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.
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.
Friday, February 15, 2008
The Hunt for the Perfect Bed and Breakfast
Today I'm waiting on reponses from a number of B&Bs near Salisbury England as follows:
The Lodge Farmhouse in Salisbury
The Old Post House between Salisbury and Stonehenge
The Spire House in Salisbury
Hindon Inn, 3 miles from Tisbury (Tisbury is where my ancestors, the Burtons, lived)
Websters Guest House near Salisbury
Cathedral View in Salisbury
Dinton five miles from Tisbury (I like the looks of this one)
Little Hazels right in Tisbury. (Also looks neat)
What is the perfect B&B? Well, the place should have good reviews from other travelers. It should have some form of internet available, wireless preferred. It should be able to provide what's called in Europe an "en-suite" bathroom. We always look for a double bed rather than twins. From there we look at pictures of the outside and inside of the place. Beautiful gardens are a plus, of course. Homey, but not too frilly, accomodations please us more. Nobody allows smoking any more, thank goodness. But we also look for a "no pets" rule. Since I'm allergic to cats, we don't want to find out after we arrive that their favorite pet uses our bed for naps when no one is in residence. Lastly, we consider the price. This trip we set my goal to pay no more than 30 English Pounds per person per night, about $120.00 US, and have so far been pretty successful.
The dates I'm trying to line up are the 15th, 16th, and 17th of September. Our target area is Salisbury, about 100 miles from London. So far this morning I have received responses from two of the facilities. The Lodge offered to rent the desired room for only 25 pounds per night AND they have internet, though not wireless. Websters responded with an agreeement to rent for 30 pounds, but made no mention of the internet, not usually a good sign. Because my ancestors, the Burtons, lived in Tisbury (about thirteen miles from Salisbury), my preference is to stay in that town.
Ancestry.com tells me that the Burtons were farmers so I'm hoping to gain some knowledge as to where their farm might have been in the mid 1800s. My dad's mom, Gwendolyn Burton, was actually raised by the Peacock family when her own parents died at an early age. If I'm lucky, I hope to find the cemetery in Tisbury where her parents will be buried. Of course, the purpose of this trip is to locate all the towns where my various family members lived before immigrating to America. There were the Browns in Scotland, the Davis family in Wales, and the Burtons in England, as well as a host of matrilineal names, including Peacock, Rhydderch, Jeffry, and Owens.
At this point I have already lined up a B&B in Edinburgh for our first few nights. After that, we're going to drive south to the little town of Hexham, which lies a scant few miles from the town of Corbridge, Northumberland, where the Brown family lived in the 1850s. Corbridge lies very near Hadrian's Wall which, as you probably remember, was built by the Romans to keep the wild Scotsmen out of Roman territory. After Hexham/Corbridge we are driving in the direction of Liverpool to the town of Llanberis. No ancestors lived in this area, but the town is located in Northern Wales, reportedly a truly beautiful area. Also, it's about half way in between Northumbria and southern Wales, where the Davis family toiled as iron workers in the mid nineteenth century. We'll just be seeing the sights for a few days in Llanberis before driving south to continue our quest for ancestors. Once in southern Wales, we'll be staying near the town of Merthyr Tydfil, where my great, great grandfather Davis was born. And from there, we're off to Tisbury and the Burtons.
So that's it for now. Stay tuned for more on the upcoming Davis sojourn to the UK.
The Lodge Farmhouse in Salisbury
The Old Post House between Salisbury and Stonehenge
The Spire House in Salisbury
Hindon Inn, 3 miles from Tisbury (Tisbury is where my ancestors, the Burtons, lived)
Websters Guest House near Salisbury
Cathedral View in Salisbury
Dinton five miles from Tisbury (I like the looks of this one)
Little Hazels right in Tisbury. (Also looks neat)
What is the perfect B&B? Well, the place should have good reviews from other travelers. It should have some form of internet available, wireless preferred. It should be able to provide what's called in Europe an "en-suite" bathroom. We always look for a double bed rather than twins. From there we look at pictures of the outside and inside of the place. Beautiful gardens are a plus, of course. Homey, but not too frilly, accomodations please us more. Nobody allows smoking any more, thank goodness. But we also look for a "no pets" rule. Since I'm allergic to cats, we don't want to find out after we arrive that their favorite pet uses our bed for naps when no one is in residence. Lastly, we consider the price. This trip we set my goal to pay no more than 30 English Pounds per person per night, about $120.00 US, and have so far been pretty successful.
