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Postcards from Retirement - the Britan 2017 Edition

Postcards from Retirement - the Britan 2017 Edition

Old Jul 2nd, 2017, 06:49 AM
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Postcards from Retirement - the Britan 2017 Edition

DH and I were off for the month of June to England and Scotland. My last TR from Scotland was two summers ago.

You may recall that we are two seniors who are normally in Scotland to play in a Pipe Band. This time we decided on a trip, just the two of us, without having to drag pipes, drums and uniforms around. Also we thought it would be nice to be in Edinburgh without the festivals going on. As interesting as they are, the city becomes so crowded that it can limit your enjoyment a bit.

We like to drive ourselves and really enjoy travelling through the countryside gazing at the wonderful scenery. DHG loves markets, and will do a few castles/cathedrals. We were sailors, so we both enjoy pottering around harbours and being near the sea.

We enjoy staying in B & Bs or small local hotels. We tend not to be out much after dinner, although on this trip it was light until 11pm.

We write letters home eveyday, so we'll adopt you and send them along as this TR.
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Old Jul 2nd, 2017, 08:27 AM
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Oh -- really looking forward to your report!

Was it already two years ago (!) we met up in Edinburgh??? I went to the Tattoo again last August but it may be about 2 years til I get to Scotland again
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Old Jul 2nd, 2017, 08:39 AM
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Hi Janis, Yup two years ago in August. Time flies. We may go back with the band next summer (2018), but it is sometimes hard to plan that far out. We'll see.
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Old Jul 2nd, 2017, 08:49 AM
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DAY 1, WENESDAY MAY 31st 1

After having had dinner with our friend, John, in Burlington and having stayed overnight out by the airport, we took off as scheduled the morning Air Canada flight from Toronto to Heathrow.

The flight was fine and had a lot of empty seats, so we each had a row of three seats to ourselves. We landed about 40 minutes early and walked miles to Immigration. We were all cleared in about 30 minutes...a new record!

We took a car service into London and got settled in our home for three nights.
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Old Jul 2nd, 2017, 08:54 AM
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drum roll please
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Old Jul 2nd, 2017, 08:55 AM
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DAY 2, THURSDAY, JUNE 1ST

We had a good night's sleep and slept in until about 8:30. We got ready and went for breakfast. Then we explored our neighbourhood a bit.

We are very close to the London Eye, so we walked over to find out how the tickets worked. It wasn't too busy so we went for a ride right then after seeing a 4D movie about London. It was a beautiful, sunny day with stunning views over the city. I think this is one of those things you like to do once. It was worth it, I guess, but I probably would do other things in London if I was short on time and hadn't been there before.

By the time we were finished, we decided to stop for lunch along with thousands of our closest friends. I don't remember London being this busy!

After lunch we set off, over Westminster Bridge, past the Parliament and Big Ben, and went to the Churchill War Rooms. We have been through them before, but they are really interesting.

By the time we were done, we were tired. We went across the street and sat in St. Jame's Park for a while. Then we made our way back "home". We picked up some fruit and wine so we are set for cocktail hour.

After a rest and a glass of wine, we headed out to an Asian Noodle House and had a really good dinner. All and all it was a lovely first day to our holiday.
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Old Jul 2nd, 2017, 09:03 AM
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Bilboburger, I'll think of you when I play my next drum roll...band practice is Thursday!
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Old Jul 3rd, 2017, 09:46 AM
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Day 3, Frid., June 2nd

Our biggest news from last evening is that we have a new great granddaughter, who arrived two weeks early. Everyone is doing fine.

That excitement aside, we had another lovely day in London. Today was our day to take the train out to Hampton Court Palace. This is one place that we have not seen before.

The train trip is about 35 minutes from Waterloo Station which is a 5 minute walk away from our hotel. We got our tickets and walked right on to the train. The trip was interesting with several quick stops. The predominant sight was of new construction just about everywhere.

We arrived and took the short walk to the Palace. I had pre-ordered tickets which we just had to pick up. We toured the Palace for the next 3 hours....a very interesting history. We stopped part way through for coffee and a scone. We finished by walking through some of the amazing gardens.

Our original plan had been to take the boat along the Thames back to London, however our sunny day had turned very humid and threatening (as forecast), so we decided just to take the train again.

When we got back into the city, we browsed around Waterloo station a bit, and picked up some stuff in the drugstore, and a road atlas in a lovely book store.

