Romans who were going about their daily business, and who stayed in character and “in the period” whenever approached by tourists.
And now the time had come for our very last dinner in Britain…I’d like to say we celebrated by having a traditional fish and chips or steak and kidney pie feast, but actually…we had a pizza.
<i>Next...going home and summing up.</i>
We finally made our way to Stanton, another picture-perfect village, but never did find Stanway, which was to have been the third stop on our loop. In fact, at one point we found ourselves on a high ridge with very little idea of where to head next…I was getting anxious, imagining that we would have to spend the night curled up among the sheep. But finally we spotted Snowshill, and made our way directly there across the fields. I love that hikers have the right-of-way across private farmland in Britain; it makes navigation quite a bit easier. When we got back to Snowshill we found another group of hikers clutching the same AA book we had; they hadn’t found either Stanton or Stanway so we felt a bit better about our wanderings.
We drove back to our wonderful B&B, then walked back into Chipping Campden. My husband had noticed the previous day that every door facing High Street was different and unique, so he took pictures of about 50 doors as we made our way through town. At Jane’s suggestion, we walked to Broad Campden and shared a tasty cottage pie at the Baker’s Arms pub. When we walked back through town, we lingered to listen to a Welsh choir that was performing at St. James Church. At the B&B, Jane had left a slice of layer cake in our room – wow, another perfect day!
<b>October 28th</b> – More fond farewells and off to Bath. Unfortunately, the weather finally got seriously wet on this day. I had planned our route to visit the Slaughters and Bourton-on-the-Water on the way south, but it was raining so hard that we decided to save them for another visit. Finding our way to the B&B in Bath was a little difficult; especially because the drivers of the Volkswagen Polo ahead of us in traffic were even more unsure of themselves than we were and kept stopping suddenly in unlikely (and hazardous) places. When we did get to our accommodations, the Ashley Villa Hotel, it was only 11 am and too early to get our room. That was too bad, because later in the room we found a good walking map of Bath and information about local bus service, which we could have used. But we set out from the hotel and after about 30 minutes recognized that we were near the Royal Crescent.
Taking a tip from both the Fodor’s guide and Rick Steves, we paid £5 each to visit #1 Royal Crescent, which was promoted as “a glimpse inside the splendor of Palladian architecture.” Sorry, RS and Fodor’s; we tried valiantly to appreciate the museum, but it was only 4 rooms and a basement, all behind velvet ropes, with a lot of furniture that seemed to be mostly on loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum (which is free!). My advice would be to purchase the £2 guidebook as you will learn just about as much from it as you would from the visit.
Next we wandered around Bath (it had stopped raining), and ate some snacks on a bench in the Circus. The city center was very crowded with shoppers, and our next destination, the Roman Baths, was crowded too, but still an incredible experience. Besides the awesomeness of the ancient ruins themselves, the museum is very interactive and state-of-the-art. But our favorite things were the actors dressed as ancient Romans who were going about their daily business, and who stayed in character and “in the period” whenever approached by tourists.
And now the time had come for our very last dinner in Britain…I’d like to say we celebrated by having a traditional fish and chips or steak and kidney pie feast, but actually…we had a pizza.
<i>Next...going home and summing up.</i>
Nov 6th, 2007, 03:40 AM
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This is a lovely report, but there's an important point you've slightly misunderstood.
Walkers <b> do not have a right of way across private farmland</b>. In England, there are 120,000 miles of right of way footpaths - mostly across private land. Other than on these footpaths, though, there's no right of way on cultivated land. The recent so-called 'right to roam' legislation extends this right to large, but designated, swathes of uncultivated land but not to farmland.
The point's important, because making the 120,000 mile system work requires a great deal of cooperation from the farmers whose land we have the right to walk over. Trespassing on other parts of their land is unfair to them: it can destroy their crops, upset their animals and damage their hedges. Farmers organise their business on the assumption people and dogs will be in certain fields: we owe it to them to stay out of the fields they haven't organised round our convenience.
Walkers <b> do not have a right of way across private farmland</b>. In England, there are 120,000 miles of right of way footpaths - mostly across private land. Other than on these footpaths, though, there's no right of way on cultivated land. The recent so-called 'right to roam' legislation extends this right to large, but designated, swathes of uncultivated land but not to farmland.
The point's important, because making the 120,000 mile system work requires a great deal of cooperation from the farmers whose land we have the right to walk over. Trespassing on other parts of their land is unfair to them: it can destroy their crops, upset their animals and damage their hedges. Farmers organise their business on the assumption people and dogs will be in certain fields: we owe it to them to stay out of the fields they haven't organised round our convenience.