The dates I'm trying to line up are the 15th, 16th, and 17th of September. Our target area is Salisbury, about 100 miles from London. So far this morning I have received responses from two of the facilities. The Lodge offered to rent the desired room for only 25 pounds per night AND they have internet, though not wireless. Websters responded with an agreeement to rent for 30 pounds, but made no mention of the internet, not usually a good sign. Because my ancestors, the Burtons, lived in Tisbury (about thirteen miles from Salisbury), my preference is to stay in that town.
Ancestry.com tells me that the Burtons were farmers so I'm hoping to gain some knowledge as to where their farm might have been in the mid 1800s. My dad's mom, Gwendolyn Burton, was actually raised by the Peacock family when her own parents died at an early age. If I'm lucky, I hope to find the cemetery in Tisbury where her parents will be buried. Of course, the purpose of this trip is to locate all the towns where my various family members lived before immigrating to America. There were the Browns in Scotland, the Davis family in Wales, and the Burtons in England, as well as a host of matrilineal names, including Peacock, Rhydderch, Jeffry, and Owens.
At this point I have already lined up a B&B in Edinburgh for our first few nights. After that, we're going to drive south to the little town of Hexham, which lies a scant few miles from the town of Corbridge, Northumberland, where the Brown family lived in the 1850s. Corbridge lies very near Hadrian's Wall which, as you probably remember, was built by the Romans to keep the wild Scotsmen out of Roman territory. After Hexham/Corbridge we are driving in the direction of Liverpool to the town of Llanberis. No ancestors lived in this area, but the town is located in Northern Wales, reportedly a truly beautiful area. Also, it's about half way in between Northumbria and southern Wales, where the Davis family toiled as iron workers in the mid nineteenth century. We'll just be seeing the sights for a few days in Llanberis before driving south to continue our quest for ancestors. Once in southern Wales, we'll be staying near the town of Merthyr Tydfil, where my great, great grandfather Davis was born. And from there, we're off to Tisbury and the Burtons.
So that's it for now. Stay tuned for more on the upcoming Davis sojourn to the UK.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Six months and one day left before retirement
Today, I'm going to start this blog as I count down to retirement. My last day is in August. Soon after, Concetta and I are going to catch a Delta flight from Reno, and, with a four-hour stopover in Atlanta, head out over the Atlantic toward our ultimate destination, Edinburgh, Scotland. Because this trip is a sort of retirement present, I'm going to be doing most of the planning. So far, we've nailed down the airline tickets, the rental car, and the first four B&Bs where we will be staying as we travel from Edinburgh to Wales, to England, and back to Scotland.
The car we want to rent, just for kicks and giggles, is the Mini-cooper S model. Boy, they're not cheap. After some research I finally found one for about half again more than a standard rental sedan, which I consider to be reasonable. Right-hand drive is going to be a little challenging at first, however I do have some experience with driving on the left side of the road when I lived for some months on the island of Malta back in the early 1970s. I found you get used to it pretty quick. The round-a-bouts are a little hair-raising, but you soon master even those.
My next challenge is going to be acquiring a GSM quad band cell phone, which I consider to be essential for this trip. On our recent trip to Italy, we found that the thing me missed the most was our ability to communicate any time we wanted. Right now I'm leaning toward "Brightroam" through which you can acquire the GSM phone, and the necessary SIM card with the necessary time on your account to cover the period we will be gone. Then you need only acquire a new SIM for your next destination when you get ready to travel again. There's no contracts, monthly bills, or trips to the phone store. Everything is done on the web.
Anyway, welcome to the "Happy Wanderers" blog. I'll try and keep you posted as I do my planning and eventually take to the skies.
Buona sera. Ciao.
The car we want to rent, just for kicks and giggles, is the Mini-cooper S model. Boy, they're not cheap. After some research I finally found one for about half again more than a standard rental sedan, which I consider to be reasonable. Right-hand drive is going to be a little challenging at first, however I do have some experience with driving on the left side of the road when I lived for some months on the island of Malta back in the early 1970s. I found you get used to it pretty quick. The round-a-bouts are a little hair-raising, but you soon master even those.
My next challenge is going to be acquiring a GSM quad band cell phone, which I consider to be essential for this trip. On our recent trip to Italy, we found that the thing me missed the most was our ability to communicate any time we wanted. Right now I'm leaning toward "Brightroam" through which you can acquire the GSM phone, and the necessary SIM card with the necessary time on your account to cover the period we will be gone. Then you need only acquire a new SIM for your next destination when you get ready to travel again. There's no contracts, monthly bills, or trips to the phone store. Everything is done on the web.
Anyway, welcome to the "Happy Wanderers" blog. I'll try and keep you posted as I do my planning and eventually take to the skies.
Buona sera. Ciao.
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