Meet the Yanks

Emma

Emma

Dedicated Member
Hello all,
This year's British Telly Club trip to England will be Aug 26-Sep 01. If any of you are in the vicinity of the following , you'll be able to see a group of old, grey-haired senior citizens (and one 50-something year old whipper-snapper). Wave, and pass along, as they will be moving at the speed of light - or as quickly as their walkers (Zimmer Frames) will allow.

Mon, 26 Aug Arrive Heathrow, visit White Hall, Churchill War Room, stay the night at AMBA Hotel Charing Cross London, walking tour of London
Tue, 27 Aug Location of Midsomer Murders, Vicar of Dibley
Wed, 28 Aug Location of Downton Abbey - Highclere Castle, Charenage House Poldark - Cotswalds
Thur, 29 Aug Location of Agatha Raisin
Fri, Aug 30 Location of Bletchley Park, Vicar of Dibley
Sat Aug 01 Location of Mr Selfridge
Sun Sep 01 Depart Heathrow

All this at a cost of $7,000+ USD/5303 BPS. Another reason we aren't as well-traveled as Europeans.
 
Emma said:
All this at a cost of $7,000+ USD/5303 BPS. Another reason we aren't as well-traveled as Europeans.
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Yet another reason that we Americans are less well-traveled than Europeans is that we're timid about planning our own itineraries and traveling without a guide. On my first trip to London, I was terrified, but highly motivated to see Patrick Stewart's one-man show A Christmas Carol at the Old Vic and to attend the fan club brunch the next morning, followed by a Q&A with Patrick. This was back when the internet consisted of Compuserve and typing commands at the command prompt. I had to buy my airline ticket through AAA, and had to stay a week to get a reasonable fare, but I found a very inexpensive B&B through an online agency, and arrived with a spare passport photo to use when I bought a London Transport pass. I got over the terror very quickly, thoroughly enjoyed the trip, and I've never looked back.

Now I know why I don't do the British Telly Club kind of travel! I spend a bit less than the quoted price for two fairly long trips to the UK per year. I thought I was paying too much when I added up the cost of my imminent 2-week holiday in London and Ypres for cancellation insurance purposes and it totaled a bit over $2000. Airfare @ $1101.83 for a round trip to London is more than I'd usually pay, but that fare happens to coincide with the University of London's spring vacation, so my favorite dorm in Bloomsbury will be operating as a B&B @ $592.05 for a week in a single en suite room. That includes a full English breakfast. I'll be sightseeing in central London, using public transport, mostly buses. My Oyster card will ensure that I always pay the lowest fare for each ride. I eat lunch in modest cafes and get takeaway to eat in my room for supper while catching up on email, editing the day's photos and selecting the next day's activities.

This trip's top priority site is the London Mithraeum, now that it has been reconstructed on its original site with advice and assistance from qualified archaeologists (unlike the relocated post-war pastiche that has been passed off as the Mithraeum since the '50s). Second priority is a visit to the Imperial War Museum, as I haven't been there in many years and they've added to the World War I displays. I have a list of more than enough to fill the entire week in London, before departing for a couple of nights in Ypres @ $260.70 for a single room at the Novotel Ieper Centrum to spend some time at the Essex Farm Cemetery and particularly the wound dressing station behind it. The public bus from the town market square stops there, and I will have bought a 3-day bus pass at the bus station on the rail station forecourt when I arrive. That pass will get me from the rail station to within a couple of blocks of the hotel, out to the cemetery the next morning, and back to the rail station on my departure day. I'll also attend the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate and tour the Flanders Fields Museum in the market square. I got a reasonable fare on the Eurostar to Brussels, and the Belgian commuter trains don't cost very much. By the way, I don't speak a word of Dutch and the French I sort of learned in high school in 1959-1961 has mostly vanished, so I'll be acting like a deaf-mute.

If course, this style of travel doesn't include all of the transport and guided touring out of town and back each day that comes with the Telly Club tour, but that kind of travel drives me spare, anyway. I want to do what I want when I want, and adjust what/when to fit the weather and my energy level that day. If something proves to be even more interested than I anticipated, I'll have the option to linger or to make a return visit within the next day or two.

BTW, I had a day at Bletchley a few years ago and enjoyed it thoroughly. I need at least another full day there, and fortunately it's a reasonable day trip from Nuneaton, where I visit occasionally to do genealogy research. There isn't much else to do in Nuneaton, so day trips are always welcome.
 
