Park and Ride & Seniority...

Park and Ride seems to work very well for us. If you don't want to drive yourselves into a major city, find out about it. We did it in Bristol and in Bath, and found both Park & Ride depots quite easily, and then you just pay your fee, which includes the bus trip, and before long you are in the centre of the city! It also gives you time to see some of the local sights along the way, without having to worry about watching the traffic around you.
Once in the city you've then only got to find out where the return bus leaves from, and you're free to roam, so unless something unforseen happens, all you have to do is ride back and reclaim your car and you're away.
We didn't take advantage of it for Stratford-on-Avon, and found a large car park, but it ended up being a fair way from the city centre.

Now that we are both Seniors, it is good to know that in many instances, your "Seniority" is recognised in a lot of places, including on buses and trains. Everyone seems to be very helpful, and if they don't offer discounts for Seniors, they will politely tell you so, but it never hurts to ask.
I did ask about a Seniors discount with the Premier Inn chain, (which we are going to use quite a lot, as it represents good value without inflated prices). The email response simply said that because  they offered reasonable prices all the time, they didn't feel the need to offer any other discounts. Fair enough.

So, nothing else to do but pay some balances in February and March. Then organise the house,and the bills, and wait. It is already the end of the first week of January, and before we know it, we'll be off.

Check everything...

I just had an email from the last place we will book to stay. What seems to be a nice hotel, quite close to the city of Gloucester (Edward Hotel). Lee wants to go to the records office, and apparently this hotel is three bus stops from the centre of the city, and the bus stop is only 30 metres from the front door, so it should suit us well. Also we can leave the car in the grounds (no charge), which believe me is a plus for the U.K.!!
However, they got our nights wrong, and I've had to email them again and correct it. There would be nothing worse than arriving at a place and be told they either didn't have your booking, and/or they had no rooms available. I may tend to over-check things, but it hasn't let me down yet.

Next time - being a Senior, and Park and Ride... 

(PS - got an email from the Edward Hotel, to say he'd got the dates down correctly in his bookings, but wrote the wrong dates in his reply to me. So, all is OK)

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...