Good choice! Have a great trip . . . .

"Fortunately, I found a thread on TripAdvisor asking about disembarking at Ebbsfeet rather than St. Pancras."

I refer the honourable lady to the answer I gave her on April 16 at 0847

flanneruk, the mistake is mine, not yours and I appreciate all your help and advice. You definitely mentioned this but it didn't twig with me then, unfortunately. I got that we could just get off the train but not that this was only if our particular train stopped there. Now I know that it doesn't.

We are in Pris now and my husband heard about a tube strike in London which could affect our plans to take the tube from St. Pancras to Heathrow this Friday. Can anybody advice me about this? I may be able to change out pick up location although I expect the drive out of London would be even worse than usual.

This has gotten buried so I'm bringing it to the top in hopes someone in Britain will notice it this morning and can advise.

Hi Moolyn - I suggest you re-post this as a new thread with 'tube strike' in the title - you're more likey to get an answer that way.

Steve

The tube strike is essentially today and tomorrow (Thursday).

It's just possible a few trains will be in the wrong places early Friday so there might be a wee bit of disruption or overcrowding. But union discipline is pretty strong, and most strikers don't want to lose any more wages, so it's 99% certain 99% of tube trains will be running normally by Friday.

I wouldn't worry.

Yes. Don't worry about the tube strike. It will be over on Thursday. Just keep your eyes peeled for updates at www.tfl.gov.uk

Just one thing though. If you are going to be in Bath, I would HIGHLY recommend a place I bumped into last August called Cheddar Gorge. It is a quaint little town and there is a cave there that you can visit with stalagtites and stalagmites. I had visited Wookie Hole Caves (Also in somerset) but Cheddar Gorge was like being in the mideterranean. Will be going again.

Also visit Aunt Sally's cafe in Bath. Lovely cream teas :-)

Thanks so much, flanneruk and aden, for this strike update! My husband heard it mentioned on the sports news as it was going to affect a major event at Wembley. I'll check the updates.

Aden, after visiting the caves in the Dordogne, I'm very interested to visit the one in Someret now too so thanks for the recommendation of which one to see.

Wookie Hole is fine - but it is a tourist trap. I can't believe you don't have at least as good where you come from (Britain doesn't do big geology really)

Cheddar Gorge has some super caves - but very few are acessible by joe bloggs. You normally have to belong to a caving club. It's very pretty though (and not bloody "quaint"!)

IT's also where the cheese comes from.

I agree w/ c_w -- Cheddar/Cheddar Gorge is worth a drive for sure. Very pretty countryside. But Wookie Hole was a tourist trap 30 years ago and is probably more so now.

Maybe more interesting than the caves would be visiting some of the neolithic (and fake neolithic) sites like various long barrows, Cerne Abbas and other chalk figures -- those sorts of things . . . .

Sadly, CW has got it wrong.

The Cheddar Gorge is where the cheese originated. Cheddar's made anywhere these days, and there's no decent Cheddar made round the gorge any more.

For good Cheddar (and, apart from 36 month Parmesan, hardly any cheese on earth matches a really good farmhouse Cheddar), go to any major British supermarket (Waitrose does it best), or talk to any serious-looking deli west of Oxford. Most of the stuff sold round the gorge is the muck the supermarkets won't touch. But the mark of an English deli is their Cheddar, Stilton and bacon.

Far too many sell fabulous kalamata olives but crap English cheese, ham or bacon. Have no truck with them

Thanks, guys! We'll visit the Cheddar Gorge but, alas, not the caves, and we'll buy our Cheddar Cheese at Waitrose, if possible.

You are right about the caves. However, even though i have been to Luray Caverns (http://www.luraycaverns.com/), I still really enjoyed Wookie hole and still cannot wait to go to Cheddar caves (only drove past and stopped once or twice). You can also abseil there.

But moolyn, even driving through is well worth the experience. Look out for little crevices.

What a load of plonkers you lot are, you know so little about Summerset (or even Somerset). The place is WOOKEY Hole, and its just outside Wells, which is well worth a detour for anyone in the area.

I cannot think that Cheddar would impress anyone who has ever seen a real canyon or caves, and you have to watch out for climbers and parascenders as you drive up the Gorge. However, each to his own.

Here I sit, in our very comfortable exchange home on the outskirts of Frome, where it was light enough to look out on miles of beautiful countryside until about 10:00. So our plan to get from Paris to Somerset worked. Thanks to all of you who offered advice and suggestions!

It took us about an hour and a half to buy tickets and take the tube out to Heathrow from St, Pancras, boring but not unreasionable. Once at terminal 5, it took another hour and a half to get into our car, boring and not so reasonable. Fortunately, the drive from Heathrow to Frome wasn't bad at all. Traffic was heavy on the M25 but once we got into the designated M3 exit lane and then on the M3 and A303, we moved along very well. Within the next 90 minutes we had passed Stonehenge and were in Somerset.

Today we visited the Frome Farmer's Market and chose some cheddar, not the oldest and stinkiest but close. It's a start, until we find a Waitrose. We also toured the town on foot, following the brochure available at the tourist office where the pleasant woman at the desk didn't know where the famous bridge was until I pointed out the photo in the brochure. The thing is, because the shops on the bridge block the river on one side, you don't really feel that you are on a bridge unles you cross the road. We enjoyed our tour and think Frome is a lovely little town and that it will be a great base for exploring Somerset.