violet2

Due to size limitations this will be posted in several segments.

Well I survived my trip to the UK with my family Here are the relevant details:
 
ARRIVING IN LONDON
 
The airport is a madhouse! Especially when you are tired!  Figuring out how to get to the hotel was just too much. I am glad that I bought my tube passes in advance from Rick Steves. It saved so much time and thinking!
 
However, I do suggest you part with the money to take a taxi to your hotel especially if you?ve been up all night.  Just do it, it is so worth it. The tube trip from the airport is hot and long and very tiring. We took the tube and after carrying our luggage for ? mile and not finding our hotel I almost had a nervous breakdown.
 
Secondly, even though we got a bad exchange rate, I had obtained 100L from AAA prior to our trip. That was such a lifesaver, we hit the ground running with cash in hand. A huge help and timesaver.

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LODGING
In London we stayed at the Swiss House Hotel on 171 Old Bromptom Rd (mentioned in Fodor?s).
 
The staff was super friendly and the continental breakfast was very nice- (a selection of cheeses, bread, cereal, croissants, chocolate croissants).
 
On the downside several rooms are right on the street and it can be very loud at night with traffic and police sirens. Be sure to ask for a room in the back of the building.
 
Secondly, they have some water problems. It was one thing when we sprang a leak in our bathroom on the first leg of our trip and got zapped in the shower as the leak was shorting the electricity. It was a whole different story when we returned to the hotel from Scotland and the water was a problem again. I was able to take a shower but then the water inexplicably stopped and didn?t come on again for over 20 minutes and then it was only hot-no cold water available. I thought this was just a fluke but it happened later in the day to my father in his room. 
 
FYI there is no a/c just a small fan in each room. Except for one day that must have reached 80, this was sufficient to keep us comfortable.
 
So, while I recommend the hotel, be aware that there are some plumbing issues. Our bill was adjusted because of these problems on the hotel?s own initiative.
 
The nice thing about the hotel is that it is in a residential area. Old Brompton Street boasts no less than 3 dry cleaners, one laundromat (3 pounds for the washer, 20 pence for detergent, and 20 pence for the dryer). There are 2 Burger kings, one KFC, 2 French restaurants, 2 Spanish restaurants, a wonderful place called Tootsies, a nice Italian place called Bella Pasta, and a few English pubs. There are also other amenities close by including:
 
-Mailboxes Etc
-Royal Post office
-3-4 banks
-2 grocery stores
- several Chemist stores
-South Kennsington tube station is about ? mile down the street
- Christies auction house
-2 luxury car dealers
-camera shops
-24 hour Tesco grocery store w/I a 10 minute taxi ride
 
So, as you can see, it was a good base of operations with everything a tourist might need readily accessible from basic laundry up to that Ferrari you?ve always dreamed of.

SWISS HOUSE HOTEL
171 Old Brompton Road
London SW5 0AN
England

Tel: 44-20-7373-2769
Fax: 44-207-373-4983

violet2

In Edinburgh we stayed at Allison House Hotel which was very nice. The bathrooms were very small though and if you are tall (6 and up) and wide (e.g. like a bodybuilder) I can see you having problems fitting in the shower or even being able to sit on the toilet!  The breakfast was excellent and the hotel is just a short taxi ride from the train station. The rate was 40L per person including  breakfast and was the cheapest I could find surfing on the internet. There is a very nice lounge offering magazines, guide books, TV, and a honor bar of Scottish whiskey.

Allison House Hotel
15/17 Mayfield Gardens
Edinburgh EH9 2AX
Tel: 667 8049
Fax: 667 5001

 
In Inverness we stayed at Lyndon House Hotel, also a short taxi ride from the train station. This is a newer construction building and is very modern and comfortable. The bathrooms are large but the showers are still tiny! The rate was 25L per person and included breakfast. Lyndon House Hotel is just down the street from a Europecar office and is the ideal location to rent your car if you wish to do so. It is about 10-15 minutes by car from the Jacobite cruise dock.
 
50 Telford Street
Inverness
Highland
IV3 5LE
Scotland
Telephone - 01463 232551
Fax - 01463 225827

On Raasay Island we stayed at the Isle of Raasay hotel which was adequate.  The rate was 25L per person including breakfast. The rooms are older and lack showers, this is a rural area that attracts outdoor enthusiasts and more modern conveniences are expensive to install and not available. The staff here was very friendly and accommodating in helping us place phone calls to Britrail and answering our questions about island history.  The hotel has a bar with darts and other amusements, a nice lounge, and offers a nice elegant dinner meal.
 
