Photos from Great Britain - 2010
Leave home, travel to departure airport. Leave home at 11:00 and catch the 11:45 Van Galder bus at the Dutch Mill park and ride lot, arriving International Terminal at 2:35. Leave a station wagon key with Mike/Michael and they will pick up the car and bring it home. Leave for Britain.
AER LINGUS EI 124 W/ECONOMY CLASS
CONFIRMED
DEP CHICAGO/OHARE WED 6OCT10 6.15PM
ORD -TERMINAL 5 - INTERNATIONAL TERMINAL 5
ARR DUBLIN THU 7OCT10 7.50AM
Seat Number/s:38K 38H
AER LINGUS EI 232 W/ECONOMY CLASS CONFIRMED
DEP DUBLIN THU 7OCT10 8.40AM
ARR LONDON/GATWICK THU 7OCT10 10.00AM
LGW -TERMINAL S - SOUTH TERMINAL ZONE B
Seat Number/s:20C 20B
All Times Local
SEAT ALLOCATION IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE FOR OPERATIONAL REASONS
Notified AT&T Visa that we would be traveling out of the country. They provided a reference code (1246) that we could use to verify notification. They also provided a number to call in case we needed to contact them (904 954 3236). They verified that we had CDW equivalent insurance, so we didn’t need to pay for that.
Notified Upromise Mastercard that we would be out of the country.
Posted our trip on the State Department website.
The ride to O’Hare was uneventful, except for the fire at the corner of the Beltline and Highway 51. We detoured to Monona, got back on the beltline and never did see the cause of all the smoke. We got to O’Hare on schedule, and the flight took off on schedule. I had “beef ragu” for supper. It was OK, but nothing special. The ragu did remind me to look for some recipes with rutabagas.
Change planes in Dublin. Arrive in London. Pick up rental car. Drive to Avebury (Gatwick to Avebury 2H 10M). See stone circles, other sights in Avebury. Stay at Old Forge B&B:
East Kennett
Marlborough,
Wiltshire,
SN8 4EY, England (map)
+44 01672 861686, e-mail, website
According to the schedule we had only 50 minutes after landing at Dublin to catch the flight to Gatwick. We were a few minutes late getting in to Dublin, and passport control and another security check took a lot of time. We had to really hurry through the Dublin airport to catch our connection. At Gatwick we had a long discussion with Hertz about the car we wanted to rent. I had initially reserved a standard transmission, but Sharon thought we should have an automatic in case she needed to drive, so I requested a change to automatic. The Hertz representative said that he had a very nice Audi automatic that he would let us rent for only 50 pounds/day. We decided to stay with the Focus with the manual transmission (at about 13 pounds/day). We set our destination in the GPS, but decided we wanted to stay off the ‘M’ roads. We soon found that our maps were not up to that so we stopped and bought a book of detailed road maps. We got lost a couple of times (still ignoring “Hyacinth’s” direction to go to the ‘M’ roads), but finally made it to the Old Forge, although it was later than we had planned and we were too tired to get over to Avebury to see the Neolithic stone rings and the mound. While unpacking at the Old Forge and getting ready to take some pictures I discovered that when my carry-on had fallen from the trolley at Gatwick it had shattered the neutral filter and jammed the filter so that it could not be removed from the lens. We had supper at the ‘Outside Chance’, which was OK. Sharon enjoyed her chicken curry with rice.
Twin w/ en suite bathroom
We had a great breakfast at the Old Forge. I had the ‘full English breakfast’, which typically consists of a fried egg, sausage, ham or bacon, broiled tomato, baked beans, and toast. Black pudding is optional, but I never selected it. Sharon had a croissant and yogurt. After that, and after loading the suitcases we were off for Avesbury and Oxford. We entered the parking lot at Avebury, but it was wet, drizzling, cold and windy so we decided just to head for Oxford. We did pass through Avebury and said ‘Wow’ when we saw the stones and the mound. We kept on going to Oxford. We found the Falcon easily, pulled into their car park, and were pleasantly surprised when we were able to check in at 11:00 AM. After check-in and getting settled we walked to the Oxford city center, and cashed some traveler’s checks at the post office. While at the Post Office we got a recommendation for a camera shop and eventually got my camera fixed (useable, anyway) by prying the shattered filter out of its holder. We took the tour bus around Oxford and got a good overview of the city. We stopped in some bookstores and picked up some books related to Oxford and some of the British television shows that we enjoyed. We had cream tea at the tea shop in St. Mary the Virgin, and bought a ‘take-away’ supper at the Café Loco (‘We’re crazy about food’) on the way back to the Falcon.