Nov 6th, 2007, 06:32 AM
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Flanneruk: thanks for the clarification. We really did have the impression that one could walk virtually anywhere, at least in the area where our walk took place, but were careful to mind the signs (especially the ones that said "bull in field"!) and close gates behind us.
Babs and Tod: We got our Oystercards at the Heathrow tube station, but as Janis points out, you can buy them at any tube station. The important point as far as the 2-for-1 deal goes is that you must load a 7-day travelcard on your Oyster, and keep the receipt showing the dates for which the card is effective. The Days Out website (www.daysoutguide.co.uk/) will have information about which attractions qualify for the 2-for-1
admission; check it close to your departure date.
Babs and Tod: We got our Oystercards at the Heathrow tube station, but as Janis points out, you can buy them at any tube station. The important point as far as the 2-for-1 deal goes is that you must load a 7-day travelcard on your Oyster, and keep the receipt showing the dates for which the card is effective. The Days Out website (www.daysoutguide.co.uk/) will have information about which attractions qualify for the 2-for-1
admission; check it close to your departure date.
Nov 6th, 2007, 10:02 AM
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Babs, you will need to print the coupons from the days.out site when they become available. Should have mentioned that before, sorry. I printed six or seven of them but wound up only using three...there are really a lot of attractions in London that will honor them.
You can also take advantage of the 2 for 1 offers if you've traveled to London by train...I have no experience with that, but I'm sure others can advise you.
You can also take advantage of the 2 for 1 offers if you've traveled to London by train...I have no experience with that, but I'm sure others can advise you.
Nov 7th, 2007, 07:02 AM
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<b>October 29th</b> – Awww, this was going home day. Still, it was not without its adventures – our first stop after leaving Bath was Avebury. The previous day’s gloom had cleared away and the skies were brilliantly blue once again, with tracings of white clouds here and there…honestly, I wish we had this kind of weather more often in Seattle. We ambled around (avoiding sheep poo) and taking photos of the wonderfully evocative giant stones. The countryside in this area was quite lovely, and the cashier at the petrol station in Fyfield suggested that we have a look at the village of West Overton…a great suggestion, for this uncelebrated little place had a beautiful old church and some really picturesque thatched roof houses, and made a perfect coda to our travels.
In another hour or so we were at Heathrow, where we returned the Punto and negotiated airport security with no problem. We are “carry-on-only” type of people, and had worried a bit about the one-bag rule, since my day bag, the camera bag, and all the gifts and guidebooks we had acquired now had to fit into one bag (each) through security. We solved the problem by bringing along a cheap nylon duffle bag, which we stuffed with all our dirty laundry and checked. (We figured that if the bag was misplaced we could probably survive without our dirty laundry for a while, but the bag came through at the other end of the flight without a hitch.)
I hadn’t been lucky enough to snag the two-across seats on the British Air 747 for the return flight, so we were crammed into a window and middle seat over the wing. The amount of space allocated for economy passengers by British Air is really quite ridiculous; we got up and marched around the cabin several times during the flight in order to avoid pulmonary emboli. But we did have a great travel companion in the aisle seat, a funny lady from Scotland (transplanted to Vancouver) who made us laugh the whole way home, once by “nicking” a bag of peanuts while the flight attendant’s back was turned.
We arrived in Vancouver on time and soon were headed for the I-5 Peace Arch border crossing, on the right side of the road at last. The US customs agent at the border was a bit surly – welcome home. Since we didn’t feel up to driving all the way home at night on no sleep, we took a room at the Quality Inn in Bellingham ($69 including WAFFLES for breakfast). There we had our homecoming in-room picnic: burritos and tostadas from Taco Bell. Yum.
<b>Finances and final thoughts:</b>
Several people seemed to be interested in our costs for this trip. (The last two places we stayed, Bramley House in Chipping Campden and Ashley Villa in Bath, were £65 and £69 per night respectively.)
My rough accounting of everything we spent on the entire 12-day trip is as follows: $1600 for lodging, $300 for admissions and guidebooks (this is one area where we didn’t want to pinch pennies), $630 for transportation (Oyster, car rental, petrol, train tickets), $120 for gifts, and $500 for food. This totals $3150 (I had forgotten in my earlier $3000 estimate that a couple of things, like the car rental and train tickets, were prepaid before we left.) I have no frame of reference to know whether this was very thrifty of us, or just a bit thrifty.
Each time we come home from an overseas vacation we immediately want to go back to that same place again. Last year we were briefly in France, and really wanted to go back and spend more time in France. My niece’s London semester made us decide to go to Britain this year instead, and now we really want to go back and spend more time in Britain. I hope that our time and our finances eventually allow us to grant ourselves all our travel wishes and dreams – I know, everyone does!