Isle of Raasay Hotel
Isle of Raasay
Isle of Skye
by Kyle of Lochalsh
Ross-Shire
IV40 8PB

Telephone : 01478 660222
Facsimile : 01478 660222

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FOOD
 Foodwise in London, except for one meal the food was always edible. Not necessarily good but edible. I was surprised at how hard it was to find good food, I thought surely that stereotype was outdated, but I guess not. In fact, sadly, the meals we enjoyed the most were at US franchises like KFC.  The Hard Rock was good as well.
 
The only place we would highly recommend and go back to ourselves would be Tootsies. Tootsies is a chain with several locations in London. The food and service were excellent and you should not hesitate to eat there.

If you are not eating at a US franchise such as Pizza Hut or Papa Johns (we saw one in Inverness)-do not, I repeat, do not order pizza. Our entire group kept thinking, how hard can it be to make a pizza taste horrible? Sadly, it is not too difficult and it really can taste quite bad. If you want pizza go to Pizza Hut!
 
Milkshakes when advertised in the UK amount to nothing more than flavored milk and we all found them distasteful. In the UK Milkshakes are not ice cream- don?t order them unless you like flavored milk.
 
Drinks are typically chilled, they aren?t cold. Ice was always provided when requested but sometimes you got only 3 ice cubes. Because you are walking all day and get hot and tired, you might start to crave an ice cold drink. When that craving hits, go to Burger King, McDonalds, KFC etc... or the HardRock- that should fix you.
 
There is a chain called Pret A Manger that offers sandwiches and salads, the food was just Ok to me. For two people with two drinks, two sandwhiches, a bag of crisps, and a side salad- the total was 10L.
 
KFC was approximately 10L as well.
 
We spent between 20-30L at the Hard Rocks in London and Edinburgh- each time!
 
Tootsies was around 30L for two people, two drinks, one appetizer, two chicken burgers, and two desserts.
 
The Pump Room in Bath was 9.95L for a small cup of soup and a ham and gruyere cheese sandwhich.

Food is expensive in London and the UK in general!!!  The only cheap thing we found was Indian takeout at the tube stations. The Chicken Samosas for 85 pence are very good.
 
My favorite meal was tea at The Orangery (@ 19L for two people) by Kennsington Palace- highly recommend that.  And the aforementioned Tootsies.
  
You can eat cheaper at these restaurants, it depends on what you order.

violet2

THE TUBE
 
The Tube was fine, hot and stuffy but fine.  I was surprised at how often we used taxis in addition to the Tube. It seemed we ended up in one at least once a day due to time or luggage constraints.
 
It took me three days to get my bearings in London. Once I knew what was East, West, North,and South, it was easy to figure out what route I needed to take on the tube.
 
The staff are very helpful though if you have any questions or problems. There were several occasions when we knew what we were doing but people were helping us anyways unsolicited-it was funny.
 
There are also free maps of the tube at every station.
 
THE BRITRAIL PASS
 
I still can?t tell you for sure if we came out ahead on the Britrail pass or not. From the research I did before the trip, I would say yes. I didn?t see any information in London to contradict that, but I am still far from an expert.
 
What was nice about the Britrail pass was no standing in line, you just got on the train. We did reserve seats for ourselves going to Edinburgh and reserved a Caledonian Sleeper (we had to pay 60L to upgrade our two tickets for the sleeper).  Trains were on schedule and there were no delays.
 
One big shock was the slow down on Sundays. We thought we would take a day trip to Bath on Sunday only to find out the transit time was four hours due to connections and weird routing. During the week trains run to Bath every half hour and transit is about one hour and fifteen minutes.
 
So Sundays were a big logistical problem for us that we did not plan on. This affects all destinations not just Bath- we checked on the schedule also for Stratford and Warwick.
 
The key to understanding the train system is to go to the train station and talk to the people face to face. We never got any bad information.
 
With regards to validating your pass, supposedly there is someplace in the airport where you can do it but none of us could find it. You need to go to a train station with your passport to validate your pass. The major train stations are also tube stops such as: Victoria, Kings Cross, Paddington, Liverpool, Euston.
 

