Friday, February 22, 2008

Lodging booked through 3rd week

lThis morning I nailed down the last of the formal B&B reservations for the trip, which will carry us through the 22nd of September. For the last week of our trip, it's my plan not to make formal reservations as we'd like to be free to alter our plans if, during the course of our travels, we decide to spend more time exploring a certain region. Maybe we'll want to do something that we can't even imagine at the moment. Who knows? Our five-day stay at The Old Barn B&B was chosen to make it easy to ride the train into London for sight-seeing. It's located near the town of Royal Tunbridge Wells, some 45 miles from London. Though the thought of driving on the opposite side of the road all the way down from Scotland doesn't bother me, driving in London does. I thought that riding the train would be a much less stressful. We had planned on staying on the seashore in the Brighton area. However, once I started contacting B&Bs, I discovered staying in Brighton would be more expensive -- sometimes as much as 50% more than the 60 pounds a night that I have budgeted -- and noise and congestion would be a problem in that touristy area by the sea. We might even have to pay to park the car. So, in the end, we opted for the quiet countryside. I'm sure we'll visit Brighton. After all, the photo ops should be wonderful. So, now that the lodging has been nailed down, my next job will be to sign us up for whatever formal guided tours we want to take. Those are always informative and help you decide what you want to go back and see at length. So, that's all for now. Thanks for tuning in.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

The Search for B&Bs goes on

Today, I picked the B&B where we will stay in southwestern England. In this area lived the Burton family, my dad's mother's family. Specifically, the Burtons lived on farms in the East Tisbury area. We will be staying at Webster's B&B in Salisbury, about 13 miles away. While I had three facilities to choose from once the 8 or 10 that I emailed had responded to me, Webster's seemed to have the most enthusiastic former guests leaving positive comments. All B&Bs should endeavor to have their guests leave comments on the quality of their experience.

According to my reaserch, the Burton name arrived on English shores along with William the Conquerer in the year 1066. So, the Burtons were Normans. And, as you probably know, the Normans were originally Vikings. At this point I don't know how long the Burtons lived in the Tisbury area, or what other parts of the island they once inhabited. But the bottom line is, not only do I have Celtic blood in me from my Welsh and Scottish ancestors, but Viking blood from the Burtons. Sounds exiting, doesn't it.