Georgian Cottages and self catering...

Today is Xmas day, and I've just received an email confirming we can have a cottage for five nights in Sandwich, Kent. (Interestingly, there is another town nearby called Ham!).

Sandwich is an historic town, and only 20 kms from Dover and/or Canterbury, so well placed for lots of things. It's also not far from the coast.

So, we will do the usual thing and send a deposit, and this is the last place we might book, and just try our luck where we end up in other places. We will have twenty-six nights of self-catering, twenty-one nights where we are cruising, and the rest is either booked or arranged or we at least have an idea which area/town/city we might be in.

What we have always enjoyed about doing our own thing is that you get to have a kitchen, usually a sitting room/lounge area, and a separate bedroom. What you also get to do is to be able to cook for yourself and it need not be expensive. There are always supermarkets or if you strike the right day in a particular town, local markets from which you can buy stuff, e.g. fresh veg, etc. Of course there is always the local pub, or fish and chips.

Overall you can end up saving a lot on accommodation, because our 26 nights have averaged out at $89 per night, which is pretty good considering what you'd pay in some motels and hotels, and you have the chance to make toast, and have a fridge handy. Very few motels in the UK seem to have fridges in the rooms.

Well, that's all for now, and we'll be back in the New Year.

Water, water everywhere...

As though it weren't enough that we've booked two separate cruises during the holiday, we are also having a few crossings to some of the islands on the west of Scotland. On one jaunt, we are sailing across to Arran, spending the night, and then leaving Arran at the top of the island and continuing on up to Oban, where we take the small cruise for six nights out to and around Mull, and hopefully a visit to Fingal's Cave.
The island-hopping ferries are run by Caledonian MacBrayne, or Calmac, and they service just about every island in that part of Scotland. Later on, we are going across to Lewis/Harris, having a couple of nights there and coming back to Uig, on the Isle of Skye.

Don't know where this love of "sailing" came from, but ever since we had the first cruise to New Zealand, and didn't suffer from sea-sickness, we've loved the idea of being on the water. Seeing towns and coastlines, and countryside from the water is a totally different perspective, and just the usual calmness of gliding over water is very restful. Mind you we had 10-metre seas on our second cruise to N.Z., but even then we were OK. Can't wait!!

Not long now, but still things to do...

All at once, Xmas is here again, and a reflectful time for us with it being twelve months since Sam died.
However, we have had to get on, and are at the point where there is not much more to do, but pay some balances of things already booked, and tidy up some last details. I have to do the last minute stuff in the New Year, like the travel plans on the Foreign Affairs website, and have a "practice pack". We do not have a good past history of packing just what we need, but this time are determined to try and be good. To be away for over three months, and include two different cruises, and think about what we might need for Japanese / English / Scottish / Welsh / Norwegian / Icelandic / French and Belgian spring & early summer weather, and allow for space to bring stuff back, it's not easy!!!

The other thing we have to do is get the house in order, and make sure the garden will cope. As our block is 99% garden (we have no lawn), it is fairly self-sufficient, and recent good rains won't have harmed it's chances of survival. It's no use asking anyone else to water for us, because nobody ever does it the same way you do yourself. Anyway, plants will be shutting down for the cooler weather, so it will just have to be OK, and if we lose things, then so be it. 

So, once we get past Xmas and New Years Eve and all the crap that involves, (bah humbug!!!), it will be all stops out and only just over two months before we go. Won't actually believe it 'til we're on the plane.

Cash, cards and coffee

Things may have improved a little (I hope), since 2007, when the standard of coffee was crap in the UK. On arrival at Heathrow and transferring to the flight to Edinburgh, we found a coffee bar (Costas) in the waiting lounge. I was asked if we wanted the coffee made with cold or hot milk (???), and then was served two enormous insipid milky concoctions which were just terrible. Not quite what you need when you've just come off a long flight!!!

We soon learned we would have to ask for "double shots" to get anywhere near the strength we like. Things were better in Edinburgh, but to get a better coffee we had to use Starbucks, (Lee thinks she remembers it wasn't Starbucks, but some other "chain", and the coffee was equally bad, frothy, milky and WEAK! (We have since found out they, Starbucks, are either owned or are supported by some religious organisation, and that goes against the grain with me). When we had our self-catering places we made sure we had our own preferred Moccona brand, and that at least got us through. However, for the rest of the two months, we started having drip-filter or plunger coffee, and/or tea.