We came home for a break while we waited to see what the weather would do. Naturally it poured rain with lightening and thunder. They had said we might get hail as well, but we didn't see any of that.

Given the weather we settled for a middle eastern dinner in the hotel. I spent some time downloading photos to Dropbox and repacked our suitcases as we are leaving for the Cotswolds in the morning.
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Old Jul 4th, 2017, 04:08 AM
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Day 4, Sat., June 3rd

We were up early for a quick breakfast at Starbucks as our driver was picking us up at 8:30. He took us back out to the airport so we could pick up our rental car. The rental pick up was slower than usual because there were scads of Spanish soccer fans wanting to drive to a game in Cardiff.

We have a Fiat 500 with all the bells and whistles, although it is a standard transmission ...6 forward speeds. We headed out and eventually made our way to Henley on Thames where we stopped for lunch along the river. We found a restaurant in a park with many young families enjoying the sunshine.

After lunch we aimed for our destination, Bourton on the Water where we are staying in a B&B. The town itself was just packed with people and cars. Turns out that this is the last weekend of the school break. It was hard to get through the traffic, but we eventually found it and figured out the parking.

What a pretty town with the river running through it. Every view was a picture. After settling in, we took a little walk around to find a dinner destination. Pretty much every place was already fully booked, but we decided to go to a Cornish place which was very good. By the time we went to dinner, the crowds had largely dissipated and it is a truly charming place.

The plan for tomorrow is to drive around to visit several of the other Cotswold towns. It is supposed to be OK weather-wise.
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Old Jul 5th, 2017, 04:39 AM
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DAY 5, SUNDAY, JUNE 4th

We both had a great sleep in a cool room and were up at about 7:30. We discovered that there had been another terrorist attack in London. What terrible news.

After getting ready we went to the breakfast room for our full English breakfast which was wonderful but filling.

Then we set out in the car to drive around the Cotswolds. We went to Lower and Upper Slaughter and walked around a bit. It started to rain so we decided to drive to Cheltenham which is a bigger town. We stopped for coffee and scones (what else?). After that, we found a Vodaphone place to buy our SIM card and local phone plan. That seemed to be great, but we have since discovered that our phone has a password (which we didn't put there), and so we have spent a while trying to put the phone back to factory settings without success, even following Google instructions. We need a ten year old!!!

We drove on to Winchcombe, where once again we walked around, enjoying the old stone buildings with flowers tumbling out of window boxes, and a trickling stream running through the town.

We took the long, slow way home, mostly on single track roads. The countryside is spectacularly beautiful with sheep grazing and calling out. We even encountered ducks asleep on the pathways.

When we got home, we decided that an ice cream cone was in order. We did a little shopping.....well we bought wine! We had a drink and got ready for our dinner reservation. It is a beautiful, sunny evening, but quite cool.

We have now made it back home seriously over stuffed! I finally have the phone going but, if I turn it off, I have to go through a long convoluted process. I'll stop in at the next phone place I see.
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Old Jul 6th, 2017, 06:02 AM
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DAY 6, MONDAY, JUNE 5th

We had our last breakfast in Bourton on the Water and set out at about 9:00 am towards York. It poured rain all the way. Most of our trip was on the "M" highways which are pretty easy to drive on. The speed limit is usually 70 mph except in construction where it goes down to 50. We noticed that no-one seemed to be speeding. No wonder, they have cameras which take a picture of your licence plate as you enter and as you leave the construction zone, and calculate your average speed through the area. Too fast and you get a ticket.

Had it been better weather we had planned to stop at a couple of places on the way, but it was teaming rain so we just came on to our B & B which in a suburb of York, Upper Poppleton, actually, as opposed to Nether Poppleton. We stopped in the village to kill a bit of time as we were early for our 4:00 check in.

We got checked in and got to pick our room. We over look a lovely garden. Our hostess recommended the local pub, which was superb....best meal yet. Stew had venison and I had a chicken, mushroom and leek pie which had a lot of cream in the sauce...yummy! We each had lovely fresh vegies, but had no room for dessert which I imagine would be equally wonderful.