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SIGHTSEEING
 
Definitely hit the Tower of London first thing in the morning. Go directly to the Crown Jewels first thing and then go back and take the tour. If you are into history or want to be sure you see every little thing, the Tower could easily take 3-4 hours. The big disappointment here is that the graves of Anne Boelyn, Katherine Howards, Lady Jane Grey are covered by the altar of the church and no attempt is made to allow the public to see the graves. I was very disappointed about that.
 
Westminster Abbey and St Paul?s Cathedral are very different buildings. If you have Cathedral burnout and are tempted to skip one or the other, don?t. They are both worth it for different reasons. Westminster is a fascinating maze of many famous dead people. St Paul?s is beautiful architecture-almost makes you want to convert so you can worship there.
 
You could easily spend 2-3 hours are Westminster and 1 ?-2 hours at St Paul?s.
 
I enjoyed the Queen?s Gallery-the current exhibition is a feature of D?avinci?s drawings studying ideal beauty in women and men as well as the ideal grotesque.  The gift store was nice as well.
 
The British Museum has the Parthenon Friezes (sp?) aka the Elgin Marbles-well worth a look. As a massage therapist, I can really appreciate the eye for detail in the musculature on the animals and people sculpted by the Grecians. The Egyptian exhibit is fabulous of course. And don?t forget to visit the Lindow man. And if you are a bibliophile, like me, take a moment to stand in the Reading Room and then turn to your husband and say "Dear, see this is a Library, its exactly what I want you to build for me back home".
 
The British Library exhibit was wonderful. A Gutenberg bible, Beatle lyrics, Jane Austen?s writings, Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll- very interesting.
 
The Operating Theater has an excellent exhibit on early medicine and surgery, only it is high up in a stuffy attic and can get hot. 
 
My family enjoyed the Cabinet War Rooms and Imperial War Museum as well as the Belfast- they highly recommend all three for military buffs. I didn?t go myself as I?m not a military buff.
 
The bus tour is great for letting you know what all the various monuments are-otherwise you would forever be with your nose in your guidebook trying to figure out what that big hunk of marble is supposed to commemorate. You also learn that London is 2 cities, London and Westminster.
 
Currently the Changing of the Guard only occurs every other day due to personnel shortages as many military units are overseas.
 
Our favorite castles were Edinburgh Castle and Dunvegan Castle in Scotland. Edinburgh is very medieval in feel (to me). Great tour guides, way cool royal jewels including the Stone of Scone. St. Margaret?s chapel is beautiful.  Dunvegan Castle has been continuously occupied since the 2nd century. It is located on beautiful Skye Island and has the Fairy Flag in addition to artwork by famous artists, trinkets from Bonnie Prince Charles, and all sorts of clan history. Both were built on volcanic rock and if you make it to the Museum of Scotland you will learn that Scotland used to be located closer to the equator. In fact it was a tropical zone and was shaped quite a bit by volcanoes before floating way up North.
 
Kennsington Palace has a great exhibit on court dress from the 1920-30s and an exhibit on Queen Mary and King William?s royal apartments plus the room where Queen Victoria was born. You need about 1 ? to 2 hours to wander through with the audioguide and you need the audioguide as there aren?t too many signs explaining the exhibits.
 
The Orangery Tea Room is just to the left as you exit Kennsington Palace from the gift shops. Tea at The Orangery is very nice, a great experience. Afterwards take a stroll through Hyde Park.
 
We walked past the Globe Theater in London but decided we didn?t have the energy to do a big intellectual tour. However, I did want to mention one thing that I don?t think is in the guidebooks, on Sundays or on afternoons (not clear memory wise on exactly what the lady said) you can?t get into the theater as they are using it for rehearsal, so they take you to an archeological dig of an actual Elizabethan theater instead. 
 
I liked Stonehenge more than I thought I would, the weather was beautiful. Bright sun bursting through big puffy clouds. We went at the end of the day and only had 20 minutes but what a marvelous view! I really liked it, better than Avebury. We did not find access to Stonehenge from Bath even though Rick Steve?s staff said there were ? day tours from Bath. What we did was tour Bath, take the train to Salisbury, and take a bus from there. It worked really well, we would have had more time if we had arrived in Bath earlier and left for Salisbury maybe an hour sooner. Still it worked out well and I will never forget my first view of Stonehenge from the bus.
 