When we were supposed to go to the UK this year, (deferred by the death of Samuel), we bought 1,000 British Pounds, and at the time got them at a good rate, but of course since then the rate has gotten even better, but you never know these things ahead of time. So, we will just divide the notes between us and will have some money to go on with when we land. The other thing it has been suggested we do is to arrange one of those Cash Passports where you put your own money on it, and then use it just like a cash card. Sounds good, so we might do that. It also spreads the money over several cards, so if you lose one you still have some to go on with.

With the stopovers in Japan, we will just use their ATM's or whatever, and get what we need, and we can also do this on the cruise to Norway. It doesn't seem worthwhile purchasing Yen or Kroner beforehand, just for some small parts of the holiday. 

Bits and bobs and batteries.

Itinerary done, some deposits paid, confirmations received, travel insurance done. Now, what apart from clothes do we take?

If you are paranoid about having clean teeth, take a small tube of toothpaste. If you can do without, buy fresh stuff when you get there, and then if you don't need it to come home, leave it behind. Same with shampoo. We all have our favourites, but if you can get by with what's provided on your stopover(s), then get shampoo after you arrive as well.

Medication is important if you have to carry it, but thankfully this time I am a Senior, and have been getting my prescriptions at the cheaper rate since I turned 65. When we went last time in 2007, I had to fork out over $500 for tablets and eye drops before we went. You also have to arrange to get enough to last you for the entire time away. I always take photocopies of prescriptions with me, in case all is lost, and I may be able at least to indicate what I need to an overseas pharmacist. It also proves to whoever might ask, that these are your prescribed drugs, and you need them.

Batteries and chargers are another thing. We want to take our laptop, both for internet access and for keeping a record of our trip. Plus, two cameras, a digital sound device, (to record family conversations and information), mobile phones, etc. etc. And they all have to be charged!!!! 

It's about time all the companies got together, and produced a 'universal charger' that would do all phones, all cameras, laptops, devices or whatever.

Thankfully, with cameras, you now don't need to carry rolls of film. You just have to make sure you have enough storage on your memory cards, and then don't lose them.

next time - cash and cards, and coffee...

Waiting, waiting, and packing...

Now that most of the major things are sorted, what gets to me is the waiting. 

There are a few other things I have to wait until nearer the time before I can check timetables and prices. A lot of companies, don't release their following year timetables until about October/November. A few of them suggest that with things like taking your car on a ferry, it is better to book ahead. This is OK, but you have to be sure of your itinerary, and where you want to be. Then you have to hope that their timetable suits what you think you want to do, and if not, make changes.

As it is now only five months before we go, the time will rush by, and we'll suddenly realise we'll be gone in a few days! Lee thinks she won't believe it is happening until we are on the first plane.
Having deferred this trip for a year, for all the right reasons, we are looking forward to catching up with 'relatives' again, and of course seeing those places we missed last time.

Packing!! Every time you ask anyone who has travelled overseas, you will always get a different answer, like the best things to take, the stuff you really don't need, how to be sure your money/valuables are safe, etc., etc. Of course it is all well-intentioned advice, but we have done it a couple of times before. Mind you, we didn't always get it right!

We have never been good at packing, and always seem to take stuff, "just in case", and of course this is relevant when you are going to be away for over three months, and you can never be sure about the weather!

But this time we are going to be good, (or at least better), and restrict ourselves to the basics. And then, when we discover we haven't covered all eventualities, we'll just buy new clothes as we need them.
The other thing to think about too, is that if you are going to be in a different place from day to day, the people you come across won't know that you wore that same shirt yesterday! You just have to be comfortable with it yourselves.

We are not the kind of people who lash out regularly and buy the new season's stuff anyway, so the chance to buy different things in other countries is appealing.

The other thing we don't do is formal nights on cruises. I will not carry clothes for a couple of formal nights on our Norway cruise with me all around the world, especially when the cruise is at the end of the holiday. On those nights, we'll just do our own thing.

