jvb@duke.UUCP (Jack V. Briner, Jr.) (05/06/85)
My soon to be wife and I will be travelling in Europe. Being newcomers to
travel abroad, we decided to go on a tour. Perhaps a bad mistake, but one
that has already been made. Since it is our honeymoon, we decided we did
not want to take too much for chance.
We will have two or three days in London before our tour starts and are
willing to be a little venturesome in a land were we (sort of) speak the
language. Does anyone have some suggestions for travelling out into the
country in England for two days? I love coasts and it might be fun to
go to one of the coasts. We were thinking of Bed and Breakfasts or an
Inn.
Where do you suggest we go?
How do we get there? (Should we rent a car? Or will the trains be ok?)
What can we see while we are there? or on the way there?
For those wishing to comment on our poor choice of a tour, I suggest instead
of flaming, giving us some useful suggestions of what we can see when we are
away from the tour. We are going on a leisurely tour including London,
Paris, Lucerne, Venice, Florence and Rome. Any suggestions of what we can
do for a day excursion from these places by train or by bus will be greatly
appreciated also. (We have between two and three days in each town; so, we
have most of the time to ourselves).
Thanks,
Jack
decvax!mcnc!duke!jvb (I think. My word has never travelled so far.)
jvb@duke.csnet@CSNET-RELAYmat@amdahl.UUCP (Mike Taylor) (05/13/85)
> My soon to be wife and I will be travelling in Europe. Being newcomers to > travel abroad, we decided to go on a tour. Perhaps a bad mistake, but one > that has already been made. Since it is our honeymoon, we decided we did > not want to take too much for chance. > > We will have two or three days in London before our tour starts and are > willing to be a little venturesome in a land were we (sort of) speak the > language. Does anyone have some suggestions for travelling out into the > country in England for two days? I love coasts and it might be fun to > go to one of the coasts. We were thinking of Bed and Breakfasts or an > Inn. The tour is probably a good idea if it's your first trip. There is a 'bed & breakfast' association that you can write to for reservations & information. I don't have the address offhand - check your local library for a travel book. I would recommend the south coast, Dorset, Devon, or Cornwall. Take the train, they are frequent and far superior to driving in (often heavy) traffic. -- Mike Taylor ...!{ihnp4,hplabs,amd,sun}!amdahl!mat [ This may not reflect my opinion, let alone anyone else's. ]
bennison@turtle.DEC (Victor Bennison - DTN 381-2156) (05/15/85)
----
I disagree that a tour is necessarily the best way to go on your first trip.
Unless you're planning to visit Antarctica or Afghanistan, there's usually
more than adequate information available for you to plan your own trip and
to make it a very personal adventure. Travel in Europe is particularly
easy and well documented. Tours tend to take you where the other tours go.
(Example: We drove into a quaint Cottswold village only to find 20 tour buses
parked along the main street having disgorged about 500 or 600 tourists who
were swarming around the rows of quaint gifts shops. We drove right on through
to the next quaint Cottswold village, where there was not a single bus, hardly
any cars. We parked and walked around, stopping to chat with man repairing
a thatched roof.) I'd much rather have the freedom to go where I want, when
I want.
Concerning the English coastline, I can't believe anyone would recommend seeing
it by rail. Not only will you lose precious hours waiting for trains to
arrive, but the train stations are seldom that close to the coast that you'd
want to just stroll out to it. The logistics of train travel are alot more
complicated than they might at first appear. You have to worry about luggage,
train schedules, taxis. It's much simpler just to rent a car. You can go where
you want, when you want. You can store all your luggage or picnic supplies or
whatnot in the trunk (aka the "boot"). It's the only way to travel as far as
I'm concerned. The traffic is pretty easy to avoid. We spent three weeks in
England (one week in London) and never got caught in slow traffic. Driving on
the left becomes fairly natural after about a day, and isn't bad even on the
first day, though I wouldn't imbibe too many alcoholic beverages. (In fact,
English laws on driving and drinking are so strict that unless you want your
bride to return from your trip without you, I would recommend against doing it.)
Vick Bennison
...decvax!decwrl!rhea!tools!bennison
(603) 881-2156darryl@ISM780.UUCP (05/18/85)
[] We did our two weeks of vacation last year in Merry Olde England, travelling by motorcycle. Indeed, the rules of the road become quite natural after a day or so (I made one incorrect left and one right, and then I had it figured out!!). Had a jolly time. The information booth at Victoria Station had very informative books, such as catalogues on Inns that also described the different levels of service available. We found Bed and Breakfast to especially convenient -- just about every town has a free service center that will direct you to B&B houses. And it can be such a nice way to meet the natives. And on top of that, you can wander down to the local pub and get a goodly chunk of local atmosphere. By the way, we had a particularly good experience at The Old Rectory, a hotel/restaraunt east of Lancaster. It had been a wet and cold day (nothing unusual about that) and we were heading towards the Scottish border. It was starting to get late, and we didn't want to stop in Lancaster, so we headed the other way. But none of the hamlets seemed to have any B&B signs, so we stopped at the Rectory. We were wet, wearing our rainsuits over jeans and boots, and the young man who answered the buzzer was wearing black pants with a blacker stripe, a white shirt and a bow tie. We felt out of place, to say the least. But they had a room, and at that point, that's all that mattered. Quite reasonable at 21 pounds, too. Turned out to be a suite! After bathing and changing into our clean jeans, we went down stairs to a formal dinner. It seems that the upper crust from Lancaster dine at the Rectory. Silk dresses and mink coats abounded. But we were treated quite nicely, even if we weren't dressed for the occassion. In the morning we had a formal breakfast too. --Darryl Richman, INTERACTIVE Systems Corp. ...!cca!ima!ism780!darryl The views expressed above are my opinions only.