Inverness was a lot of fun, we took a cruise with Jacobite Cruises that goes all the way to Urqhart Castle and back. Very nice. We ran into a yacht coming out of the loch (their fault not ours) which provided a lot of excitement. Not only did they hit us three times, they rammed the wall of the loch cracking their hull and slammed from side to side in the loch itself. Either they had had too much to drink or the boat was disabled to begin with- we?re not sure what happened. Also, fighter jets kept cruising back and forth above the loch which was neat to watch. 
 
I did see something in Loch Ness, it didn?t look like Nessie and I have no idea what it could have been.
 
Supposedly Inverness is one of the fastest growing cities in Europe (much to the chagrin of our taxi driver).  I liked Inverness a lot, more so than Edinburgh.
 

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Edinburgh was nice, a lot more industrial in feel than London. They were preparing for the upcoming Tatoo when we were there. I got a bit nervous when the Bomb Squad drove up and into Edinburgh Castle and was relieved to learn it is still an active military base.
 
SHOPPING
 
Here is a listing of what I can remember buying and the approximate cost.
 
1. Pearl and amethyst earrings in the mediveal style (60L)
2. Pewter barrettes in celtic designs (14-17L)
3. Several tins of toffees and candies. Tins are decorated like the red phone booths or double decker buses (@5L each)
4. Sachets of lilac and rose made in the Uk (Harrods, on sale for 3 L for a pack of 3)
5. Lavender soap from a well known company-can?t remember name (Harrods on sale 4L for pack of 3)
6. Butterfly hair clip w/ crystals (Harrods 30-40L)
7. Small crystal butterfly clips (Harrods 9.95L)
8. Pottery from Scotia Ceramics made on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland (10-12L each  for a sugar bowl and creamer)
9. Pitkin guides and guidebooks for every place we visited (2.50L each)
10. Little threes packs of honey and jam made in Scotland (5L each)
11. Signed lithographs of floral watercolors bought in Hyde Park (20L for four)
12. Hard Rock tshirts, hats, and drumsticks from London and Edinburgh (Tshirts run @ 17L, hats @ 15L, drumsticks 12L)  
13. Sterling silver Swatch for mom?s birthday 90L ( and if she hates it she can exchange it at Swatch in the US) 
 

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MONEY- HOW TO GET POUNDS STERLING
 
Contrary to a lot of feedback on various travel boards, American Express travelers cheques are used and accepted, more widely that some of those posts would lead you to think.
 
Mailboxes Etc accepted travelers cheques as did all our hotels and some gift shops. Just check beforehand so you don?t find yourself stuck w/o cash.
 
Using the ATM machines was very easy as well,although Barclay?s machines never did accept my card for some reason.
 
ATMs can be found at pretty much all train and tube stops which makes it easy to keep a steady flow of cash in your pocket.
 
Credit cards are widely accepted and you should not worry about having any problems even in remote areas.
 

PICKPOCKETS
 
Theft is not unique to London, the risk is the same as in any large city. I used a little wallet that clipped on my waistband with the wallet inside my pants. My husband hated his money belt and kept all his stuff in the camera case. 
 
We had no problems and just were very aware of our surroundings. I was careful to keep a good grip on my bag and double check to ensure important documents were still there.
 
Anytime we were in a crowd I was very vigilant. If someone stopped a member of our group to ask directions or something, I hung back and watched the exchange to ensure nothing suspicious was going on.  
 
Before our trip we discussed safety and security with everyone in our group. We also had an action plan on what to do if someone got lost/separated, told everyone to watch each other's back etc...   

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PHYSICAL AND MENTAL PREPARATION

I have bad feet, a bad back, and a neck with permanent whiplash. Not to mention asthma. Obviously, I was concerned about being able to do all the walking required on a trip like this.

I do regularly exercise and changed my routine to include 3 mile walks with the dogs for 4 weeks before the trip. I got horrific blisters on both feet and it took forever for them to heal. I went to the UK well armed with bandaids but apparently all that walking I did broke in my shoes or my feet, I had no blisters at all.