We frankly didn’t find all the driving that relaxing, and are thinking next time of using the train more, and maybe only renting cars when necessary for day trips. I know that some don’t think rail travel in Britain is that great, and for you folks I have only one word – Amtrak! So you can expect to see me popping up on this forum in the future, asking questions about planning that kind of a trip. Thanks to all who have been reading this report, and I welcome any comments and questions.
In another hour or so we were at Heathrow, where we returned the Punto and negotiated airport security with no problem. We are “carry-on-only” type of people, and had worried a bit about the one-bag rule, since my day bag, the camera bag, and all the gifts and guidebooks we had acquired now had to fit into one bag (each) through security. We solved the problem by bringing along a cheap nylon duffle bag, which we stuffed with all our dirty laundry and checked. (We figured that if the bag was misplaced we could probably survive without our dirty laundry for a while, but the bag came through at the other end of the flight without a hitch.)
I hadn’t been lucky enough to snag the two-across seats on the British Air 747 for the return flight, so we were crammed into a window and middle seat over the wing. The amount of space allocated for economy passengers by British Air is really quite ridiculous; we got up and marched around the cabin several times during the flight in order to avoid pulmonary emboli. But we did have a great travel companion in the aisle seat, a funny lady from Scotland (transplanted to Vancouver) who made us laugh the whole way home, once by “nicking” a bag of peanuts while the flight attendant’s back was turned.
We arrived in Vancouver on time and soon were headed for the I-5 Peace Arch border crossing, on the right side of the road at last. The US customs agent at the border was a bit surly – welcome home. Since we didn’t feel up to driving all the way home at night on no sleep, we took a room at the Quality Inn in Bellingham ($69 including WAFFLES for breakfast). There we had our homecoming in-room picnic: burritos and tostadas from Taco Bell. Yum.
<b>Finances and final thoughts:</b>
Several people seemed to be interested in our costs for this trip. (The last two places we stayed, Bramley House in Chipping Campden and Ashley Villa in Bath, were £65 and £69 per night respectively.)
My rough accounting of everything we spent on the entire 12-day trip is as follows: $1600 for lodging, $300 for admissions and guidebooks (this is one area where we didn’t want to pinch pennies), $630 for transportation (Oyster, car rental, petrol, train tickets), $120 for gifts, and $500 for food. This totals $3150 (I had forgotten in my earlier $3000 estimate that a couple of things, like the car rental and train tickets, were prepaid before we left.) I have no frame of reference to know whether this was very thrifty of us, or just a bit thrifty.
Each time we come home from an overseas vacation we immediately want to go back to that same place again. Last year we were briefly in France, and really wanted to go back and spend more time in France. My niece’s London semester made us decide to go to Britain this year instead, and now we really want to go back and spend more time in Britain. I hope that our time and our finances eventually allow us to grant ourselves all our travel wishes and dreams – I know, everyone does!
We frankly didn’t find all the driving that relaxing, and are thinking next time of using the train more, and maybe only renting cars when necessary for day trips. I know that some don’t think rail travel in Britain is that great, and for you folks I have only one word – Amtrak! So you can expect to see me popping up on this forum in the future, asking questions about planning that kind of a trip. Thanks to all who have been reading this report, and I welcome any comments and questions.
Nov 7th, 2007, 08:04 AM
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azzure -
Thanks for a very entertaining and informative trip report. Your actual costs are comparable to my estimates for our trip in 2009 (subject, of course, to inflation and the continuing decline in the US dollar), so that is reassuring for me.
Thanks for a very entertaining and informative trip report. Your actual costs are comparable to my estimates for our trip in 2009 (subject, of course, to inflation and the continuing decline in the US dollar), so that is reassuring for me.
Nov 7th, 2007, 04:12 PM
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azzure:
I haven't heard the term "nicked" for stolen in ages. That must have been a jolly good seat mate.
Thank so much for taking the time to post such a fun informative trip report. You have provided a great deal of useful information for others planning such a holiday.
Sandy
I haven't heard the term "nicked" for stolen in ages. That must have been a jolly good seat mate.
Thank so much for taking the time to post such a fun informative trip report. You have provided a great deal of useful information for others planning such a holiday.
Sandy
Nov 7th, 2007, 05:18 PM
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Thanks to all 
. In addition to "nicking" the peanuts (that was her word for it!), our seatmate also sang Scottish folk songs and kept us informed about the activities of Mr. Bean on her seat-back telly. It was a really nice extension to our wonderful trip.
. In addition to "nicking" the peanuts (that was her word for it!), our seatmate also sang Scottish folk songs and kept us informed about the activities of Mr. Bean on her seat-back telly. It was a really nice extension to our wonderful trip.