So there it is,, fix a few last-minute bookings and details, and wait.

coming up - bits and bobs, and batteries...

Flying and heights...

I like the idea of flying. 

However, having developed a fear of heights over the last decade or so, I can no longer walk out to the edge of an anywhere too far above ground. I don't think I had it as a kid, but it came upon me when I was about fifty, and I suddenly realised that there was this small problem.

It has happened a few times we've been away, and on one trip to Tasmania, I walked back along Cataract Gorge in Launceston, whilst my wife caught the chairlift back to the car! 
It happened also in Hobart when we drove up Mt. Wellington, and I couldn't venture out on to the boardwalk. One other time was on a trip down in the south of Tassie, and there was this forest walk among the trees, called Tahune Forest Airwalk
I did it, but I couldn't go out to the end, and too much looking down is not good!

With flying, for me it is not so much the fact that you are up at 50,00 feet, but I just can't stand the bumps!!!
Luckily, we have had very few occasions where I have had to be really panicky, and our last long flights to and from the UK were sooooo smooth. On the way back from Singapore, we had 600km per hour tailwinds over the centre of Australia, and were fairly whizzing along.
As a consequence, this made our arrival too early into Sydney, and we had to circle around for a while, until we got clearance to land. Not quite what you want at the end of an already long flight!

The stupid thing is, I love sitting at a window and being able to peer down at the landscape below! Whilst in the US with my daughter twenty years ago, I had a window seat from Washington, D.C., all the way across America to Los Angeles, and just sat there and watched the whole continent pass below me. 

On one trip to NZ, I had some "calmer-downers" from my doctor, and didn't take them on the short flight to Sydney from Canberra, and it was, (and they have always been), one of the worst flights I've ever had.
(My neighbour tells me it's because the plane doesn't have enough time, on such a short journey, to get above the clouds, etc. So, by the time you're up, you have to start coming down again).
We changed to the larger plane to fly to Christchurch, and having taken my tablet, had one of the smoothest flights ever!! 

I couldn't do long flights without my wife with me. She is the calming one who holds my hand, and assures me everything will be OK!!  

We'll see how things go in March...

Self-catering, etc.

Things are progressing, and we have secured a booking at what looks to be a fabulous place, called 'Northcliff', across the Firth, from Edinburgh. We have it booked for a week, and that will allow us to venture out most days and do the sightseeing bit, and come home to the same comfortable place each night. 
You also get to have a few simpler meals, with your own stuff from supermarkets, etc, and that saves in not having to eat out most nights. Not that we don't intend trying out the local cuisine, but you have to pace yourselves, both in your diet and your money!

Also, it is just one lot of unpacking for a whole week!  It seems this place is very close to rail access into Edinburgh, so we intend doing that, and leave the car at the accommodation.
The other great thing is that it works out much cheaper than seven nights at a hotel in Edinburgh itself, so that's got to be a plus.

The other places we've selected for self-catering are a week down in St, Mawes in Cornwall, and another weeks' time-share in Aviemore in Scotland, near Inverness.
The time-share had never been a thing I would have chosen to be involved in, but we got the membership as a gift from my father-in-law, and it was greatly appreciated. However, I have never been really happy about the way it works, and any time I have tried to secure something, and search for an exchange property on-line, I come up a blank. It seems to me that you can select what looks like a fabulous place to stay, but you can never get it at the time you want it, even if you start looking months ahead!

The other thing too is that it isn't necessarily "cheaper", as you have to pay annual fees anyway, and there's no use paying your fees, and not using the system. Still, this time it has enabled us to have a week in what I believe is a very scenic area, and again we will have the base to allow us to go out exploring other parts of northern Scotland.

So, there's three weeks taken care of, and a lot of the other areas we are travelling to, we've done two & three night stops, if only because we have a few things to do in those areas, like adding to our family history knowledge base. I have relatives in both the Bristol and Nottingham areas, and we want to see them again, and perhaps ask more questions, and try to tie up a few loose ends in the family saga!

Bookings and deposits

Whilst we have always felt we wanted to leave some days free to do just whatever our fancy took us, there are always times you have to plan and book ahead. Having previously said we have never had problems with on-line bookings or payments, you may find that there are still some establishments who do not access internet banking, and ask you to send a cheque. 