Drive to Hereford (2H). Tour cathedral, lunch in Hereford. Drive to Whitney on Wye (26M). Visit Whitney Court. Visit Hay-on-Wye (don’t buy books). Visit other sights in Whitney-on-Wye. Dinner at the Boat Inn or at Rhydspence Inn. Stay at Cilgwyn House B&B in Whitney on Wye.
Cilgwyn House, Whitney-on-Wye, Herefordshire, HR3 6EH
Telephone: 01497 831160
THE NEW STRAND. Eardisley, Hereford, HR3 6PW. A4111 Kingston/Hereford road. 8 miles from Hay. Bookshop/Cafe/Bar. Tel/Fax: (01544) 327285. 30,000 secondhand hard/paperbacks - all subjects. Specialities: Collectable Fiction - Natural History - Children's - large Penguin, Sci-fi, Horror, Detective sections. New & Used maps, stamps, cigarette & Postcards. Open 9.30 till 7.
After breakfast we paid, loaded the car and set off for Hereford and Whitney. I think it was good to get out of Oxford fairly early. As we approached Hereford the GPS led us on some back roads that looked a little different than we had expected, based on our reading of the map. I must have mistakenly set Whitney-on-Wye as the as the destination instead of setting the itinerary that was supposed to take us to Hereford city center and then on down to Whitney-on-Wye, since we ended up on the A438 without ever seeing Hereford city center. So we missed seeing Hereford, the cathedral, and the Mappa Mundi that I had been kind of looking forward to seeing. We did get to Eardisley, which I had noted as having a stamp store. We had lunch at that store, the New Strand, a combination restaurant, stamp store, used book store, gift shop and farmers’ market. My soup was good, Sharon said that her chicken-vegetable reminded her of a Campbell’s soup. The apple cake that was recommended for dessert was delicious. Sharon found some Irish stamps, and I bought a couple of paperbacks. Then we left for Whitney-on-Wye. The Cilgwyn B&B was in the same house that we had stayed at years ago, but was it was at least two owners later, and much nicer now. The house had been added to, with an extra apartment-like area for John’s dad, who hadn’t needed it. John and Jan were gracious hosts and we spent a few hours talking with them. Then we left for Whitney Court (some of the walks in that area that we had been on before were now fenced off). We drove to Hay-on-Wye, located one bookstore that was still open, and browsed in it for a while before driving back to the Cilgwyn. John suggested supper at the Sun Inn in Winforton. Sharon had an interesting starter, a circle of goat cheese on a crumpet with some kind of red onion dressing. There were pieces of lettuce and cucumber, too. We both enjoyed the pork loin entrée.
Drive to Shrewsbury (1H30M). Stay at Fieldside Guest House in Shrewsbury
38 London Road, Shrewsbury, SY2 6NX
Tel: 01743 353143
Collectors Gallery
Classification : Stamp Dealers
24 The Parade, St. Marys Place, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SY1 1DL.
Tel : 01743 272140
After breakfast we spent an hour or so sitting around the table talking with John and Jan before packing up and leaving for Shrewsbury. The drive to Shrewsbury was uneventful, and we found the Fieldside with no problem, but there was no answer at the door. We decided to go in search of a ‘Sunday lunch’. Hyacinth suggested a restaurant eight miles away. We shouldn’t have listened to her, we should have just gone downtown where we later found plenty of places to eat. Anyway we ended up at a ‘carvery’, and found out what a carvery is. It is a lot like a buffet here, except you get just one pass through the line, and your choice of meats (beef, pork, turkey) are carved and given to you at that time. We ate a large meal that passed for a Sunday lunch, drove back to the Fieldside, and there was still no one there. We drove downtown, parked, and spent some time window-shopping. Sharon was pleased to find some Anais-Anais, so she bought a bottle. She hadn’t seen it in Madison lately and was afraid that it wasn’t being made anymore. We went back to Fieldside and there was still no one there, so we went in search of a phone and an alternative place to stay. We found a room at a Travelodge, but no phone. We decided to take a room at the Travelodge. That was a real downer after all the great B&Bs and guest houses that we had been at.
Drive from Shrewsbury to Greenhead for Hadrian’s Wall (3H30M). Stay at Walltown Lodge B&B, Greenhead, Brampton, Cumbria, CA8 7JD, England. Contact by telephone at 016977 47514.
Tour Hadrians wall area.