Our plan for tomorrow is to spend the day in the old city of York which we will reach by bus (easier than parking in the city). Our hostess has given us free tickets to York Minster which were left unused by a previous guest.
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Old Jul 6th, 2017, 06:11 AM
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I'm on for the ride!
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Old Jul 6th, 2017, 08:46 AM
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I'm signing in, as well. Looking forward to more!
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Old Jul 7th, 2017, 05:31 AM
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DAY 7, TUESDAY, JUNE 6th

After a wonderful breakfast (including blood sausage) and an animated discussion about the UK election with our hostess, we set off for York.

We are staying in a suburb which is largely residential. After a 5 minute drive to the Park and Ride, we caught an express bus right downtown to the old town. The buses run about every 10 minutes. It's such a good service, it would be silly to drive.

We made our way, in pouring rain, to Yorkminster Cathedral which is one of the largest Gothic Cathedrals in Europe. We took a tour which apprised us of the history. At 11:00 am, they had a moment of silence to honour those affected by the recent terrorist attack in London. All in all, I think we spent about three hours there.

We walked around the Shambles taking lots of pictures of the ancient houses. Nothing about any of the construction is square, level or plumb. Everything has settled over 100's of years. It is a really interesting rabbit warren of narrow lanes and cobblestone roads. I could have stayed longer, but it was raining even harder.

We had a very light lunch and a bit of a break, and then made a stop at a cell phone store to resolve a problem with our phone.

We had a coffee, not because we wanted one, but because we were cold and wet. We finally decided to give up and we got the bus back home.

We charged up all the technology (a full time job), had some wine and went out to our local pub for dinner again.

We are headed to the Lake District tomorrow, but the forecast is for........rain!
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Old Jul 7th, 2017, 07:56 PM
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Good report!
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Old Jul 8th, 2017, 05:03 AM
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Thanks Saraho
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Old Jul 8th, 2017, 05:14 AM
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DAY 8, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7th

We had our final breakfast at Grove House and said goodbye to our hostess, Linda. This was a delightful place and we were finally able to appreciate the lovely garden in the sunshine.

At first, when we started out, we were on local country roads. We came upon a wonderful farm shop that sold their self produced produce and meat. In addition they sold baking, garden supplies and light meals. Up stairs was a shop with clothing and gifts. We had coffee in a bright room overlooking the hills and fields of the farm. Had it been warmer, we might have sat outside, but, although it was sunny, there was a brisk north wind that was pretty chilly.

We carried on and turned west on A66, which is fairly main road. The problem is that it goes back and forth from being a two lane road to having four lanes and being designated as a "dual carriageway". In addition, there were signs that said "Beware, horse drawn carriages". We saw the odd farm vehicle, but then the traffic suddenly backed up. We crawled along in 2nd gear until we passed several horses pulling caravans. Years ago these would have been called “gypsy” caravans. Now I think they are called “Travellers”. Each caravan was small and round and brightly painted. It was pulled by one horse with another in reserve following along behind. It seems that the caravan was empty and a third horse was pulling a small open cart with the family in it. It was very hilly and demanding for the animals.

We gradually left the farmland and found ourselves in bare (no trees), large hills. The farms changed from crops to grazing land. There were thousands of sheep contained behind the low stone walls dividing the fields. It was gorgeous scenery.

As we neared the west of the country, there were trees once again. We are now in the Lake District which is really beautiful. We made our way to Keswick where we had decided to eat lunch, while we did two loads of laundry. We poked around the little town a bit before we made our way 5 miles to our farm B&B. When we arrived there was a sign on the door for us to say the owners had been called away for a family emergency. They gave us a cell number to call, but that person was also part of the emergency. We decided to go back to town to fill in more time. We looked around and then had an early dinner, and got home just when the owners did.

We are in a farmhouse that dates from 1668! The walls are two feet thick. There are the original wood beams in the ceiling. DH has to duck to pass through our door. We have a view over some fields to the lake. The room is lovely, the only oddity being a table lamp with a shade covered in a maroon feather boa.

Tomorrow we will explore the Lake District by car, but I think we're in for more rain.
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Old Jul 8th, 2017, 07:25 AM
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Likely the travellers were heading to the Appleby Horse Fair - an annual event. It has a "reputation".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appleby_Horse_Fair
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Old Jul 8th, 2017, 07:35 AM
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You are probably right -- the dates fit.
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Old Jul 8th, 2017, 07:36 AM
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Thanks for that link sofarsogood. I think I saw a TV special on this, but I thought somehow that they were banning these events. Maybe it was just one particular fair.
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