However, they want that cheque in their currency, and to arrange a bank cheque from your own bank, will mean that you pay an extra fee for the service. So, if the place you've chosen is like that,  find another similar place that is more flexible. Things have changed so much, even in the 4 years since we were last in the UK, and many more business are much more accessible. It may also be beneficial in paying some things ahead, if the exchange rates are more favourable at the time you do it.

We were very lucky on our last trip, to have an old friend in Devon, who happily paid some deposits for us, from her own UK account, and we reimbursed her when we saw her.

Once you have paid your deposit on-line, you suddenly realise that you've already outlaid that money, and you will only have to pay the balance when you get there, or maybe just before you go. Either way, it is then out of the way. Of course there is usually an exchange fee for overseas transactions, but it is only a couple of dollars.

Keep a paper copy of you booking confirmation, and then just rock up and hand it over. If they then say they have no knowledge of your booking, (and that hasn't happened to us), you can prove the booking with your bit of paper.

Your need to book ahead might also be important if you realise that you will be at a certain point in your journey, which involves local school holidays, or bank and/or public holidays. We will be coming off a cruise around Mull, in Scotland, (which are not cheap, but most are already booked out right through 2011 and into 2012),  and then heading down to Edinburgh, all on Good Friday at Easter, and I have yet to confirm if, like in Australia, many things are closed on a public holiday! (Thankfully they aren't, and we should be able to pick up the car, and stock up for our stay down near Edinburgh).

Take note with any booking website you deal with, if they have any special cancellation conditions. Some are really good, and there are no penalties, and when we had to cancel the trip this year, I was able to get back all we had paid out, as most reputable companies and businesses have a clause regarding a death in the family. It also helped that we had taken out the travel insurance for the entire period of our proposed holiday, and some items were covered by that as well.

So, we have our arrival covered, along with some particular weeks within our holiday, and a few bits in between, and also the important bit of knowing your flight time to come home, and being able to get to Heathrow in plenty of time.

Next time, Time Share and self-catering...

Somewhere to stay...

A lot of this won't mean a thing to some people, as we are all different in our needs for accommodation in other countries. I have great neighbours who are happy to do the youth hostel thing, but that is not for me. I would do it in an emergency, but I have grown up liking my home comforts, and although it can be expensive, depending on when you go, I still like my clean sheets, and access to breakfast, etc. 
We have been very lucky with most of our choices of accommodation, and for all the trips we've done, there have been only one or two bad experiences. 
When you look on-line, not surprisingly, any establishment will always try to show themselves in the best light, but be careful as it may end up looking nothing like the photo!!

In Chester, UK, we had booked ahead for 2 nights in what looked to be a charming B & B. Not!! Apart from the difficulty in finding the place, the room was so small, (an already small room was made into an en-suite by installing a false wall, behind which was a toilet and a shower, very badly done. To sit on the loo, my elbows touched the walls on either side!! Plus, any shower in which you can't bend down to wash feet, etc., or be able to turn around in, is not a good experience).
The beds smelled stale and mouldy, and the owners were renovating the kitchen, which wasn't quite finished, and we later discovered they did not live on the property, but came in every day! Breakfast was fine, and the only saving grace of the whole episode. Anyway, the whole thing was saved by being able to wander around such a beautiful city.

The other thing to do is not to read all the comments, on some on-line booking agencies. They will allow you to see reviews of past guests, and if you are easily turned off, you might never stay at any of them. But, if you read between the lines, you can generally get a feel for what it is like. There will always be people who complain about the slightest things. Of course, if after paying out good money, you don't feel you got what you expected, then by all means let them know.

Don't be too afraid of booking on-line. I have never had any problems, and when you get good service, let them know. There is nothing better than having an on-line rapport with establishments, and most are only too happy to let you know more about the areas you are travelling to, and offer assistance.

And always thank them for taking the time to help out. Of course they want your money, but it can't hurt being appreciative up-front. You get good service, and they like to think they've provided it. There will always be "shonky" providers, but they will soon miss out, when they don't get the people recommending them, or coming back again.