Had breakfast at the ‘Little Chef’ next to the Travelodge and started up to Greenhead and Hadrian’s Wall. It was a long drive, but not too bad a drive. We were getting used to the traffic on the ‘M’ roads. We stopped for a snack at a Starbucks in a Welcome Break plaza, and then drove to Brampton where I cashed the rest of the traveler’s checks and we ate lunch. We drove from there to Hadrian’s Wall area. We stopped first at a ‘mile fort castle’, and walked about the ruins and took some pictures. Then we drove to see the museum and displays at Birdsoland. After that we drove to the Walltown Lodge B&B. We were too late to see the Roman soldier museum across the street, but I did hike up the path to see the Wall Crag. I took several pictures that didn’t really do justice to the view. We went into Greenhead to the Greenhead Hotel for supper. For starters we had deep-fried brie with cranberries and shrimp (called prawns) with Marie Rose sauce. Sharon had lasagna for her main course and I had steak and haggis pie (later on, talking to James Blackie about that meal, he said “I didn’t know that you could serve haggis south of the border”).
Drive to Olliver’s Farm (Tel: 01787 237 642). Visit towns and genealogical sites in area of Olliver’s Farm: Braintree, Colchester, Chelmsford, Cambridge, Hopton, Poringland, Shropham, Rockland St Peter. Take Blackies out to dinner Friday night.
Premier Collectors Postal
17 Shrubland Rd, Colchester, Essex CO2 7EL
We decided to split the long drive to Blackies into two days, and picked Grantham as a good stopping point. After a good breakfast, and some good conversation with the young German couple who were staying there, we left for Grantham. We stopped at a service area along the way for lunch and arrived in Grantham about 3:00. We found a car park, found the tourist information bureau, and found a B&B in town that looked as if it would be OK. We had afternoon tea (sandwiches, crisps, scones, salad, and a big piece of cake) at the Grantham Arts Building. The Red Hotel B&B was not what we expected. Our room was on the third floor of the annex, and it was a small room, more guest house size than B&B. It did have good, convenient parking, though.
We packed the car, went over to the dining room for breakfast, and headed for Shropham. As we were coming into Shropham on Church Road we saw the Sts. Peter and Paul Church. We stopped and walked through the church cemetery. Sharon found the tombstone for James Davey Sayer, Oscar John’s brother and my grand-great-uncle. We also found an Allen tombstone (I haven’t looked that up yet). We drove on to Hopton where I took some more pictures of the war memorial in the churchyard. My great-uncle Jack Sayer’s name is on that monument. He served in the US army in WWI, and reportedly died of influenza. We bought some sandwiches in the store in Hopton and ate them in the car in the parking lot of ‘The Vine’, a pub in Hopton. After lunch we headed for Great Yeldham but I took some wrong turns in Bury St. Edmunds and we ended up traveling on some small back roads. We finally arrived at Blackies and had a cup of tea and a chat with Sue. James came home before we finished unloading, expressed surprise, and went to mow the lawn. After James finished we spent some time in their living room, in front of the fire talking and catching up on things. Sue’s daughter Becky showed up. She had been in the area helping a friend who had a new baby with a heart defect. James talked about the beneficial effect that biodynamic principles had been having on the vineyard. Then we had supper with James, Sue and Becky. There was a lot of conversation about Becky’s around the world sailing trip. I will have to look that up on YouTube sometime. I guess it must have been close to 11:00 when we went up to bed.
We had breakfast in the kitchen with James and Sue, and lots of time talking. We hit the road for Colchester at about 9:30. Found a battery for the alarm clock and a couple of bottles of wine. We had cream tea at The George for lunch, wandered around some more, and then decided to head for Braintree. Braintree seemed very familiar, since we had been there a few times before. We browsed some of the shops and then found the new location for the Braintree Museum. The new museum location had many more historical exhibits than I recalled from out last visit, but did not seem to have as much information on the Lion (Lyon) or its emigrants. Perhaps we should have stopped at the Library and checked that out, too. The Library facility also seemed to be in a new building. We ended up at the Silkworm for supper (the Boar, which we agreed that we had eaten at on our last visit, did not serve food anymore). Sharon had the fish and chips, and I had lasagna.
