It is June and the we are getting the travel itch. We want to go back to Europe, but are a little unsure of the global climate. Things are happening on the global stage, so we decided to play it a little safer and focus on the United Kingdom that is England, Wales and Scotland. Yes, I know there is more, like Ireland, but we only had so much time. And this time we wanted some travelmates.
We tossed around a few ideas and places we wanted to see. We also asked friends (our potential travelmates) what they would go see if they had the opportunity to go. We got a list like Stonehenge, haunted castles, Edinburgh, historic sites, festivals, amusement parks, small towns/villages, and more.
Would we travel by rail or rent a car? Could we even drive legally? How many days would we go for and how many in each stop? Where would we stay? Hotel, Hostel, Bed and Breakfast (B&B), condos?
We compiled the list and planned out a route and time table. Having used a B&B before, Teresa found several in each city/town along the route. She contacted each and got pricing.
We put the itinerary together including dates, lodging costs, attractions we knew they wanted to see, and costs.
We would fly into Gatwick, London and immediately take a train ride to Bath. After a few days to overcome jetlag, we would pick up a car rental and tour the area (seeing StoneHenge), we would make our way up to Beddgelert. From there, we would be going to Keswick for the jazz festival and from there, on to Edinburgh Scotland. A few days there and then off to see Hardian’s wall and an overnight in Lumley Castle (which is supposed to be haunted). After collecting our wits, we would drive down to York and then finally drive into London for a few days before heading home. It would be an adventure! And, we wanted to share it.
We then went to our friends (our potential travelmates) and asked who was interested. We heard excuses, about time and/or cost.
What they failed to understand was we were not asking them to go next week or even next month. It was next YEAR. They had the vacation time, if they had just planned it out. Even given the cost, if they divided the cost by 40, the weekly cost was manageable. We tried to explain that to them and no one seemed to get it.
Of our friends, one (Daryl) understood and said he would go with us. I think he had hope someone else would step up to help defer some of the lodging cost, but no one did. Still, he was okay with that.
Now Daryl was a friend of ours who had moved from Indiana to Arizona. He was overweight, to say the least and did have some health issues. He did not get around as well as he did when we were all younger, often having to stop and take a break, to catch his breath. We knew that this trip would take a bit of walking, from site to site or around whatever attraction we were seeing. We told him, advised him that he should start walking a bit each day. We will see what happens.
We restructured our flight plans to meet up with him in Minneapolis for the trans-Atlantic flight.
Now to start saving.