What we have done for this next time is book a room at the nearest hotel at Heathrow, and just crash out until the next day. Then you can deal with some of the jet lag, and have a clearer head for what will follow. We hit the ground running last time, and it hit us the following day, so this time, easy does it.

Then we have arranged our hire car for 10 weeks. Pick up one place and drop it somewhere else, and all done from here.

Coming up soon...cruises, timeshare, self-catering, etc.

Even more planning...

To be going so far across the world again, there are just some things you have to prepare for. Once you have decided when you are traveling, check any possible school holidays and public holidays in the country(s) you are going to. It can make a lot of difference, especially the cost of some accommodation during these times.You may suddenly find a severe lack of places to stay, especially during the summer.
Of course this also depends on what sort of accommodation you aspire to. I personally don't like much below 3 stars, and we often make a few bookings which are self-catering. It gives you a base, and if you choose well, for the area(s) you will be visiting, then the daily trips can be quite easy. Secondly, with a well-equipped kitchen, you can visit a supermarket, and provide yourself with some good meals, without having to fork out for expensive dinners at restaurants.
There is also the bonus of being able to have a couple of drinks and not having to drive.

One other thing you have to do is organise the payment of your regular bills which will come up whilst you're away.  There will be a few, especially if you are away for some months.
Money is also important, and you can always get some currency of the country you are visiting, but try and wait until the exchange rates are favourable.


Next, more accommodation...

Planning No.2...

Because we've had more time to plan this next big trip, it gave us the chance to re-evaluate just where we really wanted to go. We hadn't done as much of Scotland as we would have liked, and when one day, I pressed Lee into telling me where it was she had always wanted to see, she said, Norway. We believe some of her forebears originated there, and although we don't have any substantial proof, we just thought well why not try to include it. Having been twice to New Zealand, and into the fjords there, the idea of seeing more scenery of that kind really appealed. 

What I now love about the internet, is the ability to "surf" the world, and actually get instant results. I found a cruise from Southampton to Norway and other countries, for fifteen days in June 2011. Once we saw the cruise itinerary, (check out Cruise A114), and the opportunities it gave us to see some of the places we'd been thinking about, then all we had to do was keep all the information, and let our travel agent know that we wanted that cruise. Everything else would then slot in around it, and we decided to make it the last part of the fourteen or so weeks we would be away.

The other major thing you have to think about, is where you don't want to go!

For both of us, places like China or India have never held any appeal, and the thought of trying to "do Europe" put us right off, and although I could get around France with my high school French, one of the main things that determined where we would go is the fact of driving on the other side of the road. 

Don't want to ever have to do it! It's bad enough that a lot of the rental cars in the UK are European built, and when you want to indicate turning, and the windscreen wipers come on, then that's enough for me to cope with!

However, having said that, I know we would miss a lot of the beautiful scenery and historic buildings, and the cultures of some of the european countries, but you can't do it all. The cruise helps us compensate, by having a day in Dublin, and one in Bruges, and a two-day stop in Iceland, and we'll do our own crossing to Calais from Dover, just so we can say we've been to France!

Next, Bills, Money, deposits, car hire, accommodation websites, thankyou's, etc....

Planning No. 1...

We were to have gone this year, (2010), but the tragic death of our eldest grandson, Samuel, in December 2009, changed so many things, not the least of which was that we needed to be here for our daughter and her partner, and their remaining son, Oliver.

Plans were put away, and have not re-surfaced until recently, when we decided that we still wanted to go back to the UK, and do it one more time before we got too much older. It also gave us the chance to re-assess our itinerary, and that has proven to be a good thing, as we think we might have organised a better trip.

Watch this space... 

(Please note: these posts represent our ideas and our plans, and things that have worked for us. We take no responsibility for anything that might happen with other people's plans and arrangements, as a result of any suggestions or ideas we have included in these posts.) 

Going My Way?

Travel journals are something we have done in a notebook on past trips, and having caught up with the new technology stuff, (with a lot of help from our daughter), we intend to document our plans and adventures as they happen.

Next year, we are returning to the UK for another 3 months or so, to firstly catch up with "newly-found" relatives, and to do something that Lee had always wanted to do, see Norway. That will involve a 15 day cruise at the end of the trip.