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One sight to see is the sundial at Leeds Castle? So what is so special about this sundial? It is set on American Eastern Standard time, five hours behind Greenwich Time. So why and how did this happen? Lord Fairfax who lived in Leeds Castle back in the 1700's wanted to know what time it was in Virginia because that was where his cousin Lord Fairfax lived, on an estate called Belvoir. Likewise he had a similar sundial made that was set five hours ahead so that he would know what time it was at Leeds Castle. That sundial has been lost and Belvoir is now Fort Belvoir, a working U.S. Army post.
 
I won't say what my trip a couple of years ago cost, suffice to say it was a once in a lifetime trip and I didn't scrimp!:08:

BTW Marianna, do you have a specific interest in WW1(& 2?) or just history in general? Just curious as I have done quite a bit of research on that topic.
 
Brian Johns said:
BTW Marianna, do you have a specific interest in WW1(& 2?) or just history in general? Just curious as I have done quite a bit of research on that topic.
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My college major was history, but not particularly military history, and I majored in it because my college allowed the most free electives in that major, not because I was particularly interested. I simply needed a Bachelor's degree to meet the entrance requirement for graduate study in Library Science.

The interest in the two World Wars began with reading The Diary of Anne Frank shortly after it was published, when I was seven or eight years old. It gradually developed through the decades with further reading, mostly fiction set in those eras. The father of one of my friends was in the US army unit that liberated Dachau, and his buddies talked a bit about the experience, although he never could. His wife was a physical therapist in an army rehab unit not far behind the front lines in Burma, and she would describe the work and the background if asked. (The latter is probably why I find Foggy's imaginary military exploits "out East" so irritating! I know at second hand what the actual conditions were.) The treaty that ended World War I led directly to the conditions that precipitated World War II, leading to my interest in the former. I've also seen been many PBS documentaries on various aspects of both wars, as well as history in general, combining archaeology, which interests me, and historical research.

The Essex Farm Cemetery in particular draws me because of the poem In Flanders Fields, which was written there, and which has been part of my life further back than I can remember. It was recited during every Memorial Day parade by the winner of the high school girls' speaking contest. (The winner of the boys' contest recited the Gettysburg Address.) I'm also interested in seeing the wound dressing station there first-hand, to try to get a sense of what it might have been like to work in one of them. That comes from having read the Maisie Dobbs mysteries. My interest in attending the Last Post ceremony comes from hearing it played at the end of "Last Post and Pigeon".
 
WOW...wasn't expecting that detailed an answer!:18: (apologies to Emma for hijacking the thread) Thank you! I'll PM a reply so this thread can continue its original track!:17:
 
Marianna said:
Yet another reason that we Americans are less well-traveled than Europeans is that we're timid about planning our own itineraries and traveling without a guide.
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Many Americans are afraid to venture far from home to different countries, and feel safer with the assurance of having a tour guide to keep them corralled. People tell me their fears about traveling outside the US, and I see the very reasons why they should travel. Travel expands your world. You meet new people, hear new languages, experience different customs, see new sites, taste different foods, experience history. I have never feared traveling, and traveling solo, which I did for many years when I was employed. On my second European trip I traveled to Ireland, alone, and I stayed 8 days. The airfare was only $300, and the entire trip cost less than $1,000. My one and only trip with the British Telly Club left me exhausted, and needing another vacation to recuperate. The places I listed in my initial post only covers the highlights. Interspersed among the show stoppers are additional side stops here and there. Travelers never get the time needed to really experience a location. You're rushed through in minutes, and ushered back on to the tour bus. Some places are due more respect, and need to be savored so that the experience can really sink in. That's why I like traveling on my own. I can go where I please and stay for as long as I like. My siblings and I have been to every continent around the world. My big sister got me started. When she first traveled to Paris - alone, in the 1950s, I admired her spirit for adventure. Many people don't know what's out there waiting to be experienced.
 
I come from a family who perceived the concept of travel as utterly outlandish, partly due to cost, but mostly because of exposure to the terrifying "other". Other people, cultures, foods, architectural styles, the whole enchilada! (We never ate Mexican food at home, either, despite the fact that it's the primary cuisine in some regions of the US.) I never considered traveling until I had to for business, although I wasn't averse to the concept. The business travel was just to some of the larger US cities, but I experienced enough of the enrichment that comes from contact with "the other" to develop a voracious appetite for more.

When I had booked my first trip to London and was explaining to my elderly aunt why I wouldn't be visiting her the next week, she ask who was going to chaperone me. I was 47 years old! Her comments indicated that I should fear contact with all the differences I might find there, as they would broaden my outlook. It had already been broadened by the domestic travel I'd had to do, so the "damage" had already been done, thank goodness. I came away from that visit with the strong impression that my family and I were from different planets.
 
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