Breakfast first, then off to Toppesfield. Sharon had always wanted to see the village, and she was even more interested when Sue happened to mention that she volunteered at the little store in town. We found the store, greeted Sue, and Sharon bought some stamps at the Post Office part of the store. We left Toppesfield and drove to Finchingfield. We had been at Finchingfield before, in the summer, and there was not a parking spot in the town then. This time there was plenty of parking but we just looked around and drove through. Initially we were going to Chelmsford, but as long as Braintree was pretty much on the way we decided to check out the ‘Braintree Freeport Discount Shopping Center.’ We wandered around and bought some muffins at a Starbucks and ate them. Later Sharon bought a wrap, since we had found it colder than we expected. We left Freeport and headed to Chelmsford. Chelmsford was a larger town, and somewhat difficult to get around in. We stopped at the county offices and got a map directing us to the Record Office. Later, in the Chelmsford Library building we found the Office of the Registrar where we got better directions, but we had realized by then that we should have had more information on what we wanted to look up. We resolved to follow up Chelmsford genealogical information with mail, email and telephone. We took Blackies out to supper. They picked a restaurant named Scutchers in Long Melford. It was a delightful place, and the food was very good. For starters Sharon and I had prawns, deep-fried in a light, crisp batter, with Marie Rose sauce. James had foie gras with black pudding and mushy peas, and Sue had scallops. For the main course Sue and I had the beefsteak and Sharon and James had the thinly sliced pork loin in gravy. For dessert (pudding) Sharon had iced berried (raspberries, blueberries and strawberries) served with a hot white chocolate cream sauce.
We had breakfast, and then decided to go to Lavenham, per James’ suggestion. We saw parts of the town that we hadn’t seen when we were there with Carlsons. We stopped for tea at the Mussings Tea Shop, and had good tea and scones with clotted cream. We looked for a bakery to buy dessert but the one in town wasn’t open. We discussed the merits of going to Cambridge or Ely, and Ely won out, since we had seen Cambridge on a previous trip. We arrived at Ely and the Tourist information center told us that there was an Apple Festival that day, and that we should be able to get an apple dessert at one of the stands at the festival. We bought the last two packages of apple dessert. Inside the cathedral there was a service, so we didn’t get to take a tour of the inside. We did have tea at the Refectory. I had a sausage roll (very good, even cold). Then we headed back to Blackies, anticipating the gardening panel that was planned for the evening. Sue had been asked to be one of the panelists in a question and answer session for the Great Yeldham gardeners. We arrived early, and decided we had time for a drink at the Waggon and Horses. Sue left us and went back to help get set up, and we returned close to 7:30. There were about twenty-five in attendance, including James, Sharon, and me. Red and white wine, peanuts, crisps, celery, bread and three kinds of cheese were served as refreshments. Also at each person’s place was a sheet of paper with obscure garden questions. James suggested that we work on the anagrams and we got a couple of those, but not much else. I missed the War of the Roses question (What color flower is associated with Lancaster?) that I thought I remembered for sure. We went back to Blackies for soup and the apple dessert that Sharon had bought at Ely, and then talked until close to midnight.
Drive to Canterbury (2H). Tour cathedral, other
historical sites. Drive to Gatwick, turn the rental car in, stay at
Gatwick Hilton in the South Terminal (South Terminal Gatwick Airport, Gatwick, United Kingdom RH6 0LL).
Tel: 44-1293-518080
After the late night we got up late, and had a late breakfast. I suggested that we skip the planned trip to Canterbury and just proceed to Gatwick, turn in the car, and get settled in our room. We turned off the M road early, hoping to find a restaurant with a Sunday Lunch in a small town. We found the White Hart in Godstone. After we entered we figured out that it was part of the apparent chain, Beefeaters. The Sunday lunch was OK. Check-in at the Hilton and the car return worked pretty much as planned (car return was in the North Terminal, the Hilton and Aer Lingus were in the South Terminal). We scouted the route into the terminal from the Hilton, had a light supper at the Garden Restaurant in the Hilton and turned in early.
Pack and walk to check-in. Fly home, changing planes in Dublin. Catch 5:00 Van Galder Bus to Madison, arriving at the Dutch Mill park and ride lot at 8:20 PM.
AER LINGUS EI 233 W/ECONOMY
CLASS CONFIRMED
DEP LONDON/GATWICK MON 18OCT10 8.45AM
LGW -TERMINAL S - SOUTH TERMINAL ZONE B
ARR DUBLIN MON 18OCT10 10.05AM
Seat Number/s:20C 20B
AER LINGUS EI 125 W/ECONOMY CLASS CONFIRMED
DEP DUBLIN MON 18OCT10 12.50PM
ARR CHICAGO/OHARE MON 18OCT10 3.10PM
ORD -TERMINAL 5 - INTERNATIONAL TERMINAL 5
Seat Number/s:38K 38H
Check-in worked as planned. I was concerned when our luggage was tagged
‘heavy’, but it must not have been heavy enough to trigger the additional
charge. Dublin procedure was similar to what we had seen on the way over,
with the additional step of going through US Customs screening in the Dublin airport. I hadn’t seen that before. We arrived in Chicago on time, and missed the 3:30 Van Galder bus by about ten minutes. We caught
the 5:00 bus and were met by Mike and Michael as planned. We all had a
quick bite to eat at Perkins and then drove home.