My legs were sore for the first several days (there are a lot more stairs than I would have thought and I climb between 100-160 stairs a day at work to boot). Surprisingly my quadriceps (front of the thigh) were very sore, my feet were a little tired, and my calves were tight. I stretched everyday for the first week and whenever possible I sat down.

I did a lot of intense abdominal work right before the trip to help stabilize my pelvis and prevent backpain. I'm not sure if this was successful since I think some of the ab exercises upset my back a bit before the trip. But daily stretching kept the back under control and after the first few days it was fine.

The first week back in the States we took the dogs to the park for a hike, I did 200 stairs (150 in a row) as it is a great workout. I wasn't even sore, proof that all that walking in the UK whipped me into shape!

In terms of mental preparation, I did a lot of reading. I read both of the Bridget Jones books, books by Ian Rankin who writes mysteries set in Scotland, I read Antonia Fraser's The Six Wives of King Henry the 8th and so on. The fiction and non-fiction really prepared me for the trip. I've decided that most of the history that everyone talks about on the various tours happened primarily between Henry the 8th and Queen Elizabeth the 1st so studying that period will give you a good historical backround for your trip.

CAR RENTAL

I definitely recommend Europecar, yes they arbitrarily cancelled one of my reserved cars with no notice and we didn't get one of the cars we requested. But they did their best to fix it and adjusted the bill.

We tried to rent a car spur-of-the-moment in Bath only to find everything booked and the only place available wanted to hang onto our passports and the guy was really rude. We ditched him. In the dealings we had with Hertz and other agencies, Europecare seemed to be the most professional.

Do buy a road atlas if you are going to do any driving. Every train station has a bookstore where you can buy one. The crappy photocopy that came with our car was not helpful. The nice road atlas we bought was 10.99L.

EnglishOne

Do you know, the one thing that really stands out in your report, is saying you got zapped in the shower as the electricity was shorting out!!! jeez does this mean you were almost electrocuted or what?! Do tell...

violet2

Well, funnily enough being zapped in the shower was not new. I'm in Ohio and we are having some bad weather this year. My computer was zapped by brownouts and power surges and the electrical resides in the same wall as my shower. So just before the trip I got zapped in my own shower.

Needless to say I was very familiar with the sensation.

The zaps were fairly weak, a little more painful than static electricity but not life threatening and only when you touched the faucets. Could they have beome more dangerous-probably. We just took our showers in the dark at the hotel until they fixed it.

Dave_

You say you survived your trip. I hope you enjoyed it a lot too! Thanks for taking the time to post a detailed, informative report.

The thing that made me laugh was when I go out for pizza, I always say "anywhere but Pizza Hut". I guess we're just used to having our pizzas different!

hanl

What a shame that you didn't find decent places to eat other than fast-food/international chains. It sounds like you were just unlucky. I know for sure that it's possible to eat very well, and (relatively) cheaply, in both Edinburgh and London without resorting to the ubiquitous chains.

Give me a portion of fish & chips wrapped up in newspaper over a McDonalds burger any day!!

violet2

I think we were unlucky as well- I didn't think it would be so hard to get lucky with restaurants though. Although the pizza an milkshake thing I think is good advice.

We did have fish and chips at the Counting House pub by the Bank of England. I don't really like fish but I did taste test it and it was good.

violagirl

No point having fish and chips in a pub, violet2! There's nothing like wandering into a chipper, queuing up while trying not to be put off your food by the spotty teenager serving, and then getting a bag of salty, vinegary chips to eat as you walk along the seafront. Bliss!

Seems like you had a great time though - even with the electricity problems.

Would love to hear more about how the military-buffs in your family found the Imperial War Museum - it's on my list for my trip next month.

-- Viola

violet2

Well I saw quite a bit of video my husband filmed on the Belfast- it was a good exhibit that focused on daily life as well as military history.

My husband spent a lot of time filming big guns and making explosion noises. So I would say his inner child was in full swing.

The Imperial War Museum seemed to be a bunch of tanks and engines (from the film my husband shot). The kind of thing where, it seems to me, you have to be a big military and weapons buff to really get a lot out of it.

They did say the Cabinet War Rooms were excellent, everyone agreed they were well worth the time.

And, for the record I only ate one meal at a US franchise- we tried someplace new everytime. And the Hard Rocks can't count as a US franchise since they originated in London! My brothers ate a lot at BK, KFC, and Pizza Hut.